{"id":633,"date":"2006-05-19T01:49:38","date_gmt":"2006-05-19T01:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=633"},"modified":"2006-05-19T01:49:38","modified_gmt":"2006-05-19T01:49:38","slug":"an-ode-to-indomee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=633","title":{"rendered":"An Ode To Indomee"},"content":{"rendered":"

So William<\/a> brought me to this mamak near Taman Bahagia LRT station, where he reckoned that they’d serve food to fix my craving.<\/p>\n

Yes, I am a boring mamak person (in terms of food, not conversation, I think…); I go to mamaks and order the same thing. Back then it was nasi lemak<\/i> (until the allergy to peanuts returned). Then I tried cheese naan<\/i> and blogged many blog posts about it. Then there was Uncle Lim’s roti bakar<\/i>.<\/p>\n

However, I have found a new food item to benchmark mamaks by:<\/p>\n

Indomee<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Indomee, Indomee.<\/p>\n

A celebration of mee.<\/p>\n

In this day and age where mee goreng<\/i> is saturated with oil and parsley and onions and prawns and cucumbers and garlic and carrots and other weird things, Indomee<\/i> is a return to the basics.<\/p>\n

Indomee is not about the brand. When you order Indomee at a mamak, you’re not paying for the brand of IndoMie Mi Goreng<\/i>; you’re paying for them to keep all that junk out<\/b>. Indomee isn’t the brand; Indomee is the preparation. Indomee<\/i> is to Maggi Mee<\/i> as Chinese Fried Rice<\/i> is to Kampung Fried Rice<\/i>.<\/p>\n

What makes an Indomee?<\/b><\/p>\n

1) mee
\n2) the brown sauce, somewhat salty and savoury but does not leave an icky coating on your tongue like Hokkien Mee, and
\n3) the half-boiled egg<\/s> “sunny-side-up<\/i>” egg, or telur mata kerbau<\/i> (thanks to the well-eatery-travelled KY<\/a> for the correction.)<\/p>\n

Anything else is junk.<\/p>\n

You take the jiggling yellow egg yolk, you poke a hole on its surface, and you dribble it all over the mee. The egg yolk mixes with the brown sauce, unleashing the hidden flavor.<\/p>\n

You then twirl some strands of mee, slice a bit of floppy egg white and stab it with your fork. Place food in mouth and enjoy!<\/p>\n

William wondered what it would be like, with chicken.<\/p>\n

I say no!<\/p>\n

The essence of Indomee is the principle. Simple, with just three items. No chicken. Chicken distracts. It’s supposed to be a celebration of mee<\/b>; not mee complementing the chicken. (Similiarly, I believe that Chinese Fried Rice should not have any item bigger than a prawn, like an awkward vegetable stalk.)<\/p>\n

The other essence of Indomee is its ease to eat. No<\/b> parsley, no carrot, no peas, no onions, nothing<\/b> for any fussy eater. The sauce is not soupy, so there’s no dribble.<\/p>\n

The last essence? The softness\/floppiness. The mee is soft and springy. So is the egg white. Adding chicken, bacon, sausages, onions makes the meal not as soft and fast to digest.<\/p>\n

Options<\/b><\/p>\n

The waiter will often ask if you want single or double packet, as a single packet is never filling. However, be wise! Having double packet will mean twice the mee, but with only one egg; the ratio of egg yolk to brown sauce will not be optimal<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Hence, you should instead order two<\/b> Indomee plates, so you get enough egg to go around.<\/p>\n

I’m gonna pick up my guitar and write a song.<\/p>\n

(P.S. Picture not included because I don’t want to crave Indomee each time I visit my own blog.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So William brought me to this mamak near Taman Bahagia LRT station, where he reckoned that they’d serve food to fix my craving. Yes, I am a boring mamak person (in terms of food, not conversation, I think…); I go to mamaks and order the same thing. Back then it was nasi lemak (until the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}