A PHOTO FOR FRIDAY | 16

Phew! I'm finally back and it feels amazing to be home. After nearly 3 weeks away it is so nice to get back to my regular routine, even if it was a bit of a struggle after 48 hours in transit after our flight home was cancelled. It's actually pretty surreal - our time in Kuala Lumpur feels like forever ago already, and our week in Indonesia feels like last year already!

Char siu wonton noodles are my ultimate comfort food and my favourite restaurant is about a 30 minute drive from the house. In fact, last time I was back in KL, my grandma indulged me so much, I think we went 7 times in 10 days and the lady who owns the shop was SO excited to see me back again for my noodle fix. My por por (grandma) passed away just after my last visit, so it was bittersweet to go back to all our regular restaurants without her - all the shop owners and staff remember her, she was such a presence, and shared their fond memories of her with us.

But these noodles - by gosh they're good. Actually, we managed to squeeze in one last lunch there with my uncle as our flight was delayed by over 12 hours so, you know, silver linings and all that! It's kind of embarrassing, but every time we go I have two portions - the first is always soup noodles with wonton and then the second is a plate of 'dry' noodles in a thick dark sauce. I asked him how our family came to find the shop, as it's a little out of the way from my grandparents' house, and I just love this story! My mum's family used to live above a shop in the centre of town (I'm talking over 50 years ago, here!) and  there was a noodle shop just down the road that used to deliver to them. They didn't have much money, so they just ate plain noodles (in soup or a deliciously rich sauce) for 20 (Malaysian!) cents a pop - in fact, it didn't even occur to them that the noodles would be served you with barbecue pork or plump wontons until a family friend brought them to the restaurant to eat one day. Eventually they moved out to a house in the suburbs and continued to frequent the restaurant until they heard it had relocated to a new area. My family are very loyal to our favourite haunts, so they continued visiting the new branch, even 30 years later with us kids in tow! The shop was so good, they were poached by a big mall opening in the centre of Kuala Lumpur called Lot 10, and they opened a second branch in the mall's food court, but sadly the quality at the restaurant started to deteriorate and they stopped going. Until one year, my brother and I remembered the shop and asked to go. When we turned up, there was a new shop in its place which was even better, and that's the place we've now been going to for the last 5 years.

I have a few travel blog posts scheduled for the next few weeks and then, can you believe it, it's practically Christmas! Have a fun weekend and see you back here next week!