Raya 2013 and Tawau Mee Tauhu

It is about 3.30 am, the 4th of Syawal today and I have just woke up from my sleep about half an hour ago. There was a blackout in my MIL's house last night that made me go to sleep early.

I was thinking about the dish I cooked yesterday and perhaps going to do it again today for our raya guests.

Mee goreng or fried noodles are cooked in almost every Malaysian household. Noodles are synonym to the asians of mongoloid origin.

I'm going to share with you the fried mee of Tawau which is a little different from the mee fried in other parts of Malaysia.

When I was a kid, my mother always asked me to go buy this noodle for breakfast. The fried mee was very simple, just fried with sliced small onions and garlic and flavored with soy sauce. It was tasty to me at that time. Now, I still maintained it that way as to not lose the flavor of the mee. However, I sometimes include dried prawns and green leaves veggie to it. And red chillies as garnishes. But it still stays dry like in the picture above.

I fried this yesterday to make that popular  Tawau 'Mee Tauhu'. Fried mee eaten with soybean cakes or tofu in a taucu (fermented soya beans)  flavored soup. The tofus maybe stuffed with fish meat. Since I did not use stuffed tofu, I added a lot of fishballs to the soup. In fact, I may add stuffed lady's fingers, stuffed chillies or perias (as shown in the last two pictures). Besides the soup, a separate hot prawn paste sambal accompanied the fried noodle.                

Sweetish tofu and fishball soup.

                Saltish sambal belacan

I am quite new to this dish set and only got acquainted with it a few years ago when my  BIL introduced it to my husband and me. If not for my husband's continued insistence, I won't look around for the recipe and made it myself. Very fortunate for me, I did not go far in search of the recipe. It's there very close to me..with my younger sister. Since she stays far at Felda Sahabat in Lahad Datu, I did not know that she has mastered the recipe until I casually mentioned it to her one day! 

The mee tauhu in two famous restaurants in Tawau

The pictures below, captured by my BIL, show the merry atmosphere of Raya as the relatives came to visit. My daughters helped to prepare and cook the mee goreng tauhu and they did it fast. They learnt quickly from the trial and error the day before. :)

A little sambal belacan and a squeeze of limau kasturi is mixed with the fried mee and then eaten with a bowl of tauhu soup. A 'simple' breakfast set.

Showing a packet of dried mee, a product of Tawau.

Her first time eating this dish therefore need a little guidance.

In two weeks time, I plan to have just a small gathering for my relatives and neighbors, an annual do, which I serve my guests western menus. This time the menus are different. They will be Mee Tauhu and Nasi Kuning. My mother will post her serunding kelapa and several packets of Tawau dried mee. Yeay!