Ah See Wantan Mee’s history revealed

Wantan Mee, Johor-style If you hail from Batu Pahat, there is no way you could escape Ah See Wantan Mee at Jalan Jenang. The fame! The legend! The shop is smack in the middle of town, some people (like me) ate it ALL the time growing up. We’d know the difference between Ah See and everyone else’s noodles.

When I was a kid, a regular order sold for RM1.20. I don’t know what’s the current price, but rumours were rife that while the price increased, the quality deteriorated. No matter. We are not here to dispute quality control or lack thereof; we are here to learn about the history of Ah See and his wantan mee! I know the story, and soon you shall too.

This would be a good time to get on your knees and thank your lucky stars while praising my goodness….

No? Okay then.

Ah See Wantan Mee has a long standing history and tradition. Legend goes that once in China, there was no soy sauce at all. Then someone brilliantly invented this remarkable, highly versatile sauce. It became the HIT of town. People began taking soy sauce with their meals, regardless of whether they were eating roasted pig or salted fish or salted vege or rice or mooncakes or ang ku kueh.

One day Mr. See got tired of too much salt in his meals. He rightly figured that was the reason he had been having problems with his kidneys, which led to… uhm, reproduction problems.

He decided to make his own sauce for food. After 7 weeks of experimenting in the kitchen, ta-dahhh! He came out with a nice, orange-y kind of sauce. Excited with his discovery, he began putting the sauce on his noodles.

However his wife was not pleased with just eating dry noodles. So she bought some pork from the butcher, roasted them, then slice into pieces to eat together with the noodles.

Now, Mr. See was angry that his wife found a better way of eating noodles. He raided the pantry and came out with flour, shrimp and meat. Thus, he pounded the shrimp and meat together, made them into little balls, tucked the balls of meat into thin flour pieces. He boiled them in broth and it came out REALLY GOOD!

Soon his invention was the talk of town. Being Chinese, Mr. See grabbed the opportunity to start his own noodle stall. His wife put aside personal grudges and helped him with his thriving business. They became very very rich but Mr. See never recovered the use of his… organ. So it was lucky for them that they had a son prior to the soy sauce wreckage of life.

Years later, Mr See’s great great great great great grandson arrived in Batu Pahat in a tiny boat to escape from the nasty Japs, to find that Malaysia was sadly faring no better. So he started a stall selling noodles, using his great great great great great grandfather’s secret recipe. The Japanese soldiers liked his noodles so much that every time they finished a bowl, they would shout in glee, WANTAN MEE, WANTAN MEE! And that was how wantan mee got its name.

Business was so good that he could hardly cope. A few years later he was blessed with a son, which he named Ah See in memory of his ancestor. Ah See Junior in turn named all his children Ah See, like Ah See Girl, Ah See Boy, Ah See Girl Girl, Ah See Boy Boy and so on. They were all Ah See and if my information is correct, they are still all Ah See. The Ah Sees continued the highly lucrative wantan mee business and their fame spread far and wide.

As we all know, success breeds jealousy. Some people got extremely jealous and decided to make their own wantan mee, mainly to cash in Ah See’s success. A mistake in the research lab produced black coloured wantan mee. Ah See Junior then warned the copycats that if they continued with their experiments to produce a replica of his wantan mee, he would sue them till they have no money to take the bus home. The competitors thought, what the heck and began selling the black kaler wantan mee. Hence today we see so many stalls selling such a wantan mee and you know they are downright not nice to eat at all…

Get real wantan mee only at Ah See Wantan Mee. Tidak ditanggung halal.

(Very obviously, this is a work of ridiculous fiction written many years ago. It was lunch time and I was missing home.)

comments

Comments

  1. Dabido(Teflon) says

    One Ton Me … I wish people wouldn’t talk about me like that!

    ‘kenot perform in… ahem’

    Ahem = The Opera? The Play? The Movie. I’m confused! What couldn’t he perform in? The nude?

    ‘His wife put aside personal grudges and helped him with his thriving business.’

    Of course, money solves all grudges. If the business sucked, she would have kicked him in da nuts!

    ‘Mr. See never recovered the use of his… organ.’

    OH! He was a musician. That’s why he couldn’t perform … but if he was really rich, he could buy a Pipa or something.

    ‘they would shout in glee, WANTAN MEE,’

    Something tells me there is a joke there somewhere and I’m not understanding it.

    ‘named all his children Ah See, like Ah See Girl, Ah See Boy,’

    And another joke there I am missing?

    Suanie:
    no joke. I wrote this during lunch break 5 years ago 😛

  2. Yowza… from impotent zero… to one-tonne hero… KEWL!

  3. oh.. so this is how the real story goes.. humm..

  4. kimberlycun says

    WTFBBQ HAH?

    Suanie:
    bbqwtfonetonnemi!

  5. ohhhhhhhhhh liddat… does that mean the See owner now is called – See boy boy boy boy boy boy boy? hehehehehe…

    Suanie:
    so pandai!

  6. lolz….what a post….

  7. Oooh! isit the coffeeshop situated at the corner? Beside em shops that sell lanterns during mooncake festival? ALL my lanterns were from there ….gosh I miss home 🙁 have u tried the Soto, Lontong etc at the stall near the roundabout? The one that is at the grassy field opp the roundabout?

    Suanie:
    yeap that’s the one. I used to live at the corner lot, the shop is next door to my old place.

    the roundabout lontong next to TIGS is teh pwn. i try to have that whenever i go home. funny, i never used to eat their lontong until a couple years ago; my dad always get me the lontong from lao piak. heard that lao piak’s quality went down the drain… then there’s the night lontong along jln. sultanah, a malay warong next to a big drain… damn best!

  8. wtf

  9. decypher says

    i used to hang out with Ah See boy boy in Sunway. LOL.

  10. I’ve been there twice with you my darling and you never bring me to taste this ah see’s wantan mee!!! All I had at batu pahat only the malay foods… but the Nasi Berani was pwned!!! blekkk 😛

  11. Where you get the history really beats me, Suanie!! The invention actually started in the shop in Jalan Jenang and not decades ago in China. And my mum, my uncles and aunties are not Ah See boy boy or girl girl!!! They each have a name and an IC.

    Also if you have any respect, try to omit the “kenot” thingy! It puts you to shame to know that Ah See has descendant everywhere.

    By the way, Ah See’s surname is not Mr See but Chong!

    Anyway thank you for putting this article up. I can consider this as a free advertising. Thank you again! 🙂

  12. dannyboy: like i said, i wrote it during lunchtime a few years ago. it’s entirely fiction, not a grain of truth to it at all 😉

    i know the real history lah, i used to live just next to the shop 🙂

  13. So u were once my neighbour then? When did u leave d place then n why?

  14. LOL No joke. This is the write up on Ah See that I love the most ;D rofl

  15. Hi Suanie, I love this so much, I linked this to my post http://www.suanie.net/2006/03/31/ah-see-wantan-mees-history-revealed/ Thanks for the good laugh ;D

Trackbacks

  1. Best Food Network says:

    The 30 years Wan Tan Mee stall in Klang

    After the recommendation from my dad on this Wan Tan Mee, at the town of klang. (it is near the Maybank branch at Jalan Meru) Finally I manage to free myself to try out their Wan Tan Mee. I believe the older people will know this place, as the owner told

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