Love triangle…

It’s that time of the year again  – the Zhang (rice dumpling) Festival also known as the Dragon Boat Festival or DuanWu Jie (the Double 5 Festival as it falls in the 5th Day of the 5th month in the Chinese lunar calendar). If anyone is interested in knowing more about the festival, just click this link to go and read all about it.

Well, this year, the actual day falls on the 6th of June, next week and these days, I no longer look forward to it as my mum has long stopped making the traditional nyonya meat dumplings even when she was still up and about and my mother-in-law is, more often than not, not up to it anymore as she too is growing too old. Otherwise, at least we would get the Hokkien variety to enjoy whenever the festival came around…but at least, there is not much of a problem buying this type in town – except that the homemade ones are usually nicer.

Imagine my delight when my friend, Richard, dropped by my house the other evening and gave me these…

…that he made himself, those nyonya ones that I very much prefer – with the fragrance of ground or pounded ketumbar seeds in it. If you check out this post, he has been so kind as to give me some every time this festival comes around since as far back as 2008!

His were BIG…

…and really conical in shape – unlike the ones my missus made when she tried her hand at it the other day. Hehehehehehe!!!

And look at all that meat inside…

Yum! Yum!

Thanks a lot, Richard. I gave some to my mum too, of course, knowing that she would enjoy them as well – exactly like those that she used to make a long long time ago.

Blame it…

Now who should I blame it on? Well, if there’s anyone to blame, it has got to be *points accusing finger…Pete! LOL!!! He put up a post on how he was going to cook ching-ching (plain) kway teow (flat rice noodles) soup over the weekend…and that made me miss the kway teow th’ng that I have had in Penang or in KL and looking at the yummy photographs that he had in that post certainly did not help one bit. Tsk! Tsk!

So I dropped by this coffee shop on my way to my parents’ house to see if they had anything that I could have so that I could appease my craving.  To my delight, the stall where I had the prawn dumpling soup the other day had pork mee soup (RM4.00). I ordered that right away, asking the man to replace the yellow noodles with kway teow and this was what I got…

Good grief! It was HUGE! And the best thing about it was that it tasted really good! Yum! Yum!

But wait a minute! I was quite positive that I saw slices of liver in the photograph displayed at the stall…but I did not get any at all. Tsk! Tsk! Instead, I got those frozen meatballs that I do not really like as they seem to have a somewhat peculiar taste. My daughter loves them though! Thankfully, these did not seem as bad as the ones I had before – I could barely sense the repulsive taste and anyhow, they provided some cili padi soaked in chio cheng (light soy sauce) and the meatballs actually tasted great after being dipped in that.

Ah! I certainly enjoyed that very much…so Pete, you can have your ching-ching kway teow soup while I have mine. Hehehehehe!!!!

Sentimental journey…

There is a little shop just round the corner from my house, probably just a couple of hundred metres away, that sells fresh meat, fish and vegetables in the morning and fruits and all kinds of other stuff the rest of the day. In a way, it is a sort of mini-market and I do drop by their time and again because it is so convenient. I will not have to go all the way to the main Sibu Central Market or the smaller ones in the other parts of town and other than the petrol, I can save on the parking fee too – it is over 40 sen for half an hour here.

Well, I was there sometime ago buying some made-in-Sarikei lung ngor (that I find are the closest to what I used to enjoy when I was a kid) when my neighbour, also a retired teacher, happened to pass by. She stopped to chat and while we were talking about what we were buying, she exclaimed, “Hey! Aren’t you buying these?”

Then she went on, “Do you remember how we used to love eating this cake so much when we were small?”

Well, to be honest, I cannot remember ever eating that. LOL!!! But I do remember seeing them a lot – packed in the same longish manner but wrapped with white translucent paper, the type people use to make kites. People in those days did not use plastic and that certainly was a lot more environment friendly than what people do today.

However, I do not quite recall actually eating it and enjoying it a lot. Maybe it was because my mother could make cakes and needless to say, hers were a whole lot nicer so we never had to eat those.

If  I’m not mistaken, these are actually one whole cake cut into cubes…

…and arranged nicely, one on top of the other, with a bit of jam spread in between them.

They are not really nice, if you ask me – not soft like the cakes that I’m more accustomed to and I detect a strong scent of essence in it…

…but I bought one that day and took it home.

It must have triggered off some pleasant memories in my missus for she has been buying them quite regularly since then…probably because of the sentimental value attached or perhaps, unlike me, she actually does enjoy eating them.

I think if you give this to the young people today, they’d probably take a bite and spit it all out, what with their over-spoilt, over-pampered taste buds accustomed to stuff like the ultra-expensive rich and creamy cheesecakes and what not… What do you all think?

A whiter shade of pale…

When I was young, I always had kampua noodles that were white and I really do not know when or how it came about that we now have the black version where they use dark soy sauce instead of the lighter-coloured chio-cheng (light soy sauce).

Perhaps you can put it down as a case of an old habit dying hard but I prefer the kind that I’ve always been used to eating – where the noodles are a whiter shade of pale. That was why in most, if not all, of my past posts on the Foochow delicacy, you did not get to see the dark version and there are people like my NZ friend, it seems, who would very much prefer their noodles to be “coloured”.

Well, I relented a bit the other day when I stopped by this coffee shop for the kampua and asked for the dark version…

LOL!!! It wasn’t that dark actually. Probably it seemed so because of the shadows…or perhaps it was the result of the contrast with the other things around it – including the complimentary bowl of soup and if anyone’s interested, the kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) was only RM1.30 a glass.

This particular stall serves the noodles with meat braised in soy sauce and one bowl cost RM2.50 even before the prices of things started increasing. That was why I thought it was kind of expensive…and one thing that I did not like was the poor quality control. Some days, it would be very nice but on other days, the noodles would be overcooked and too soft for my liking.

Now, the good news is that the lady has retained that price but she has added a choice of a bigger-sized bowl for RM3.00…

Other than that, it is not quite the same as the rest in that she does not actually use dark soy sauce from the bottle…or at least, that was what it seemed to me. When I ate it that morning, I found the taste very different. I think she must have used the sauce from the braised meat instead and I thought it was kind of nice.

The big bowl, however, was too much for me to handle…

…and I had to struggle to finish the whole lot. I think the next time I have that, I would just stick to the small RM2.50 bowl…and I would still ask for the original kampua noodles – the ones that are a whiter shade of pale. You can have the black ones, my NZ friend. LOL!!!

The cuppycake song…

I’ve loved these cupcakes for a long time…

They’re from the bakery across the road from the school where I was teaching before I retired and I used to buy them quite regularly whenever I happened to be passing by the shop.

They’ve always been sold in packs of two and one pair cost RM1.50 now. I cannot really remember but I think they used to cost a ringgit but that was a number of years back. I like the taste but of course, at that price, you cannot expect too much. As you can see, it is a bit coarse…or not really as fine as one would want it…

For one thing, I must say that they may be better than or just as good as those plastic-packed muffins that one can buy at those convenience stores like 7-Eleven and the like…and if you want anything even better, you will just have to pay for it. These butter cupcakes from another bakery cost RM1.50 each…

…and as you can see, the texture is really very fine…

…and the taste is a whole lot superior too – you can actually taste the butter and enjoy the fragrance but don’t forget that it is double the price of the former.

For 20 sen more – RM1.70, you can get a choice of chocolate chips…

…or almond slices…

…but it is the same cake batter so there is not much difference really in the taste.

I remember after my brother got married in New Zealand and the first time, he brought his wife home, she tried baking probably to impress her in-laws. She told me she was making some “queen cakes” but unfortunately, they all came out black. I was so tickled that I could not help laughing out loud and exclaiming, “Those must be the Queens of Spades!” She frowned furiously at me and said, “Oh! Shut up!” Muahahahahahahaha!!! I’ve always been so sarcastically mean…and believe you me, I have  not changed one bit!

Incidentally, can anybody enlighten me a little and tell me the difference between cupcakes and muffins…and  queen cakes and fairy cakes? To me, they’re all the same, more or less, and they all end up in the same place anyway. LOL!!!

Day and night…

I came a number of times to this restaurant…

…in the morning for the dim sum but I had never been here at night. I knew they were running some kind of restaurant business in the evenings and lately, they are also having shabu-shabu (steamboat) if that is your preference.

Well, I was invited to dine there the other night and this was the first dish – the sio pua (hot plate) as it is called here…

It was so very nice and while the others were raving over the Taiwan sausages, I was stuffing my face with the ham – such thick slices…and so many! Here, four paper-thin slices of frozen ham would be selling for well over RM10.00.

I did have a bit of the other stuff as well and after all that, I was already full. Good grief! And dinner had barely started! LOL!!!

Then, we had the soup that shall not be named…

They were very generous with the expensive stuff but I thought the taste was just so-so. I can think of a few places where I feel the soup is nicer.

Then came the fish head curry…

…and the funny thing was that it was not served with rice as they would at other places…or at least, with some bread or deep-fried mantao (plain steamed buns) for diners to dip in the gravy. The dish in itself was quite nice though – not the best that I’ve had, but it was good enough.

The asparagus was good…

…especially with the huge fresh clams used in the cooking.

The cheese chicken had a very strong cheese flavour and many at my table did not like it very much.

I thought it was all right, quite nice…but I don’t think I would be craving to come back for more.

The tofu with spicy fermented bean sauce and meat was all right too…

…but I was already too full by then to truly appreciate it.

I did not touch this last dish…

…as I was sure that if I had forced anything else down my throat, I would explode! LOL!!! For one thing, many of the invited guests did not turn up…so there were only six of us at a table for 10 people and all the dishes were extra huge. Personally, I would very much prefer smaller servings but better quality stuff instead.

We had this for dessert…

The custard pudding was a bit hard and I prefer caramel instead of the chocolate sauce that they used.

That table cost RM350 which is not really expensive, I would think. For one thing, I don’t know if it is like that every night or it just happened that there were so many of my ex-students with their families or friends having dinner at that same place that night and they all stopped by to greet or say hello – so much so that the people at my table said that I would have to be very careful where I go or what I do outside…and some even said that I should stand in the next general election. LOL!!! Thanks…but no, thank you.

Puzzled…

There’s this new place in town…

…the Thai Chicken Rice, located in the block of shophouses somewhere across the road from the Sibu Public Library (where the Bank Pertanian office formerly was).

My missus and I dropped by for lunch on Sunday and the place was crowded – business was very good, to say the least. It did not matter much though for the service was very  efficient and we were attended to in a jiffy.

They had run out of fried chicken so my missus had the steamed ones, RM4.00 inclusive of a big plate of chicken rice….

We were also given this complimentary bowl of soup and ultra-diluted curry gravy…

I ordered the pork leg combo (RM6.50)…

…which also came with a plate of chicken rice and we shared one stewed egg (RM1.00) between the two of us…

Iced black coffee (kopi-o-peng) was RM1.40 which is more or less what they charge at some coffee shops around here.

The food was all right, servings a bit small but substantial enough for a light lunch and anyway, one can always order more things from the menu but what puzzled me greatly then and until now, I am still unable to figure out is – what is Thai about the place? Can anybody enlighten me?

Hi Lili Hi Lo…

I’ve long wanted to try the ayam penyet (crushed/smashed chicken) at this place in Bandong here where I buy my nasi lemak and all the Malay kuihs in the morning but I never had the chance to do so. Finally, last Saturday evening, I decided to drive past the area to see what they had…and to my delight, even at around 6.00 p.m. they had already started their business for the evening…and there were already quite a number of people eating there.

I noticed that there were a lot of them eating some kind of fish dish and I wanted to try that, so I ended up ordering the ayam penyet (RM6.50)..

…for my missus only.

It came with some rice wrapped in banana leaf…

…which gave it a pleasant special fragrance and by the side, there were some keropok (rice crackers), a very small piece of tempeh (a soya bean product), a bit of sambal cili (chilli sauce) and some bits of raw veg.

The chilli did not have any belacan (dried prawn paste) in it and did not go down too well with the raw veg to eat as ulam…and the keropok was a bit limp (lau hong/masuk angin). The tempeh was nice but there was simply too little of it. My missus thought the chicken was hard and over-fried and she could not figure out what it was that they had sprinkled on it…and they did not clobber the chicken as in the case of the ayam penyet elsewhere. The final verdict was that it was a disappointment and what she had here (RM5.00) and here (RM16.90) were a whole lot better.

I had what they called pecel lele (RM5.50)…

…which is originally an Indonesian dish with a fried catfish served similarly with the other condiments that came with their ayam penyet.

The fish was really very nice…

…and I must say that I enjoyed it despite the same complaints about the condiments in the ayam penyet dish.

All in all, unless I happen to be in the vicinity, I certainly would think twice about going back there again as the food is kind of pricey for an open air roadside eatery and even the drinks, iced lemon tea at RM1.60 a glass, are more expensive than at the regular kopitiam (coffee shop) in town.

Now I’m here…

This restaurant has moved. It used to be around the commercial centre in the  vicinity of the Sibu Bus Terminal and people used to crowd there to eat the crabs, among many other dishes. Everyone seemed to like it so much, praising it to the skies but I did not think the food was great plus I would not fancy the idea of standing by a table where some other people were still eating and grabbing it as soon as they finished.

Well, they have moved to the new blocks of shophouses to the left of the Medan Mall along Wong King Huo Road here…and I heard that they have dim sum in the morning…

I wanted to give it a try so when a friend of mind was in town on Saturday, I grabbed the chance and took him there. The char siew pao (steam barbecue meat buns) was very nice…

…and I liked the siew mai (meat dumplings) too…

They also have the shui jiao or the sui kow dumplings, whatever you may call these…

…and I thought they were very good as well.

My friend had the chicken claws/feet and he did not like them – I did not touch those, of course…but he loved these dumplings with lap chiang (Chinese sausages)…

As for me, I was not really impressed – I thought they were all right but should I happen to drop by again, I don’t think I would ask for those. These dumplings with century eggs were much nicer, if you ask me…

…and you can also give these wrapped in seaweed a pass…

I did not like these as well – owing to the colour, I had expected some salted egg in them but when I ate them, I could not taste anything of the sort at all…

We were there a bit late so they had run out of lor mai kai (glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf) and chee cheong fun so we did not get the chance to try those.

For one thing, it was very cheap – for RM10 only, you get any 3 laus (storeys) – the name they use to refer to those steamer baskets…and as a whole, it was quite nice. I wouldn’t mind going there again and the next time around, I would know exactly what to order…

That’s how you like it…

I always qualify my food reviews saying that I may like something but somebody may think otherwise. On the other hand, you may praise something to the skies but I may not be that impressed by it.

Well, I am sure all of you would remember my post a couple of days ago on the mee goreng special that I had. As a matter of fact, that morning, I wanted a plate of fried mihun (rice vermicelli) but it slipped the old lady’s mind and she  cooked me a plate of noodles instead. I did not say a word when it was served but she came back after a while to apologise. I just told her that it was perfectly all right and I would go back there for the mihun some other day.

However, I have not been back there since but I was at another coffee shop when I overheard some people at the next table talking. One of them had ordered the fried mihun at the Malay stall there and the others tried a bit of it. All of them loved it so much that they ordered their own…and seeing their very encouraging response,I also followed suit…

For one thing, the portion was a bit small and serving it on such a big plate certainly was not a very good idea as it only accentuated how little there actually was…

…and as for the taste, I did not think it was all that great. To be frank, I thought it was a disappointment especially when I had such high hopes that it was going to be so very good.

Then, on another day, I went to yet another coffee shop and I wanted the fried mihun from the Chinese chu-char at the back. At least, I was given some complimentary cut chillies with soy sauce…

…to go with the mihun. I specially asked for seafood in place of the meat in the dish and this was what I got…

It was very nice with the wok hei fragrance that many would love and I honestly did not know whether the cook had over-estimated the amount or whether they would usually give that much for one plate of mihun. In fact, there was enough for two…

…and in the end, I was not able to finish all of it.

Now, the former was cheaper – at  only RM3.00 a plate while I had to pay RM5.00 for the latter but considering the amount plus the seafood in it, I thought it was very reasonable and it would be pretty obvious which one I would opt for should I feel like having some fried mihun again.