Hard habit to break…

Whenever they come to town, the first stop they would make would be at this coffee shop for the kampua noodles and when they go home, they will surely tapao a few packets to take back and eat. Well, this time was no exception.

Well, I did mention in my previous post that I was expecting my cousins to come to Sibu for the weekend…and actually, when they told me they were coming on an early morning flight, I replied that I would meet them at the airport and we would go for breakfast together – kampua noodles no less, of course!

And their instant reply was – Dr. Xavier’s…

We call it by that name after the Indian doctor who had his clinic a few  doors away when we were very very young. Yes, we have been eating the noodles since goodness knows when…and in my cousins’ cases, it certainly looks like it’s a hard habit to break.

My apologies for the greenish tint in the photographs. The place was crowded and we had to sit at a table further inside where the only source of light was one fluorescent tube. If you want to look at some very much nicer DSLR photographs that would do the noodles a lot more justice, you can click this link to go to my friend’s blog to have a look at his.

I had the kampua piansip…

…and it was nice – unlike what I had on my previous visit a long time ago. For one thing, they used to bury the noodles with a whole lot of the fragrant fried sliced onions but these days, it looks like they are no longer as generous. Well, with the rising prices of things including shallots, I guess that should come as no surprise.

My cousins left the following day and no prize for guessing what they had in their luggage. LOL!!! They certainly had a lot of space for that and a whole lot of other things from Sibu as when they came, they brought along these zhang (rice dumplings) for me…

– the traditional nyonya ones no less – specially made by their mum, my uncle’s wife and the irony of it all is that she is actually of Iban descent and can make these dumplings when many Chinese these days have never bothered to pick up the skill. There I was thinking that I would not have any to eat this year but thanks to her (and my friend, Richard), I certainly ended up with a whole lot of zhangs to enjoy over the DuanWu Festival on Monday. Yum! Yum!

And that is not all! She also gave me this really lovely steamed rich fruit pudding that she made herself…

…with so much brandy in it that one would get intoxicated from the mere whiff of the liquor the moment the container was opened and just one bite would send you to Seventh Heaven, believe you me! Yum! Yum! LOL!!

Well, stick around and you will get to see more of what we had been up to when those fellas were in town…