The long and winding road…

It isn’t a long and winding road really…but it is rather far by Sibu standards and bumpy due to the rate at which the roads here seem to sink despite the continuous efforts to resurface them and to make them higher. Unfortunately, my bank is located at that side of town and I had not updated my bank book since September last year, so I will have to make the trip once in a while.

It seems that the bank is currently undergoing renovations and while it used to have some 6-8 counters, there are only 4 left and customers are encouraged to utilise the machines for cash deposits, payment of credit card bills and what not. I did not have a problem at all as there was a lady bank officer who was very nice and helpful and she did it all for me. Once I had everything settled, as usual, I went roaming around to see what’s new in the Salim area. Sometime ago, I had a post on one of the places in the area.

I did not go to that one this time but instead, I went to the older one on the other side and I saw this…

This is quite new, I think. If I’m not mistaken, it was opened sometime around Chinese New Year and it houses the Farley Restaurant and the food court…

I noticed that the Farley Pinnacles is no longer where it used to be, so I reckoned it must have relocated to the upper storey of the new premises where the restaurant is. There is a banner advertising Hongkong Dim Sum at the restaurant but there is no information as to whether it is already in business or at what time the dimsum is available. I was never a fan of the food at the Pinnacles anyway, even though I quite liked the place as it was pretty nice and cosy. Well, they’re selling some baju kurong and things like that there now.

Since there was no indication whatsoever that the restaurant was open at the time, I just proceeded to the food court to see what they had in store. I must say it was quite a disappointment as there were only a few stalls selling the usual stuff and only one was enjoying relatively brisk business – selling char siew fan (barbecued meat rice) and all the roasted meats and stuff. I did not feel like having that, so I went to the Muslim stall instead…

It so happened that an old acquaintance of mine from my karaoke days at the Spice Bazaar – Sebastian aka Tom Jones of Sibu was there, so we had lunch together. I had some chicken, pumpkin and two servings of century eggs for RM3.00…

The rice was hard and dry…and if you asked me about the food, I would very much prefer the selections available at the Bandong stall that I frequent quite regularly to tapao (takeaway) a few items home for dinner. For one thing, the food was not covered and when I was there, the lady was busy chasing away the flies and grumbling, “Langau! Langau!” Obviously, they’re Melanau Muslims.

Well, I think the food court at the Sing Kwong Complex – Kopi-O Cafe – has a lot more to offer and the food there is nicer too. As far as this one is concerned, if they think I am going to drive all the way when that is all they are able to come out with, they can just dream on. They will have to do much better than that!