an affair with indomie

courtesy of mom

indomie brings back alot of memories for me. i'm not sure about you guys, but as a child, i ate copious amounts of instant noodles. for breakfast, lunch or dinner. and lots of times in the middle of the night for supper. i used to sneak down with my brother in the middle of the night and cook indomie. we tried to keep it as quiet as possible because if my parents found out, they were sure to kick a big fuss. they didn't like my brother and snacking because we were both kinda fat at that time and we all know what wonders eating in the middle of the night does for central adiposity. but that only made it taste all the better. like eve, indomie was our forbidden fruit. but it's not just because of that.

indomie - the ones found in singapore

now i've eaten alot of instant noodles. i've tried lots of different brands and different forms. dry, soup, cup, non-cup, mini's nissin, maggi, koka, maruchan, nong shim, etc etc. but indomie remains supreme. and its not just me. people (non-indonesians) swear by it. they say its THE best instant noodles they've ever eaten. and i concur. i'm talking about the dry version here. the soup version is good, but i wouldn't say its really cut above the rest. but the dry version is fantastic. ok, i know you're thinking i'm insanely unhealthy and crazy for eating so much instant noodles. but i'm telling you, once you've tried this, you won't go back. everything else tastes like mudwater.

you can get indomie in singapore, but its not that easy. i've searched for quite awhile before i found indomie inconspicuously lying around at giant. they sell them in packs of 5 i believe, and they taste pretty much the same as the ones bought in indo. but i have friends who insist that the ones you get from indo taste better. indomie has quite a significant place in indonesian culture and cuisine. in indo, real hawkers (yes they still do exist) peddle their carts along the streets, going door to door with their food. different hawkers sell almost everything. some of the things include fried tofu with vegetable filling (reallyyy good), beef ball noodles, fried rice and lots of other stuff. my mom never lets me eat the hawker food cause its kind of unhygienic. which is true. if you're not local and you didn't grow up eating street food you probably would get diarrhea for the next few days. the tofu is usally ok cause they put it in a paper bag. but i wouldn't recommend the rest.

the interesting thing is, in indo, you can buy indomie cooked for you. you go up to the little hawker cart, order your noodles, and take a seat in his tiny foldable chair. they then boil your noodles, then when it is cooked, they take it out onto another pan, then pan fry it with a nice slab of butter. the pan frying with butter makes it incredibly tasty. and they then top it off with a fried egg. my indo friend swears its so good. its nostalgic coz in indo kids eat it for lunch from the hawkers that peddle outsite their schools.

indomie - hand carried from indo

there are several ways to cook indomie. my personal favorite is to eat with with SPAM or ma ling (the china version). spam is one of those things that you either love or hate. if you never grew up with spam, you'd probably hate it. but i know there are those of you that just love it. personally, i'm the latter. i know spam is incredibly unhealthy with tons of fat and nitrates that's going to give you cancer. but then again, you gotta enjoy life a little. or you could get turkey spam. those are interesting. they don't actually taste that bad considering they have half the fat. so anyway what i do with the spam is to take about half a tin, chop it up into cubes, then pan fry it till slightly crispy on the outside. then you cook your noodles, either by just boiling it or boiling then pan-frying it, and the dump the spam on it. yummy. my mom refuses to cook it for me like that. she insists that i eat it with sliced chicken breast and vegetables. haha. so much for trying to be healthy.

so that about sums it up for my indomie post. i strongly encourage all of you to try indomie (the dry one) if you haven't already. maybe after awhile you'll start sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night too.