Taking a break with Mee Rebus Haji Wahid

The year-end break was always a special time of family togetherness when my brother and his family came home to Johor Baru.

My brother [Right] joined the queue
for Haji Wahid's Mee Rebus

This time, while his children were still abroad for studies, it was just my brother and wife who came back on the weekend before Christmas Day.

This gave us the opportunity to head out together for last-minute shopping and to visit our regular haunts for their much-missed local specialties.

While we recently enjoyed the taste of Haji Wahid’s Mee Rebus at the lunch buffet for my book launch event, there was no reason why we could not go to have another round of these delicious noodles at Angsana Johor Baru Mall.

Haji Halim served his family recipe mee rebus as part of
the lunch buffet at my recent book launch event!

So it was the perfect excuse to enjoy a mee rebus meal before we went on to browse around the Johor Craft Fair, a bi-annually event set up on the field adjacent to this mall to showcase a wide range of local handicrafts from various parts of the nation.

It was still the school term holidays so I expected a regular crowd in the food-court. And sure enough, there was already a queue in front of Haji Wahid Mee Rebus, waiting for Haji Halim to serve their orders for freshly made mee rebus!

While my brother and his wife joined this queue, my sister and I found ourselves a table among the diners there.

Haji Halim serving my brother and his wife at his stall

As usual, Haji Halim’s hands were working non-stop – almost as if he was on automatic pilot – assembling the ingredients onto the plates and topping the noodles with piping hot gravy before passing them to the (patiently!) waiting customers – while he nodded to acknowledge my “Hello” wave from afar.

The queue was just inching along and it was still quite a way before it was my brother’s turn to place his order.

Then my sister had brainwave! She said: “Why don’t we order five [5] plates?”

Haji Wahid's Mee Rebus...Yay!

This meant that we had one extra plate to share among the four of us!

So before my brother reached the counter to be served by Hj Halim, I rushed over to tell him, “Please order five plates!”

His eyes widened in surprise but he instantly understood why, probably because he too wanted to have his fill of this familiar taste of mee rebus, and agreed without hesitation.

My sister-in-law helped to carry the plates of mee rebus to our table while my brother paid for them before bringing the other three plates over.

So there we were, four people but with five plates of Mee Rebus Haji Wahid to share among us!

Five plates of Mee Rebus Haji Wahid to share
among the four of us! Slurp!

My sister-in-law started to squeeze the wedge of lime on her plate and we quickly assigned her the task of squeezing all the wedges of lime on the five plates (so that we need not wet our fingers!)

When my sister started to mix the ingredients on her plate, we decided to divide this plate into four portions to add onto our individual plates so we each had a satisfying meal of mee rebus – not too much nor too little – but just right!

It was a comfort food that nicely warmed our stomachs as we spent the next few hours browsing around the Johor Craft Fair and shopping for lovely, local-made handicrafts.

This outlet for Haji Wahid Mee Rebus is located at the Food-Court in Angsana Johor Baru Mall, open daily from 10am to 10pm.