Crazy…

I can’t remember where or when it happened but I was at some place enjoying myself eating the specialty of the house when this Ah Lian showed up. Spotting some people she knew at a nearby table, she went over and exclaimed, “Aiyor! Why you all eat that? Later you all get Crazy Cow disease, then you know!!!” LOL!!!

Well, I’ve always loved beef noodles…

Back in my younger days, I would patronise that “Ang Kau” stall at Kiaw Siong Cafe, alongside the celebrated Ah Kow kampua…and much later, I loved the “Ah Mui” beef noodles at the Open Air Market in Kuching and also a stall at the Cuppage Hawker Centre in Singapore. The what-they-called “Taiwan beef noodles” at Ampang Point in KL, next to the De Palma Hotel, was also very delicious…and back here in Sibu, I used to rave over the beef noodles at Ah Hock Kia Cafe but the quality has gone downhill since and it’s pretty much the same  at the coffee shop behind the Sibu Kidney Foundation or the corner one at the traffic lights to Li Hua Hotel and at Loke Ming Yuen Cafe (opposite Mitsu Tea House).

Then I tasted the one in KK and things have never been the same after that. It was SO out of this world, the best I have tasted ever and even at RM7.00 a bowl, I felt it was worth it as the soup was thick and rich and they were very generous with the huge chunks of beef and stuff.

There’s a stall at Lot 10 along Ramin Way and I gather that the beef noodles are very nice but I’ve yet to go and try as parking in the vicinity can be such a pain. However, on Sunday, my missus and I went to the Rasa Sayang Cafe but this time, we did not go for the kampua. We were actually there to try their new item on the menu – beef noodles… 

Well, as you can see from the photo, the serving is extremely small…but what can you expect for RM4.00? Tastewise, I liked it a lot – about as nice as what I had in KK but the ones there come at almost double the price (and that was in the middle of last year, so I would not know if the price has infalted). Like in KK, the beef comes in chunks and not in paper-thin slices as in the other places around here and for one thing, fresh beef is not cheap these days! RM25.00 a kilo!

All things considered, I am pretty definite that I will be going back there again and this time around, I’ll ask for an RM8 bowl… You think I’m crazy? LOL!!!

Baker Street…

There was this song way back in the late 70’s that I used to like a lot. I do not know the lyrics, I do not even know what the song is about but I just like it – the melody, especially the introduction. I am talking about Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”.

However, this post is not in any way related to the song, other than the title and that’s probably by sheer coincidence, but instead, it is going to be about pies…

I’ve tried the (chicken) pies at some of the local bakeries here but I have never found one that I thought was nice and worth the calories…but when I saw these at the supermarket sometime ago, I thought I would just give them a try. You just take them out of the freezer, frozen…

…place them on a baking tray and pop them in the oven for some 15 minutes and they’re ready, piping hot and nicely browned…

I find the pastry very nice, the filling is not as substantial as I would have liked…but on the whole, they’re nice enough (but definitely not as nice as Yan’s) and I would not mind having them again…

There is also the curry chicken variety but I think I prefer these. For one thing, they’re not too expensive, especially when we compare them to those imported meat pies, but I do not remember the exact price, probably around RM6 or 7 something for a pack of 4.

Sam, Gundot and Lindy had these for tea during their short stay at my house and they all gave their thumbs up! Not great…but good enough!

Follow me…

Stella asked me a long time ago how to make sambal udang kering or hay bee (dried prawns) the way our mums used to make it. Well, you will need some udang kering/hay bee…

These special straight ones from the Rejang Basin cost a fortune these days – RM70 a kilo, but you can always use the cheaper ordinary ones and some people claim that it can even be nicer. You will have to soak them in water to soften them before pounding them to pulp…

You will need these ingredients: shallots, garlic, ginger, lengkuas (galangal), kunyit (tumeric), serai (lemon grass), chillies and a bit of belacan (dried prawn paste).

Pound all of that together (except the lemon grass – just crush the ends of each stalk) and you will get this …

Fry the pounded ingredients in oil until brown and fragrant and then add the pounded dried prawns. Keep stirring until it is nicely browned, add the curry leaves, a bit of sugar, salt and msg according to taste and it’s done…

Yum! Yum!

Goodbye Sam, hello Samantha (3)…

So to continue with our food-a-thon from the previous two posts, the next morning, my daughter and I brought the three of them – Sam, Gundot and Lindy for a dimsum breakfast at Mitsu Tea House.

I have posted on this place many times, so I am not going to do it again. If you have not seen anything on it, you can click this link to go and have a look. Kongkay joined us there but maybe he was too shy as I noticed that he only ate a little and he did not take any photographs for his blog. Or perhaps he was not impressed with the fare, having had better in other places like in Singapore, for instance.

For lunch, we went to the Ark and Gundot and Lindy shared this HUGE bowl of chao chai hung ngang (RM9.00)…

…while Sam had the same thing she had the last time she was here – their spaghetti bolognese (RM11.50)

She must have liked that a lot. I had the fish and chips (RM11.50)…

I did not like the fishy smell of the fillet that they used. I would much rather have the ones at Garden…or even Sugar Bun which are very much nicer. My daughter had their grilled lamb shoulder…

…and believe you me, that 1-inch thick chunk came at only RM15.00!!!

Then we went back to the house to rest, bathe and pretty soon, I had to send them to the bus station to catch the 5 o’ clock back to Kuching…

Goodbye Sam, hello Samantha (2)…

Well, in the earlier post, you saw what Sam, together with Gundot and Lindy, had for breakfast the first morning they were in town. We had lunch at home that day as my missus had cooked some phak lor too kha (braised pork knuckles) which was absolutely yummy with sambal belacan and Sam had at least two of the lor nui (braised hardboiled eggs). Sorry, no photos of all that as we got home late and everyone was too hungry to bother about anything else at that point in time. LOL!!!

By the way, Gundot brought me these yam puffs/balls all the way from Kuching…

I gave two to stanleycarter across the road and some to my in-laws. Personally, I prefer the char siew filling in those from Kai Joo Lane but the skin of these is better than anything we can get anywhere in Sibu.

Rain or shine, there was no stopping us and for dinner, we braved the heavy downpour to go to this place…

…where we feasted on the crabs…

…and the butter prawns which did not taste like what they said it was. I thought it was more like kiam sor hay (salted and crispy prawns)…

…and Sam wanted the midin (wild fern) fried with belacan…

…and believe it or not, she ate most of that!!! We also had the tau hu leer, the Foochow tofu soup and in my opinion, this restaurant has the best and the most authentic in town…

…and how can anybody come to Sibu and NOT eat the Foochow fried noodles, so we had that too…

Inclusive of rice and drinks, all that came to around RM160 for six persons which came as no surprise considering that the going rate for the crabs was RM35.00 a kilo. Pretty expensive, but they were HUGE ones and the flesh was firm and sweet. I do wish, however, that they have other options when it comes to the way they cook the crustaceans…

Red red wine…

Do you like eating this Foochow delicacy – ang chao pork belly…

Goodbye Sam, hello Samantha (1)…

Samantha or Sam for short, together with Gundot and Lindy arrived here at around 11 p.m. on Monday last week and the next morning, they went for one of their favourite Foochow delicacies – dianpianngu…

…at this coffee shop in the vicinity of the Sibu Civic Centre…

This is Sam’s favourite Sibu Foochow delicacy…

…and Gundot and Lindy enjoy it too…

This was just the beginning of their two-day eating marathon! Stay tuned for more! LOL!!!

Stolen…

How long…

Sugar sugar…

Sugar Bun is Sarawak’s own franchise and had a chain of fast food restaurants all over Sabah and Sarawak but some of the outlets have closed down now and I do not really know how many there are left these days and in which places. Sibu itself has three, I think – one near the Star Cineplex (formerly Cathay Cinema), one in the Pedada Commercial Centre near my house and the original and biggest one at the Sibu Gateway…

I love the fish burger there. For that, they have one thick deep-fried slice of fish fillet coated with bread crumbs and sandwiched in a bun plus all the other condiments. You can also have the fish fillet with savoury rice which is something like nasi minyak or bryani. The nasi lemak and some of the things that they have to offer are also very nice and worth having once in a while. However, this Penang guy that I know was raving on and on about the cheese burger at Sugar Bun…

He insisted it was nicer than McD’s and since he came to Sarawak in January, he had been to Sugar Bun some three or four times. Goodness gracious me! He must love the place a lot! I don’t think I even step into the place once in a year!

Well, the cheese burger comes without the egg, so you will have to pay a bit extra if you would like to have one in it. As it is, if you go for the value meal – the cheese burger minus the egg plus a drink, will cost you around RM4.70.

Personally, I think I prefer McD’s Double Cheese or Big Mac but I would always remove the gherkin inside. I don’t fancy the taste of the pickled slices, I’m afraid. As for this one at the Sugar Bun, I find the beef patty in it very thin and shrunken, so I could hardly taste it. All in all, it certainly did not turn me on. I must say that I did not find it that great, I’m afraid.

Well, I am not comparing the burger to those available at the other fast food joints as we do not have them here but all things considered, I still feel that the best burger I have ever had  (not including the humongous and more expensive one I had at Hard Rock KL) would be the one from the roadside stall in Bandar Sri Aman…