Labu Ban Mee 拉务家乡板面

This afternoon, I drove down to my home village to see my second sister in law for Chinese New Year's Eve reunion dinner arrangement. I visited my eldest sister also.

We used to have reunion dinner all prepared by my eldest brother and sister in law. Since their death, we have reunion dinner at my second sister in law's place for the past 10 years or so. It is a very important occasion for members of family getting together, more so since our parents passed away more than 40 years ago.

This was my yearly ritual. I was driving alone along the country road, reminiscing the carefree days in the village. The road I traveled to school in Seremban.... the rubber estate I cycled to help my sister tapping rubber..... such a warm feeling coming over me!

Many friends from Seremban, Mantin, even KL told me there is a famous "Ban Mee" (hand made plan noodle) stall in a Labu new village. Later I found out it is in my village... I passed the stall every time I went back, but I never try it ....for the past 10 years since the stall opened! It is only 50 meters away from my house at the next road.

Today, I decided to stop by the stall to try out the famous "Ban Mee". The stall served soup Ban Mee, dry Ban Mee, fried Ban Mee and other dishes such as wild boar meat curry, rice wine chicken and other country dishes.

The soup Ban Mee (RM3.50) I ordered tasted authentic country flavour, the mee was crunchy... I gave it 7.5 marks out of 10.

To avoid the "cursed" traffic at Sememyih area, I took the Seremban-Kajang highway home. This is a "F1" expressway. It is wide and straight, few cars, good for speeding. A friend of mine reached 200 km/hr on this highway on his Honda Accord.









今天下午，我回去家乡一趟，和二嫂安排农历新年除夕团圆饭事宜。我也拜访了我的大姐。

我们之前的团圆饭，都由大哥及大嫂安排妥当。但在他们逝世后，过去的十年里，我们就到二嫂家团聚吃团圆饭。自从我们的父母在四十年前相续逝世后，团圆饭变得更重要，是家人团聚的一个重要日子。

这是我每年的工作。我独自一人驾着车，在乡下的路上行驶，回忆起过去青少年时期无忧无虑的乡下生活。行驶在以前去芙蓉上学的路上。。。两边的橡胶园，那是我曾骑着脚车，帮助我姐姐割树胶的地方。。。一种非常温馨，兴奋的感觉涌上心头！

我听许多朋友提过在拉务的一个新村，有一档非常出名的 “板面”（面粉糕）。后来经过一个时期，才搞清楚，原来就是在我的新村，而我家就在面档隔一条马路，五十米而已。每次回家都会经过这面档，但自十年前开始营业，我还未曾光顾过。。。。这面档是在下午四点开始营业。

今天，我决定到这档口试试。这里有好多口味的板面煮法，有汤板面，乾板面，焖板面，炒板面，还有山猪肉咖里，黄酒鸡等乡村菜肴。

我叫了汤板面（原汁原味），一碗 RM3.50。它确实有乡村风味，汤头够浓，口感好。我给它十分里得七分半。

为了避开士毛月附近 “可咒”的可怕交通阻塞，我取道芙蓉-加影高速公路回家。这条公路有 F1车道之称，因为宽广，挺直及少车 （因收费过高），所以是高速驾车的好地方。我的一位朋友驾辆本田雅廓，达到每小时200公里的车速。

Kajang-Seremban Highway, practically can stop in the middle to take photo
加影-芙蓉大道，可以停在路中央拍照