So good…

That day, I took my cousins from Kuching out for lunch at the Sweet Family Restaurant in the vicinity of the Sibu Bus Terminal and we observed with interest how the fish would line up by the glass in front of the tank…

…even though the tank was big and there was ample space for them to swim around. It was almost as if they were all watching us on the outside – the same way we were looking at them on the inside.

We had to decide between their Philippine pork leg and this…

– their braised pork belly with mantao (steamed buns) and eventually, settled for the latter. No regrets though as it was really great! Yum! Yum!

I also ordered the fried venison with ginger…

…and managed to get what we wanted despite a little problem with the Mandarin when we were placing our order. It was all right, pretty nice…but was unfortunately overshadowed by the pork.

We had their fried cangkuk manis for our veg dish…

…and sea cucumber soup…

…to wash everything down.

I ordered this plate of Foochow fried noodles, of course…

How can anybody come to Sibu and not eat this? The waitress suggested RM5.00 of it to be shared by everybody and good grief! Just look at the amount we got!

When it was served, I could smell the wok hei fragrance and I told everyone that I was sure it would be really good. By the time, everybody had finished everything else, the noodles were still left untouched. Oh dear, I thought. It looked like I had to tapao the whole lot and take it home. Nevertheless, I urged everyone to eat a bit as it is in the Melanau tradition that if people offer you something to eat and you do not want, you should eat a little or at least touch it to prevent any untoward incident from happening.

So they all took a bit and as they were helping themselves, the whiff of the wok hei fragrance swept everybody off their feet…and when they tried it, they were stunned! It was sooooooooo….good and they had seconds and thirds and before we knew it, it was all gone…

Now, you can imagine how good it was! Yum! Yum!

The bill for 5 persons plus a kid came up to over RM70 only, inclusive of drinks and rice. Cheap, eh? Well,that was lunch! Next stop…dinner! LOL!!!

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…

Surprise…

Actually I was expecting a group of cousins to drop by Sibu for a brief visit over the weekend so it certainly was a pleasant surprise when I received an sms from another cousin telling me that she and her mum – my aunt who is my mum’s youngest sister, her daughter and her sister would all be in town the following day. Ain’t that great? Finally, there would be a lot of people coming to town.

They arrived at around 5.00 p.m. and after taking them to pay my bedridden mum a visit, I took them out for dinner at the Payung Cafe here. Of course I ordered my favourites for them to try – the belimbing prawns, the special otak-otak and the mushroom roll…and I took the opportunity to try the Payung rojak…

I had expected it to be like the Indonesian gado-gado but it turned out to be more like Penang fruit rojak except that in place of the pineapples, sengkuang and what not, they used an assortment of raw vegetables and slices of taukwa (beancurd cake) instead. On the whole, the combination turned out great and I would not mind ordering that again on my next visit.

I was somewhat disappointed with the kacang ma chicken though…

At best, it was just so-so – nothing like what we would cook for ourselves at home. It was not “hiam” enough probably from the lack of ginger or ginger juice and there was insufficient wine. Normally we would add so much that we would end up intoxicated after feasting on it.

For dessert, we shared the double orders of jelly pisang and the banana cake with chocolate ice cream.

My auntie loved the ambiance of the place saying that it reminded her of Bali.

And look at what my niece brought back for me all the way from the UK! A memorabilia from the recent Prince William and Kate Middleton royal wedding!

I can’t remember who it was that received some commemorative souvenirs from a friend by post and I was green with envy. All I had was a postage stamp on a card that my daughter sent from New Zealand. Well, now I would have this very nice tin for keeps…after feasting on the Walkers’ Scottish shortbread inside. Yum! Yum!

Well, as I have mentioned earlier, another group of cousins would be arriving the following morning so you can expect some more posts on what we would be doing/eating during their brief stay here. Stay tuned!

That’s the way to do it…

Well, this is the way he does it – my regular roti canai guy at his stall by the road in the vicinity of the Bandong commercial centre here in Sibu.

He would have prepared the dough the night before and every morning when he opens up his stall, the dough would be ready for use…

He takes the balls of dough out and presses them to flatten them a bit…

Then he takes one and pulls it to stretch it into a broad thin sheet….

…after which he picks it up…

…and twirls it around in the air to stretch it further…

…before he places it back on his working area…

The skill is in doing all these without breaking or ending up with holes all over the dough.

Then he folds it…

…into squares…

If he is making murtabak, he adds the egg and meat and finely chopped veg and onion at this stage – before wrapping everything inside the thin dough like a packet. Finally, he cooks it on a hot plate…

Once golden in colour, the roti canai is done. He picks it up, squashes it in a clapping motion to make the layers come apart and serves it with dhall curry…

He sells his at RM1.00 a piece and his murtabak is RM2.50 each.

Business is really good in the morning and that day, there were a lot of other customers and as I was in no hurry, I asked him to attend to them first and in the meantime, I could take all these photographs. Hehehehehe!!!

Today’s the day…

Today’s the actual day of the Dragon Boat Festival also known as the DuanWu Jie (Double 5 Festival) but more commonly referred to as the Zhang (rice dumpling) Festival.

The other day, I had a post on the nyonya zhang or rice dumplings that my friend, Richard, made and was so kind as to give me a few. There are some like me who actually prefer that type which is also called the Pua Kiam-Tee Zhang (half-salty and sweet dumpling) as sugar is added so it is a little bit of both – sweet and salty. However, there are others who prefer the Hokkien bak zhang…

…which is salty and meat with dried shitake mushrooms braised in soy sauce and five-spice powder (in place of the crushed ketumbar or coriander seeds in the nyonya variety) is used for the filling.

When my missus was making her not-very-successful ones, I saw her putting in some chunkier slices of the cooked meat and a few hay bee (dried prawns) in with the glutinous rice before wrapping the whole thing up in the bamboo leaves and boiling the dumplings.

However, in the case of these that I bought at a shop near my house, they had finely-chopped meat inside instead and though they were big…

…they did not come cheap – RM3.20 each…

…as they had salted egg yolk inside.

They were pretty nice…but I was quite disappointed that there were no chestnuts inside as well. Considering the price, they should be able to add one at least or perhaps, a measly half even. Tsk! Tsk!

Well, whatever it is, I certainly would think twice about buying them if it had not been for the festival which would come only once a year – just to preserve the culture and tradition. Frankly, I would consider it a tad too expensive for the likes of me, I’m afraid…and with that kind of money, I would much sooner go and enjoy a plate of kampua noodles or Foochow fried mee and derive a lot more pleasure and satisfaction from it.

Anyway, Happy  DuanWu Jie, everyone and enjoy eating your zhangs!

Rise to the occasion…

This was something that I used to eat quite regularly when I was small…

…except that what we had then were bigger – more than twice the size and they did not come in paper cups like this one and I would expect that they were probably a lot cheaper. I buy these at a stall outside one of the shops near my house at 3 for RM1.00.

They are very nice – soft, light and fluffy as they should be, just slightly sweet and with a special smell or taste that is uniquely their own.  I love re-steaming them before eating so that they would be a little bit warm…and then, I would apply a blob of butter, Golden Churn no less, and watch it melt as the fragrance fills the room and sometimes, I would add some peanut butter as well. Yum! Yum! Awesome! LOL!!!

But like many things that I ate and enjoyed when I was small, I actually do not know what they are called. So I googled to find out and if I’m not mistaken, they are known as “Fatt Koh” or “Huat Kueh“. Well, “huat” means to rise…as in the case of yeast in bread, we would have to leave the dough aside to let it rise or “huat” and since yeast and Eno is used in the making, that would probably explain the name.

“Huat” or “Huat chai” may also mean to prosper as in the case when somebody asks you, “Wah! Tua huat liao kah?” (Prospering a lot already, is it?) but do be alert to the connotation or idiomatic meaning as in my case, if anyone should ask me that, he or she would merely be insinuating that I am growing fatter and fatter – expanding like rising bread dough. Tsk! Tsk!!

I came across this interesting piece of information in this blog – the blogger says that Fatt Koh is a must for the Chinese during prayers. ‘Fatt’ means prosperity and every 1st and 15th of Chinese calendar, she will have prayers at the altar so everytime she needs to go to the market to buy at least 20 Fatt Kohs. According to her, it is something similar to cupcakes but of course, on top of it, the Fatt Koh is smiling ( cracked ).

Interesting! I did not know that before but then coming from a Christian family background, I guess there are many of such practices that I am not familiar with.

Then there is this other blog that calls it apam wa ko koay. Yes, I think I’ve heard that name before. Is it one and the same thing – huat koh koi pronounced a little bit differently or in another Chinese dialect? I believe that is the case…and I noticed that other than pure white, they do come in different colours these days – if you check out those blogs that I’ve linked, there are pink and green ones now as well. They also have those colours at the stall where I bought mine that day but I think I prefer mine white…

First hand…

When my missus had the ayam penyet at Bandong here the other day, she said that what she had at this other place was much nicer. So I went back there the other evening to try it myself first hand…

The price has gone up since the time my missus had that there – from RM5.00 to RM6.00…so it is still cheaper than what she had at Bandong – RM6.50.

The meat was good – not hard and dry…

…and I liked the fact that the vegetables accompanying the dish had been boiled or blanched first as I’m not really into eating them raw (except for the cucumber).

They also gave a bowl of complimentary soup which was very nice, a small piece of tempeh (soy cake) and one tauhu pok (beancurd puff) and the sambal (chilli dip) had a hint of belacan (dried prawn paste) but I felt they should add extra for a bit more kick to it.

For one thing, I must say that I prefer the rice wrapped in  banana leaf that we had at the other place. It had a special fragrance that made it different and a lot nicer than the plain white rice that they served here.

They also have the nasi lele/keli (catfish rice) here but it also costs RM6.00 which means that it is more expensive than what I had that day (RM5.50).

Perhaps I should go around town and try some other places as well to see if there are any that are better than these two.

I’m not the only one…

Being an English teacher, I find it embarrassing and hate to admit that when I listen to the current songs on the radio, I may not hear all the words and when I can, I may not really understand the meaning – especially those “rap” songs today. Imagine my relief when I saw this cartoon strip in the newspapers the other day…

It certainly looks like I’m not the only  one and even the young ones themselves may not know what the heck those people are going on and on about…

Sometimes I may be able to make out the words in the lines that seem to rhyme quite well but I may somehow fail to make out the reason. Perhaps they are using their own brand of colloquial language or lingo that old people like  me just cannot make head or tail of.

For one thing, I must say that in fact, they are talking or at best, chanting…and not singing. In the good ol’ days, we also had “talking” songs like this one by the late Jim Reeves…

The stark difference is that you can hear each and every word pronounced and articulated so very clearly as he narrates the beautiful story of a very faithful dog,  “Old Tige” and who can deny that one can just drown in the richness and purity of his soothing mellow voice.

Another “talking” song that I loved a lot when I was small was this one…

What appealled to me most was how the soldier skilfully explained the meanings in the “Deck of Cards”. You should give it a listen if you’ve never heard it before.

Other than these, there were others as well by people like Glen Campbell. Many of you would know his “talking” rendition of the country favourite, “Honey come back” but this one simply entitled, “Friends”…

…certainly did not get very much airplay at the time. I had a post on it a long time ago…but somehow or other, the video clip seems to have gone missing or maybe I did not know how to upload videos at the time. Give it a listen too if you can spare the time – I bet you’ll love this one as well.

And have you heard this one – it was quite popular over Radio Singapore in 1973? An American deejay named Les Crane made a recording of himself reciting the very beautiful “Desiderata”…

…and it became a hit in many countries in the world. That was the hippie era – the flower power and this poem was some kind of “anthem” among young people then and psychedelic posters of it were prominently displayed on the walls of many at the time.

Gosh! There are so many nice “talking” songs that I just can’t possibly include them all like the Chi-Lites’ “Have you seen her” and “Letter to myself” and others but I think I will just squeeze in one more. Some of you are old enough to know Telly Savalas of the one-time very popular television show, “Kojak”, but I’m sure many have not heard him doing a “talking” song. This one is my favourite – his rendition of the very beautiful song by Bread, “If”…

Now, to get back to the cartoon strips, I was quite amused by this one too…

I remember how I would call my daughter on my mobile phone from upstairs and ask her to bring up something for me…

It certainly looks like I’m not the only one…but what about you? Are you like that too – guilty as charged? LOL!!!

Nina, pretty ballerina…

Well, I wouldn’t know if there were any pretty ballerinas that night but Melissa and her friends went to watch a ballet a couple of weekends ago…

Now, now…has she put on weight or was it just because she had her hair down in the photograph?

I guess she’s been eating o.k. lately and she’s been cooking too – like this bowl of curry mihun…

…and these chikutteh noodles….

They all look good, don’t they, Eugene?

The Malaysian students there also organised a pasar malam (night market) the other night to promote Malaysian food and culture and also to raise funds for their association’s activities. I must say that I was very impressed by the effort that they put in. They even had promotional banners like this one…

…and Melissa bought their murtabak…

Not bad, not bad at all…and the satay seemed pretty good too…

…and this was their nasi kerabu Terengganu…

How time flies! It’s June already and pretty soon, she and all the rest will be home sweet home – older and I’m sure, a lot wiser too.

Only yesterday…

It was just the day before that I stopped by this coffee shop and had the kway teow th’ng…and the very next day, Sunday, I was there again.

My missus and I went out for breakfast and it certainly looked like going out for breakfast on a Sunday morning would not be such a great idea. I wanted to take her to try some of the nice stuff at Rejang Park here but there was not a single parking space available and one glance at the coffee shops revealed that they were all bursting at the seams…with people! I really wonder what all that talk about rising prices and poor economy is about – nothing will ever come between Sibu people and food, it seems.

In the end, I decided to drop by the same place I had gone to the day before and I ordered something from the same stall again…

– the one where I had the nice prawn dumplings soup and kway teow th’ng. Emblazonned in front of that guy’s t-shirt was this: “Broadband ruined my life!”  I wonder if anybody else is in the same boat. Hehehehehe!!!!!

I tried what was listed as Ipoh sha hor fun (RM4.00) on the menu…

…and since I had never had that in Ipoh or elsewhere, I was not too sure whether it would be something like this or not in Ipoh or elsewhere. I guess we’ll just have have to wait for Claire or one of the others to come and give their comments.

It was very nice though – with the chicken slices, two little prawns and some taugeh (bean sprouts) and as with those that I had on my previous visits, I simply loved the soup.

My missus ordered what they called “special sauce dry mee” (RM3.50) from another stall and got this…

Except for the minced meat, it looked like kampua noodles and tasted like kampua noodles…or maybe one of those the pale imitations that one might find in KL and the surrounding areas. My missus could not finish it…so I guess that says it all.

I guess I will be going back there again sometime to try the other things that my favourite stall has to offer…but maybe, not so soon.