Noodles in the Rain

Noodles in the Rain

I remember eating it with my family at a farm stay in South Africa. I think I was in primary school at the time. It was night and there were thousands of flies buzzing outside. The TV was on in a corner, playing some cartoon show. There were six of us—my parents, me and my three siblings. My mom made a big pot of instant noodles for dinner – with soup and some ingredients that I can’t remember now. The memory still stays with me today. I guess it’s the novelty of it – the farm stay, the flies, fear of the pitch-black darkness outside, and the delicious instant noodles.

I like to make my noodles with eggs—one poached and the other stirred into the soup. If there are leftover meat dishes from the previous night’s dinner, they go into the soup. My favourite is Maggi curry flavour. Instant noodles is typically a breakfast food for me, otherwise, a late-night snack if I’m hungry. I enjoy instant noodles most when I eat together with my army buddies. We share many memories of instant noodles together. It kept us going through endless outfields; cooking it and sharing it with each other in the jungle, under the pouring rain (with a ground sheet above us). We built unbreakable bonds over that dish.Though since it isn’t that healthy,  I try to eat it less often, at most once a week. — Zhuo Yongren