I’ll take your word (2)…

And now…the continuing and concluding episode of the Chili Crab Noodles!!! *cues in drumroll and fanfare*

Well, Huai Bin was almost right when he said that the noodles “were slightly over RM 10 but less than RM 11” – each pack of 4 costs RTM11.95 to be exact…

- I stand corrected. It is still a bit cheaper though than what he paid for the same thing in Seremban – RM12.99. Honestly, I don’t know how I got the impression that it was RM6 something – if I had known it was that expensive, I certainly would not bother to buy, not at all. Actually they’re having an offer right now on some Korean noodles at only RM7.99 a pack – I did not check but they’re probably drawing pretty near their expiry or use-by date. I would much sooner have bought those instead if I had wanted anything that pricey.

As for what he said about me having too much water in mine, I really do not think so. In fact, I thought mine was rather dry or as it says on the packet, semi-dry…

…whereas his in his blog looked like the noodles were swimming in the soup. Anyway, the second time around, I took his advice that I had to measure out the water *exactly*…and I did – 2OOml X 2 = 400ml, using my measuring cup cum fat separator…so the second time around, what I got in the end was not as dry as in the first attempt…

For one thing, on the packet, it says that there are three “rich sachets inside - chilli paste, seasoning powder, garnish“. Now, I thought that garnishes are supposed to be sprinkled on top just before serving and that was exactly what I did the first time! If you google for the definition, this is what it says garnish is: “a decoration or embellishment for something, esp. food.” However, if you look at the cooking instructions on the packet, I am supposed to empty all three sachets into the saucepan…

That was why when I cooked the second packet, I threw everything in – the dehydrated spring onions and those crumbs of dunno-what.

And now the final verdict – was it any better? Well, I would say it was slightly better – for one thing, it was not as gooey or as I described it then, “like noodles tossed in chili sauce“. Still, I would not say that it was really good nor would I give the same response as my missus. She took a packet and cooked the noodles for herself and her response was, “Eeeeee…anay phai ciak eh!” (Eeeee…tastes awful!) She also thought it was “sticky” as well. It was, in my opinion, at best…edible and for around RM3.00 a packet, I think there are a lot of other nice things that we can get at the shops and stalls for that kind of money.

So, Twilight Man, if this is the yardstick for the ranking of  the Top 10 instant noodles in the world, I would say in no uncertain terms that the survey was most unreliable and most misleading…and to chefandsommelier and Dead Cockroach who said that they did not know of the existence of this/had never seen this in the island republic, here’s what it says on the pack…

THE END… LOL!!!

They told me…

They told me sometime ago that the food here was pretty nice…

…but I did not stop by to try until the other day.

For one thing, it certainly was an interesting place with a lot of old photographs on the walls. I remember this bank…

…looking exactly like that when I was a kid loitering along that road (Old Street) where my father’s shop was at No. 8 – the bank was two doors away at No. 12. This was one of the old Sibu banks, the others being Kwong Lee (later Malayan United), Hock Hua  and Kong Ming (later EON Bank)…but during the bank mergers sometime ago, it was absorbed into Hong Leong, if I’m not mistaken.

I don’t think I know anybody in this photograph…

In fact, I do not even recall the time when this particular La Salle Brother was in Sibu – I probably was way too small then…and all those would be the Sacred Heart students at that time.

The tiffin carrier sure looks familiar…

…and the cassette tapes too. Somebody had that hand-driven sewing machine when I was small but I cannot remember who now…and that’s the old-time radio-cassette player in the top left.

I have not seen these char khiak (wooden clogs)…

…for a long while now, much less anyone using them…and I remember using that egg-beater in the top left…

…to beat the eggs when I was small everytime my mother wanted to make cakes…and we also had that coffee grinder (bottom left) in the house when I was small. Hah!!! I bet many of us can remember that baby thingy (top right) – this would hang on our makeshift boi-boi – a sarong hanging from a hook on a spring tied with a rope to the ceiling in the house. We would wind it up and let it run – some music would play as the thing whirled round…and those dangling ends would rise to the occasion. Gee!!! This cafe is more like a museum and I certainly enjoyed myself looking at all the things on display.

As for the food, I ordered the Sarawak laksa as I thought it looked good in the photograph on the wall but eventually, I was told that the gravy was not ready and they suggested that I ordered something else instead. They suggested fried mihun with stewed pork – no, thank you!!! I am sure mine is nicer than yours!!! Finally, I ordered Hokkien fried noodles – or at least, that was what they said they had but when it was served, it turned out to be hock chiew char mee – tam (Foochow fried noodles, wet/with gravy) – RM4.00…

This was more expensive than elsewhere (RM3.00) but it had a lot more ingredients including some tiny shrimps and instead of the usual bits of chai hua (sawi), they had some kuchai (chives) strips instead. I don’t like that so I had to go through the chore of picking them out and leaving them by the side. It tasted good though, better than some places that I’ve been to around here.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid I can’t say the same about their cendol (RM3.00)…

- tak cukup lemak (not rich enough), tak cukup gula melaka (not enough palm sugar)…and the red beans were not cooked soft/mushy (but still whole) enough – the way I would love it! To me, the ones at this other place are still the best.

Never mind that the food wasn’t all that good as what I’ve been told – I certainly had a great time looking around and  recalling all those pleasant childhood memories during my brief visit to this place.

I’ll take your word (1)…

Huai Bin loves this a lot, it seems…

…so much so that he even blogged about it! He said that he could not find it in KL and the surrounding areas – what he had, he got from Seremban. Well, taking his word for it, when I saw it at a local supermarket here, I grabbed a pack without a second thought. It wasn’t exactly cheap though – over RM6.00 for a pack of 4…so that worked out to over RM1.50 a packet. I will have to go back there and confirm though as in his post, Huai Bin said that he paid RM12.99 for his in Seremban. That much!!!??? Gee! That would make it as costly as those Korean or Japanese ones here then.

The packet’s pretty big, I must say, something like those Korean noodles so there should be enough for two. The noodles or what they call semi-dry ramen inside are not like our regular instant noodles as you can see here…

…but unlike the Korean ones, these made-in-Singapore are pretty instant and would soften very fast so you would not need to boil a bit longer.

There are three sachets inside – one, the seasoning, another the chili paste and the third one, the “special” garnishing. I boiled the noodles and added the first two and once cooked, I dished everything out into a bowl…

…and having placed the homemade fish balls, the pan-fried turkey SPAM slices and the hard-boiled egg, cut into halves, on top, I sprinkled the garnishing and served.

And now, the moment my truth! My verdict. I’m afraid it did not tickle my fancy, not at all. Maybe I should have added more water but  it did say “semi-dry” on the packet…and to me, it came across like noodles tossed in chili sauce, lots of it and nothing much more than that, I’m afraid. Even the extra ingredients that I had did not save the day…and frankly, I would be much better off with my Bovril noodles…or our very own homegrown Mee Daddy – curry flavour, no less.

Beef it up…

My daughter was home for the weekend as usual and we went out to town on Saturday morning to run a few errands. We stopped by here for her favourite – beef noodles…

The chili dip was exceptionally hot that day – probably they added a lot of cili padi and could give Kah Hiong’s a fight. Of course, the noodles would pale in comparison but this is just about the best we have here and it is pretty nice as well. I had the special – the one with the tendons and the tripe…

All in all, the total came up to RM15.50, inclusive of my kopi-o-peng and my daughter’s peppermint tea. That’s a bit pricey, I would think…but beef here doesn’t come cheap, not at all, so I guess that would explain everything.

I did not cook anything special for my girl over the weekend as she had a dinner function to attend at a local hotel here the same day she came home – Friday…but as usual, the mum was cooking and packing a whole lot of things for her to take back to Selangau so all she would have to do would be to heat it up and eat – no need to go through the chore of cooking her meals herself.

On my part, I did fry her some mihun with corned beef…

I used this brand…

…which is as good as the one I would usually buy and they’re both around more or less the same price which is a whole lot cheaper than all those imported brands.

There was some leftover rice in the fridge so I took that and whipped for her some fried rice with salted fish…

…plus some fried ikan bilis and thinly-sliced omelette added.

This way, she would not even have to cook her own rice. Just heat these up and eat with one of the mum’s special dishes – that would be one wholesome meal by itself already, I’m sure…unlike some of the meals some of these young teachers living on their own are having all the time (I’ve even seen their photos on Facebook!) – instant noodles!

Mary in the morning…

Mary‘s back in Sibu again with her hubby all the way from the UK…to exercise their democratic rights. I first met the nice couple in January last year (2012) but with their busy schedule, the time differences and their jet lag, we were not able to get to meet one another till a number of days later.

They were not keen on restaurant food and all that and would rather go some place for some hawker delights. Initially, I thought this place would be good but we were there at around 9.45. and it would not be open for business till 10. Not wanting to wait, we adjourned some place else and ended up here.

I decided to try the Singapore fried mihun…

…which tasted like fried mihun with curry powder added. I reckoned it was all right – nice but nothing to shout about and furthermore, I think some of my varieties of fried mihun are very much nicer. That, of course, would come as no surprise as when you cook your own at home, you would add a whole lot of ingredients so naturally, it would be a whole lot tastier than what you can get outside.

My missus had their Dayak fried noodles…

…also known as lakia mee…or Iban mee. Usually, it would be fried noodles with a lot of chilies added and maybe a bit of belacan as well…but this one came across like mee mamak. It tasted good but it was not spicy at all, unfortunately…and my missus was kind of disappointed as she would prefer it to be a lot hotter than that.

The Sarawak laksa that Mary and her hubby shared…

…was also o.k. as far as the taste went but it did not really taste like Sarawak laksa and besides, it was a little bit too salty.

Their deep-fried kompia stuffed with minced meat…

…tasted great, similar to the ones here, just a tad too oily.

The only saving grace, I would say, was their popiah…

I asked them for extra kacang tumbuk (crushed groundnuts), both inside and outside, and they willingly obliged. That was why they were served all buried in it like that.

I really love it very much…

…and I would say that it is the best that I’ve had in town and elsewhere as well.

Unfortunately, they told me that they would be closing shop in a  few days’ time but they would set up a stall some place, concentrating only on popiah and kompia – and skip the fried stuff and what not that they presently have on their menu. They gave me their business card…

…so I would be able to call them if I wanted to place orders for their popiah…and also to find out their new location once they have moved.

All in all, it was a pleasant enough brunch but above all, we enjoyed the company and we sat there chatting away till almost noon. There were so many things to catch up and to talk about…and I must not forget to extend a big thank you to Mary for the goodies that she gave me…

- all the way from the UK. Thank you so very much – it certainly was my pleasure to meet the two of you again.

Clear…

I had a post on this in 2011 but never mind, let’s just go through it again quickly.

I did mention then that my daughter would not eat bean curd sticks as she felt that they tasted like plastic. She would take the soup though so sometimes, other than the meat bones for the stock, I would add minced meat rolled to make meat balls and drop them into the soup. She loves those very much and would eat them and besides, that would add to the flavour of the stock and.

Well, this time around, I used chicken – the tips of the chicken wings…

…that my missus had chopped off and thrown back into the freezer. She had used the rest of the wings to cook her very nice baked chicken wings that we all loved a lot.

I boiled them in half a cooking pot of water together with four cloves of garlic…

…and in the meantime, I broke the bean curd sticks into smaller pieces and soaked them in hot boiling water…

…to soften. See the bubbles by the side? I wonder what caused those. Hence, I would usually rinse and wash a few times till I am satisfied that they are nice and clean and then I would drain away the water thoroughly.

When the stock had started boiling, I let it simmer for a while for the flavours to come out of the chicken and the garlic before putting in the bean curd sticks. You can add whatever seasoning you prefer according to taste but usually I would add a bit of salt and msg. This time around, however, I added some fish sauce/gravy and a bit of Cukup Rasa…and let the soup simmer for a while longer.

Turn off the heat and serve hot…

If my missus cooks this, she would probably add a little bit extra – some sweet corn perhaps…or cut tomatoes…or a few prawns. Of course this will change the taste but I would say that it is not necessarily better – some things are best left in its simplest form, unchanged. I wished I had some spring onions though, or some daun sup (Chinese celery) in the house that I could use for garnishing and for a little bit of colour but I didn’t and I was too lazy to fry some sliced shallots for this some purpose so we just had it like that – very simple but very nice – clear and refreshing.

My mother would always have soup at every meal all the years when we were growing up and this was one of my favourites…and seeing that today is Mother’s Day, I would like to share this song with all of you…

…especially all you mothers out there. A very Happy Mother’s Day to each and everyone and God bless you all always.

So much better…

Hi! Meet my ex-student!

He’s attached to a company here but he has been stationed in Borat-land for many years now. Of course, when one is posted overseas, one would be making a whole lot of money – he did not tell me how many millions he already has, all stacked up in his Swiss account though. All he did was to grumble about the 20% he lost as the value of the euro has dropped over the time he has been there.

Another thing that he complained about was the food there…and in his opinion, it is so much better here. He’s currently everybody’s favourite friend as he cooks great dishes to share with them using the A1 Mountain Globe instant curry paste and wee’s satay sauce and everything else that he would bring over from here. I would believe him when he said that he had to buy a new pair of jeans two sizes smaller every time he came home…and you would too if you click the link above and see how round his face was in 2008.

He just had his lasik done in KL on his way back to Sibu to carry out his democratic duty. That explains the  sunglasses indoors…and since he had to stick around cool, air-conditioned places, not dusty and no bright sunlight, I took him to this megamall here in Sibu…

…where the Giant Hypermart is located. It was a hot afternoon and everyone had parked their cars in the spacious shaded car park behind the building – parking is free, so why not?

The moment he saw the outlet of our own Sarawak franchise there, right away he  said that he wanted to go there as there are no fast food places where he is working – none of those popular international franchises, nothing. He did not eat much though. He ordered the fish burger that I just had a few days earlier…

…and insisted on sharing half of it with me.

I wanted this…

…but I was told that they did not have it there and I would have to go to the Pedada branch, if I wanted that. The Pedada branch? They have that there? The last time I had ice cream there, they did not serve their own – only those that we can buy in tubs at any supermarket in town. Well, that was way back in 2009 – they probably have it now.

In the end, we just ordered their soft ice cream, vanilla (RM1.50 each) – cone…

…and I must say that I liked it very much – very nice and creamy with its rich milky flavour and definitely much nicer than  what I had here.

Well, my ex-student probably liked it a lot, so much so that he went and ordered another one – the vanilla-chocolate mix…

Hmmmm…we walked around the mall and he bought some kaya balls to eat as we were walking around there…and then, I took him to the shops near my house for him to stock up on the curry paste and satay sauce to take back…and he bought some apam balik/ban chien kueh from a stall in the vicinity to eat as well. Hmmmmm…I wonder if that is the secret to slimming down – eat a bit of everything at regular intervals instead of eating square meals at regular meal times in the day.

Well, it certainly was sweet of him to contact me while he was home and get me out of the house to spend some time together before he went back – thanks so much for that. Do keep in touch and we’ll do this again the next time you come home.

Last Sunday…

Last Sunday, my missus and I had to go some place so we made our way there at around 11 something in the morning but it was very crowded and the cars were parked so very far away. Seeing that, we decided to go for an early lunch and come back a bit later. We dropped by this place that we had gone to many times before…

…and promptly placed our orders.

My missus had the fried noodles (RM5.95)…

They used to call it Thai fried noodles but I commented in this post that it came across pretty much like mee mamak to me and there was nothing quite Thai about it…or to me, at least. Perhaps somebody read my remark…so if you drop by the place today, you would see that they have deleted the word Thai in the order form.

Well, I had that the first time around and enjoyed it a lot…and my missus was certainly very pleased with it. For one thing, the serving was huge, probably enough for two…with a whole lot of ingredients in it, sotong (squid), prawns and all. I can’t say for sure but it appears that if you dine here, make sure that not everybody is ordering the same thing as the portions would somehow seem a lot less.

I had one of their set lunches – what my missus had before - their kapitan chicken curry with rice (RM6.50)…

…that we thought was really very good. However, I remember that we got a complimentary drink with the set the last time around…but not anymore. They even charged us RM1.00 each for a tumbler of iced water. Tsk! Tsk!

Tastewise, it was as great as when we had it before but unfortunately, there were no vegetables by the side. I wish they had given a bit of the acar timun (pickled cucumber) or some potatoes in the curry. They have side orders on the menu, of course…at a price – RM3.00 to be exact.

This is new on the menu – their smoked BBQ lamb chops, currently selling at the promotional price of RM16.00 a plate…

Melissa had this and she loved it a lot. The gravy was superb – thank goodness it wasn’t black pepper which I do not like…and it wasn’t mushroom either, probably their own recipe…and we thought it was really good. The wedges were nice too – the batter that they used was very tasty, anytime better than those at the Colonel’s place, I must say. Other than that, they were so generous – you can see that  there were three thick slabs of lamb (with half a slice of cheddar cheese on top) unlike those miserable thin ones at most other places at a much higher price…and the meat was perfectly done – not quite tender enough, but it was done exactly how we would like it, not rare and not overdone.

All in all, it was a delightful lunch, I would say…and rest assured we would certainly be  back there again.

Old school…

I grew up eating this – mihun fried with canned clams in soy sauce…

…but of course, the clams were a whole lot bigger in those days. My mother would fry for us to eat and I would say that I loved it very much. Somehow, kids do seem to prefer noodles, no matter in what form, to rice or maybe, bread as well. They do sell it at some places here too…and they add cangkuk manis to it. I would have added that to to give it a try but there wasn’t any in the house.

That day, I used this Thailand mihun…

- I seem to like the Thai ones more than the China-made ones which have a certain smell which puts me off. I would have to rinse and rinse it to get rid of that smell. Somebody told me that the A1 is nice – I did not quite like their kway teow but I’ve yet to give their mihun a try so I don’t really know how good that is.

Anyway, to cook this dish, you will need the usual suspects…

- sliced shallots and chili (of course, my mum never had chili in hers) and chopped garlic and also an egg.

Then, of course, you MUST have this – the most essential ingredient…

…and this particular brand no less…even though the clams are so minute these days that they are hardly visible to the naked eye. There are some West Malaysian brands but I don’t think they come anywhere close as far as the taste and fragrance go. The local ones have bigger clams so sometimes we do add those as well, or the clams only, so that we will have some big ones in the dish.

I don’t think many others would do this but I would add the clams and the sauce to the mihun first and toss it really well…

…so that they would be evenly mixed with the mihun. You can add a bit of soy sauce to give it some colour as it would look kind of pale but just a bit as the clams and its own sauce are already somewhat salty enough.

Heat up a bit of oil in the wok and fry the shallots and garlic till golden brown. Add the sliced chili and mihun and fry thoroughly. It is a bit wet/watery because of the sauce from the can so you would have to fry a bit longer till it gets kind of dry. Break the egg into the wok and mix it with everything else and when you feel that it is sufficiently well-fried, dish everything out and serve…

 I only used half a packet of the mihun (4 pieces) only with that one can and there was really quite a lot to go round…

There you have it – our old school way of cooking fried mihun. You may notice that I did not add any seasoning – no salt, no msg…and despite the absence of these, it was already very flavourful enough and very tasty indeed. I would have added some chopped spring onions or Chinese celery (daun sup) for additional fragrance and also to add some colour to it but there wasn’t any in the fridge.

I’ve fried something similar before but with canned stewed pork so if you think you would prefer that, you can click this link here and hop over to that post and have a look.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!
I just received these favourite Marks & Spencer’s All Butter Viennese cookies of mine from my dear friend, Annie-Q, in KL yesterday…

Her mum just came back to Sibu after her trip to Taiwan and I thought the pineapple tarts came from there. It seems to be the in-thing for people visiting that republic to come home with boxes and boxes of those to give to family and friends. I’ve tried them before but I wasn’t too thrilled by them really. I’ve had nicer ones from Bintulu and these are from Selangor, available at Mid Valley. Hmmm…if they’re good, I can grab some more when I go over…soon.

Thank you so much, Annie and to your mum too for taking the trouble to send them over to my house…and at the same time, pass me these gifts from my friend, Yoong, all the way from Perth, Australia…

Thank you for the lovely Australian key holder and for those very pretty and colourful magnets and also for the macadamia cookies. I’ve yet to try them but I can say for sure that they would be so very nice – since they came from you! Thank you, thank you, Yoong. It is so sweet of you to remember me in your list of who-to-give-what on your recent trip to KL. Too bad I was not able to go over to meet you then…but no worries, I will hop over to Perth one of these days.

And thanks to you too, Huai Bin, for your “gift of gold” over the weekend…and last but definitely not the least, to you, Clare, as well for the Toblerone and for kindly helping me pass some stuff to my cousin in Kuching. Thank you all…!!!!

Hungry like the wolf…

Last Friday, Melissa said that a colleague of hers would be giving her a lift back to Sibu but she would be going to the Farley area on the other side of town so we would have to  go and pick her up there. That would not be a problem – in fact, anything would  be better than driving all the way to Selangau to get her.

It was around 3 when she arrived and since she left the school right after lessons had ended for the day, I was pretty sure she had not had lunch yet and I was right. So we went to the branch of this Sarawak’s own franchise in the area…

Personally, I’m not really crazy about such fast food joints but she, typical of most young people today, was delighted when I suggested dropping by there for a bite to eat. As you can see, they do have a lot of other choices besides the usual stuff like fried chicken and hamburgers…

…and Melissa wanted the fish fillet with rice and a complimentary drink (RM9.80)…

…which she wolfed down in a jiffy.

Business was not particularly busy at that time of day…

…but there were a few other customers around…and also some more at their spin-off cafe, the Red Carrot, next door.

The mum was not hungry as we had lunch earlier so she just ordered their three-layer tea…

I think that cost RM3 something so I would not say it, or anything else there for that matter, was particularly cheap, not at all.

Nevertheless, I could not resist ordering their fish burger for myself…

- my all-time favourite and I would think it is better than any fish fillet burgers anywhere else.

This comes at RM8.50 each, with a free drink…

…and inside, they have a slice of real fish – not those miserable fish cakes that you find at the other places.

Well, I enjoyed that and since I do not have it very often, I guess it is all right…and most importantly, Melissa had what she would consider a really great lunch after a week being cooped up in her school in Selangau.