Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Further Adventures of Boron (World's Most Boring Man): - Ta Pocketa-Pocketa

Finally managed to email whatever I needed to email to whomever I needed to email it to, two hours ago.

The day started in a rush as I woke up at around noon.

Having decided to go a bit later today to the weekly gathering of bloggers called Mee Rebus Tuesday at Tok Mommy's house, I loafed around in the shower.

I have developed a liking for the stronger taste of mee rebus, with lots of chilli, dried shallots and three to four slices of lime.

Though, the mee rebus in Kuantan, in our home, is quite different. My family's mee rebus is actually mee sup.

My father loves mee rebus because, I believe, he had watched the P Ramlee movie Enam Jahanam, where the protagonist asked for mee rebus from the proprietor of the eatery and managed to have his order - plates upon plates of mee rebus - in sequence, drowned in soy sauce, salt, pepper, shot at and shot at again by a pistol-wielding Malay admiral.

After that, he got his revenge on six unruly characters who (presumably) raped and killed his wife, before going back to the Malay admiral's home and finding out that the gun-toting admiral was in fact his long-lost brother-in-law and that his wife had a twin and that he was in love with the twin as well.

Phew.

The mee rebus is indeed a special dish, yes?

So anyway, our version of the mee rebus, or mee sup, has a clear broth, and sometimes flavoured by cow spine.

Yes, yes, I realize that I have been talking about eating cow's lungs, liver and other internal organs a lot, lately.

I do not eat cow's intestines because I know when you cut open the cow's intestines, you can see thousands of small worms, which the Kelantanese call 'rawit', which is short for 'cacing kerawit', I guess.

You treat it - it being cows' intestines - with an alkaline solution, which will get the rawit to curl up into tiny little balls. Disgusting, isn't it?

I do not eat the eyes, udders (which is an ancient Roman delicacy, as well as lark's tongue and whatever else), nose or whatever else. And yes, I do eat the meat.

But cow lung, boiled first and dipped in tumeric and salt before being fried, is one of my favourite dishes. There was a shop in Pantai Dalam - gone after the bulldozers had their way - which prepared this dish with a twist. They used a kind of batter that makes the cow lungs so much crispier.

So, yes, cow's spine or tail, to make it a rich broth, with the noodles and fish cakes and shrimp. And eggs. Glorious, heavenly eggs.

If you add some tomato ketchup to the clear soup, it makes for an interesting taste combination.

This mee rebus has some form of curry in it. Southern style mee rebus. It is quite nice and I shamelessly finished the last dish with a gusto of fried shallots and four slices of lime.

Afterwards, I spoke with the people about the virtues of cartoon pronography.

I interrogated the token Canadian dude there about Canadian politics.

One question remains unanswered. What is it with Canadians and beavers? I don't get it.

After that, I accepted a ride to Bangsar Village, from which I took a cab and went home, just in time for Oprah.

I did not watch Oprah, though, as I had work to do, and I did it.

I thank whatever power is in play for cancelling not one, not two, but THREE of my meetings today. Otherwise, I might still be trying to get home, perhaps five hours from now.

I really do need to get a car.

First order of business, though, is to move to my new place. That will happen soon. A few weeks.

I am also now waiting for some information some people have promised me. They have yet to deliver and it looks like I can't be part of a production crew as I will have to organise my schedule based on what I have in front of me right now. Pity. I so wanted to go back to the East Coast. And sample other types of mee rebus.