MALAYSIAN breakfast table staple Gardenia is expanding its family of popular baked goods to include the brand new ready-to-cook pasteurised yellow noodle NuMee Gardenia.
According to the flour expert, who has been developing the product the last two years, NuMee Gardenia has no boric acid, no added colouring, and is the first noodle of its kind in the market that is pasteurised.
Made from high-quality ingredients, the egg-less yellow noodles are prepared in a controlled processing environment, where the pasteurisation application kills harmful pathogen and bacteria.
The process makes NuMee Gardenia, which is also Jakim-certified, shelf-stable with no refrigeration necessary.
In a recent media cookout at The Culinary Studio, I-Zen Kiara II, the brand teamed up with local chef and cookbook author Marina Mustafa to introduce its latest innovation in a series of NuMee recipes developed by the chef.
The event, Noodling NuMee with Chef Marina, also included hands-on cooking with guests, where the former guided guests through her NuMee Buttermilk and Salted Egg, and NuMee MeeRuku, a snack just in time for family gatherings.
That gloom and rainy morning was instantly perked with the aroma of Chef Marina’s take on a favourite mamak order, her Original Mee Goreng (OMG) Numee, as well as her affable warmth while demonstrating the recipe to guests.
She notes that most people tend to order the dish while eating out but rarely cook it at home because “a lot of people are very scared of yellow noodles,” said Chef Marina.
“They think that it’s unhealthy, they’re not sure what goes into the noodles but with NuMee Gardenia noodles, it’s pasteurised and the flavour is very nice.”
The unpleasant aftertaste of alkaline is reduced, allowing the noodles to act as a vehicle to carry and complement flavours you choose.
Topped with a runny soft boiled egg, Chef Marina’s preference of fresh market ingredients like tomatoes, chillies, and dried shrimp creates the ideal sauce base for the noodles, unlike the typical mamak fare which favours the use of bottled sauces, says the chef.
“They would like to put kicap, tomato sauce, chilli sauce in their noodles but the Malays like to put fresh ingredients ... like tomatoes, and udang kering (dried shrimp), not so much sauces.”
She added: “But for the OMG, I used tomato sauce - which we normally don’t put in the Malay [recipe] – just to incorporate both the mamak and the Malay to create the OMG.”
Priced at RM1.50 (450g), NuMee Gardenia is available now.
All NuMee recipes developed by Chef Marina will be available in an exclusive cookbook due out in June, but you can find what you need for the OMG NuMee and NuMee MeeRuku on its website.
