An ex-student from my English language tuition class last year, presently studying in Concord, Shrewsbury in the UK, is back on his summer vacation and he contacted me and suggested meeting up for dinner. Owing to certain circumstances, we did not manage to do that on his previous trips home.
We went to the Happy Hours Cafe…as I had heard somebody saying that the food is nice and I noticed that they now have an air-conditioned section. I loved the honey pork ribs…
The butter prawns were not that great. I thought that they had over-fried the prawns making them a bit hard and dry…
The cereal fish fillet (with oats) dish was all right, nothing much to shout about…
…and I’ve had better fried cangkuk manis with egg elsewhere.
The mixed vegetable soup was o.k. too…
…so all in all, it was quite a nice dinner but there wasn’t anything that was so very delicious that I would be dying to go back there to eat some more. The food came up to RM40.00 which wasn’t too bad…considering that we had udang galah (freshwater prawns), some RM20-30 a kilo at the market…and the portions were big enough for 4 persons.
In comparison, I think what I had for breakfast at the same place was a lot more satisfying…
Children and young people these days are so fortunate. They get to enjoy all kinds of international cuisines be it western, Italian, Japanese – you name it, they’ve eaten it!
During my time, a plate of Ah Kow’s kampua noodles at Kiaw Siong was the special Sunday treat and that too, only when my brother and I behaved during the church service. On the rare occasions when we were brought along to attend a relative’s wedding luncheon or dinner, we would look forward to the Sibu Foochow sio bee…
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…and the Foochow fried noodles…
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…but the highlight would be the dessert at the end – canned longans and peaches in sweet syrup, served cold. These days, the kids would not even give it a second glance.
Sometimes, my father would go out to catch the 2nd show, starting at 9.15 p.m. and he would come home at around 11 something…and more often than not, he would buy some Foochow fried noodles from this guy that he called Tong Merah who had a food stall on the upper floor of the former Sibu market or from another Ah Kow – the one at the back portion of Ban Chuan, next to the Cathay Cinema (now Star Cineplex). Then he would wake us up to eat…and how we cherished the special treat on those nights! I guess that explains why even until today, I can eat at any time of day…unlike some people.
9 years later, my sister was born…and she did not want to eat rice or porridge, just noodles and in those days, instant noodles were unheard of. So, every day, my father had to take the blue and white insulated plastic food carrier with a gold-coloured handle to town and buy chin t’ng mee (noodles in clear soup) for her…
Chin t’ng mee is actually the soup version of the kampua noodles, 50 sen a bowl at the time, with meat…and 30 sen without…
How we would wait, wishin’ and hopin’ that she could not finish and how we enjoyed and savoured every bit of whatever was left over on any day.
Gosh! We certainly were a deprived lot then, unlike the young ones today…
Good grief! What month is it in the Chinese lunar calendar right now? If I’m not mistaken, it’s the 5th Month right now and it’s not even the 7th Month yet – the month of the Hungry Ghosts…and yet some people/ladies are already talking about mooncakes and making them.
The Mooncake Festival, also known as the Zhongqui (Tong Chiew Chek) Festival, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month with the eating of mooncakes that are available these days in all kinds of shapes and flavours and at shockingly astronomical prices. In keeping with the tradition, I may buy a few of the not-so-nice local-made ones which are usually nothing to shout about…or I can just eat our very own Sibu Foochow Tong Chiew p’ia (Mid-autumn biscuits) or Pek Quek p’ia (8th Month biscuits)…
A couple of weeks ago, my missus bought these very nice ones (Kinsen) which were made in Sarikei…
Yes, they’re already out in the shops…and some may even expire before the festival draws near, just imagine that! Unfortunately, she could not remember where she had bought them from (Gosh! Her memory seems to be failing her more and more these days. I certainly hope that she will not forget her way home one fine day!), so I went and bought these made-in-Sibu ones…
Tiang Chuon is one of the very old and established shops in Sibu and some say their loong ngor (kuih bahulu) is the best in town. For one thing, theirs are cheaper than the rest, at only RM3.80 a packet. However, in my honest opinion, they were not as nice, with hardly any fragrance from its lard content and were a bit too salty for my liking.
Then, I went and bought these…
Sin Hing Leong, also made in Sarikei and selling at RM4.00 a packet. As a matter of fact, I have been buying the ones from this particular confectionery for the past couple of years now…and I find that they are quite good.
Whatever it is, at around RM4.00 a packet, they’re definitely more affordable than those overrated mooncakes that are worth their weight in gold. No matter how nice they may be, one thing’s for sure, I am definitely not going to buy any again this year. Period.
Well, these days, people are complaining about the escalating prices. From my personal point of view, I would think that grumbling does not help one bit. It will only leave you feeling miserable and frustrated…and no matter how you moan and groan, the prices are not going to come down, not at all. What’s worse, people may get sick and tired of your endless rantings and find you boring and depressing even, and will start avoiding you like a plague. I guess we’ll just have to learn to live with it and try to scrimp and save in any way we can…which explains my question at the beginning of this post.
First and foremost, our usual kampua noodles for breakfast will have to go – that’s around RM2.20 or more a plate and will use up half of the money allocated for food in a day. An alternative, perhaps, could be this packet of nasi lemak (RM1.50)…
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…or better still, these cucur udang (prawn fritters) – RM1.00 for a packet of 4.
Normally, people in western countries would just have a light lunch – a sandwich perhaps or a muffin…but people here would just feast like there’s no tomorrow at any time of day. This RM1.00 mihun goreng (fried mihun) should be substantial enough to keep us going for the rest of the day…
…and for dinner, perhaps we can go for a plate of chap fan (mixed rice)…
…at RM3.00 for one meat and two veg. Prices may vary slightly from place to place…but my plate of three meat and one veg came up to RM4.00. Gosh! Obviously I would need to exercise better discipline and control if I were to keep to the RM5.00 a day limit, RM150.00 a month. But give or take a little, that amount should be enough…and we do not really have to starve ourselves in order that we may survive in these so-called difficult times.
Don’t be alarmed though for this is some sort of a worst case scenario and I’m not saying in any way that I need to go to such an extent in trying to make ends meet, thank God for small mercies. What I make is enough to let me get through the days comfortably and maybe, even indulge and pamper myself a bit once in a while – that’s why you do not hear me complain…or not much, at least. LOL!!!
I had to see Philip again to return the draft of his mother’s 8th book that I had helped edit for him/her…but it being a Friday, my no-meat day, we decided to meet him at Kopitiam Fantasy.
If you may recall, when I last had a post on the place, I said that the coffee/kopi-o-peng was the best in Sibu. I think I would like to retract the statement now as it seems there is obviously no quality control and what I had this second time around was no better than that at any other coffee shop in town. It was quite a disappointment, to say the least, as I was looking forward to enjoying the coffee that morning. Sigh!!! It certainly looked like the first impression was a mere fantasy and THIS was the reality and a sad one at that.
I enjoyed the char kway teow (fried flat rice noodles) there but this time around, I decided to try the one with sambal that my missus had on that previous visit and she praised it to the skies but without meat, of course…
It was very nice, with the spiciness and the fragrance of the sambal but I think I prefer what I had before.
Philip ordered the kueh chap from the next stall which seemed quite good…
…but he was somewhat disappointed when it came as he was expecting something in clear soup like the kway teow th’ng in Penang and furthermore, he does not eat all those innards. Ooooo!!! If it had not been a Friday, guess who would sapu habis (sweep clean) all of that! Unfortunately, I had to resist the temptation… Sobs!
The sambal that came with the kueh chap looked nice too…
…but I don’t think I’ll ever to get to try that as whenever I drop by the shop, I would have to eat the kway teow since the lady, Kim Eng, is an old-time acquaintance and friends should always stick together, don’t you all agree?
I did not have any of those pyramid-shaped meat dumplings this year…not during the actual date of the bak chang or dumpling festival, otherwise known as the Duan Wu Jie…
Every year, my mother-in-law would make for everybody, sometimes more than once a year…and at other times, I would go and buy from the mini supermarket near my house. The normal ones used to cost RM1.00 each while those with salted egg inside would cost more…but the thing was the dumpling kept getting smaller and the price kept getting higher. I loved the ones with salted egg but after a few occasions when I got those with not-very-nice salted egg inside, I stopped buying them altogether. It just was not worth it especially when the price had gone up to RM2 something for one of those. I might as well go and enjoy a nice plate of kampua noodles instead.
I have not had any nice ones for a while now…so when the festival came round this year, I did not bother to go out and buy some to eat in keeping with the old Chinese tradition. My mother-in-law did not make any as she had gone for an eye surgery sometime back and was told not to do any cooking after that.
Quite recently, however, my missus bought some at the Bus Station Food Court. The shape was kind of odd as the base of the chang was longer than the usual ones…and they were not very big either. They tasted good – almost like what my mother-in-law used to make…but there was hardly any meat inside.
I had almost given up on ever getting hold of any nice changs around here until the other day when I dropped by the coffee shop at the back portion of the Sibu Medical Centre premises. They have some of the better pulut panggang (RM0.70 – big and long ones, kosong) in town and other nice kuihs like ang-koo, kuih lenggang and so on. I saw the changs on sale, so I asked the lady how much they were. She said, “RM1.50,” and I thought to myself that they probably were not that good as they were comparatively cheaper than elsewhere.
The lady insisted that they were very nice and told me that somebody placed an order for a whole lot of those to bring over to Johore. With that kind of testimony, I could not resist buying two to try…and to my delight, they were really very nice – perhaps even better than the ones my mother-in-law made (…though my missus would never admit that! LOL!!!) and the best part was it had a lot of meat inside.
Actually, these photos were taken the second time I stopped by to buy the changs…and rest assured that I would be going back there for more.
I met Philip again one morning for breakfast as he wanted me to help edit his mother, Angela Yong‘s 8th book. I willingly agreed to lend a hand as here is a son helping his dear mother and that was the least I could do in appreciation of such a show of filial piety. I just could not refuse…and besides, what are friends for?
He gave me a complimentary copy of his mother’s book – the 7th, I think…
…which I had not seen in the bookstores. Truth be told, I have not dropped by any bookstore for quite a while now since my daughter is not around at this point in time.
I remember I had the claypot beef noodles from that stall in front and enjoyed it tremendously. This time, I wanted the same but what came was something completely different…
…with the pork intestines and gu tor (cow’s stomach) and everything else including one fried golden egg (RM4.50)…
Thankfully, it was really very nice and like what I did on my previous visit, I finished everything right to the very last drop.
Philip ordered the claypot prawn noodles (RM8.00)…
…with at least, three big freshwater prawns (udang galah) inside and while he was eating, he kept repeating, “This is very good! This is very good!” He even took a photograph of it which just about showed how great he thought it was.
I’m glad I was able to show him around a couple of places here to enjoy the food here before he would have to go back to the US. Hopefully, when he comes home again next year, we’ll have the opportunity to go mam-mam again then…
I heard somebody saying that kissing is like eating peanuts. First, you take one…and then you want one more…and then you want more and more and more! What do you all think? Fact or fiction? LOL!!!
If you go for a sit-down full course dinner at a Chinese restaurant here, they will give you a plate of salted peanuts, but mind you! They do not come free. You will find it in your bill later and it can cost up to RM2.00 even. My favourite would be Planters’ but they can be pretty costly, easily up to around RM10.00 a tin/bottle.
Sometimes, they give you coated peanuts which are nice too but likewise, these are not that cheap either even though we have the local brands like Tong Garden and others. We can buy those small packets at convenience stores like 7-Eleven and finish the whole lot in a jiffy.
…and they’re different in their own way. The coating is a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet and a little bit salty…
…and there are anchovies (ikan bilis) among the nuts as well. I would say they are nice…and comparatively, not that expensive.
I gave my brother a packet when he was here recently and while he was eating, I went looking for an airtight container to keep the rest…but I shouldn’t have bothered because in no time at all, he had finished the whole packet. Gee! Imagine if those were kisses! ROTFL!!!
Have a great weekend, everybody! “Think I’d better dance now…!!!” LOL!!!
My New Zealander sister-in-law was stupefied when I told her that I made a lot of friends through blogging and she was absolutely aghast to hear that I even met some of them in person. I’ve met Claire, Elin and Ivan in Ipoh, Eugene and Faisal Admar in Penang, Nyonyapenang, Peteformation and so many others in KL and also Annie-Q who is originally from Sibu and ah-nel aka Fatty Old Man who’s actually based in Singapore right now, Melbie and Mandy in Kota Kinabalu, Mar who is now working in Brunei…and a whole lot of bloggers here, there and everywhere. The list just goes on and on.
I don’t know but is it that dangerous to meet someone you’ve got to know online? I would think it would be the same even if you are introduced to someone face-to-face by a friend in person. After all, as Shakespeare says, “The false face hides what the false heart doth know,” or the way the Chinese put it, “You know his face, you do not know his heart.” That, of course, is very true as personally, I did make the acquaintance with some so-called friends who eventually turned out to be quite different from what I had thought them to be, but let’s not get into that.
What I am actually getting to is that the other day, I got to meet Philip in person. Well, he wasn’t really a complete stranger because I knew his sister and I knew him by name as well and his mother, Angela Yong, was a friend of my mother and her family. I had a post on the books that she has written and Philip had stumbled upon it while googling for something and has been commenting regularly on my posts ever since. We agreed to meet for lunch…and we did.
Ben of BenzGifts commented on my link on Facebook saying that the nasi bryani at Rafie was very nice, so Philip and I agreed to meet there and give it a try. He had the mutton…
…and I do wish they would take the trouble to wipe the side of the bowl with a clean tissue or something before serving it so that it would look a bit more presentable.
I had the beef…
…but though I found the curry quite nice, I felt that the rice paled slightly in comparison with what we had at Balkis and the pickled cucumber really wasn’t very good. No, Ben, I don’t think it is all that great…compared to Balkis. Maybe I should give Nur Islamic another try one of these days and see if it’s any better.
Food aside, Philip and I had a great time…chatting and getting acquainted. I had known for a long time now that he is, in fact, an accomplished classical guitarist but I did not know that he had actually released a CD in the States where he is based…and he had been giving recitals/concerts there and also in Malaysia, KL included. Well, personally, I am not into classical music but if you’re interested in hearing him play, you can click the video clip below and listen…
…or you can go to youtube and watch the other video clips available. Happy listening…
Nope, sorry to disappoint you all but this is not going to be a romantic post. I love this song by Helen Reddy…and coincidentally, I had an ex-student from the centre by that same name coming home from Melbourne to Sibu on his winter break and we went out last Friday for tea at the Red Carrot. Well, Jeffrey, I got your name spelt correctly this time, eh? LOL!!!
I had this…
…which they call their Cappuccino Iceberg (RM7.80) while Jeffrey had their teh tarek (RM2.80). Mine was all right…just that I do not normally drink coffee with milk or cream as it makes me kind of sleepy but Jeffery’s came in a cup and saucer. That was rather odd as I would expect teh tarek to be served in a glass and there seemed to be a sprinkling of chocolate on the froth at the top. That is certainly not what we would get from the roadside mamak stall. He did not comment on the drink proper, so I do not know whether it was any good.
Well, he had this pandan chicken (RM4.50)…
…which worked out to less than 80 sen each but they were small and he said it tasted like curry chicken. I bet they were not as nice as what I had at Ruby which were a whole lot bigger than these.
I wanted to order this…
…but was informed that they had run out of kompia…so in the end, I had their kaya toast (RM2.50) instead…
The bread looked different from what we can get at the local bakeries – two thick slices…but they were not well-toasted so they tasted like bread, not toast. I would prefer it to be warm and crusty and besides, I did not care a lot for the kaya (coconut egg custard jam)and margarine/butter that they used.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 