Pretty boy…

This is Bernard…

…an ex-student of mine, though not really my student per se but he was in my public speaking and debating team for a few years before he moved to Kuching after Form 4. Right now, he’s in Canberra, Australia doing Law…and everytime he comes back to Sibu, he would want to meet up  and we would go out some place for a bite.

This time around, we went to this new Taiwan Cafe…

…located in the commercial area in the vicinity of the Sibu Bus Terminal, next to UOB and opposite Sweet Family Restaurant.

Bernard had this bowl of noodles…

I do not know what it was called as everything was in Mandarin and at first sight, it did not look too appealing, I must say. But after mixing everything up, it certainly seemed better…

It tasted all right – not bad and nothing to shout about either. You definitely would not catch me making a beeline back to the place to have some more of it.

I had the beef noodles, dry…

The beef was tender and nicely done but on the whole, I did not quite like it. I thought the sauce that they tossed the noodles in had a peculiar taste – something like black vinegar.

And I was pretty sure they had black vinegar in this siew mai/sio bee (meat dumpling)…

…though when it was served I thought it was soy sauce.

They had four in one serving of those, all freshly made on the spot and steamed,  including one with a tiny shrimp on top…

…and another with a bit of shitake mushroom and the fourth one with nothing at all and sad to say, I did not think any of them was fantastic.

Bernard had their specialty – sui kuo char (fruit tea)…

…while I had my usual kopi-o-peng kau (strong iced black coffee). I don’t know about Bernard’s but my coffee had got to be the worst in town. It was so weak that it tasted almost like plain water.

The bill came up to RM19.70…which is definitely more than what you would need to pay for breakfast at a normal coffee shop but less than at one of those cafés. All things considered, I’m afraid I probably would not be dropping by the place ever again…