Mastan Ghani

When we finally woke up, I was ready to eat again. We checked out of the hotel and drove around town looking for food. We stopped by a biscuit shop and bought a fair lot of the goodies for our own consumption and to distribute to folks back home. Then we headed to Jalan Maharani a.k.a. 為食街 (glutton street) to look for food.

In our days, this was the town's favourite haunt for breakfasts. On both sides of the road are covered shelters for the hawkers. There were no such shelters then. There were just stalls by the sides of the road. I remember the wonderful curry mee, chee cheong fun, Peng Sok's lai fun (fat round rice noodles), loh mai fun (糯米飯 glutinous rice), and many more. I also remember there was a funeral parlour very near by. We used to eat while they preformed funeral rites not far from us. It was damn bloody eerie and spooky.

We walked both sides of the road. Nothing appealed to us. I couldn't find the curry noodle stall that I was aiming for. Perhaps we were too late - it was already 11.00 plus. So we kicked in plan B. We got back into the car and drove 2 road away - to Jalan Selat (Canal Road).

Mastan Ghani is mamak eatery. I remember this shop since I was a young kid. The shop must be more than 50 years old now. There are now many Mastan Ghani outlets in Teluk Intan. I was told the Ghani family is a large one and the many outlets were opened by the many children. This shop we went to was the original Mastan Ghani.

This original outlet in Jalan Selat specialises in just 2 dishes - mee rebus and rojak (pasembur). I believe the other outlets diversify to other foods. But I was quite happy with mee rebus and rojak. And I wanted to eat the original. We ordered 2 plates of mee rebus and a plate of pasembur to share.

Our drinks arrived first. This was my colourful Ais Bandung.

Our meals finally arrived. I took a sip at the mee rebus gravy and told myself - "Yep, this is the one". It had not changed one bit. This mee rebus was exactly the same as how I remembered it to be. It was absolutely delicious. We don't get mee rebus like this in KL, PJ or anywhere else. What we call Mee Java in the Klang Valley is nothing like this. In my plate were generous portions of solid prawn fritters, fried tofu, a whole egg (not half), bean sprouts (taugeh), crispy fried shallots, spring onion, green chilli and a cut of lime. The gravy was potato-based with flavour of dried shrimps. It tasted superb - not the sweetish crap like those we find KL and PJ. It was one heck of a mee rebus.

The rojak or pasembur was likewise fantastic. This taste also remained the same after these 50 odd years. The plate had the same ingredient as the mee rebus - prawn fritters, fried tofu, egg, etc. There was of course no noodles. Instead there were sengkuang (jicama) and cucumber strips and bean sprouts (taugeh). The gravy was not the same. It was more sweetish. Again, we don't find pasembur like this in the Klang Valley.

At RM3.50, the mee rebus and rojak were most reasonably priced - considering the generous prawn fritters and the whole egg. I would had had a second plate of mee rebus if only there was still room in my stomach. As we drove out of Teluk Intan for home, we were so very glad that plan B turned out so well. It should had been plan A in the first place. 

Thank you Teluk Intan for the memories. I don't know when I will be back next. Hopefully it will not be in another 15 years. And when I do, I hope the chee cheong fun, mee rebus, pasembur and all the other specialties will taste the just same as always.