Last call…

Yee Ling and her girls left Sibu earlier on the morning flight that day and in the meantime, I took Mandy to tour the Sibu Central Market – the biggest in Malaysia with a multi-storey car park. Mandy commented that she had never seen any like that anywhere, not even in Singapore…a market with an adjoining car park several storeys high. She also noted that the place was clean and for a wet market, she was amazed at how it was not smelly at all. She was in luck – there wasn’t a single sago worm to be seen, lucky her! LOL!!!

After that, we headed to Sungai Merah…

…to see where the first Foochow settlers landed in Sibu…

*Footnote to the town council people: I think the barricade needs a new coat of paint!*

Because of the tide, the water was “red” or teh-o colour – the result of the withered leaves that had dropped from the trees upstream into the water in the river below. If it had been high tide, with the water coming in from the main river, it would be like teh-see (tea with milk) owing to the severe soil erosion upriver.

There was even somebody fishing by the river that morning…

We stopped for coffee at Choon Seng…and after that, we went back to the hotel for Mandy to get her things and check out and then we went for an early lunch.

I asked her to choose and she indicated that she would love to go back to Ruby again for the midin belacan…

…that she had grown to love so much and she would not mind eating that one last time before she left town.

So, there we were at Ruby once again and I also ordered for her a bit of the Foochow fried noodles to try…

She loved it very much, especially the fact that our yellow noodles are different from those in the peninsula – not so yellow, not so hard/springy and none of that horrendous smell of kee (boric or whatever acid).

She saw jellyfish being sold at the  market earlier and as she had never eaten it before, we ordered some pickled jellyfish salad as well…

…but it was not to her liking so my missus and I ate a bit and we tapao-ed the leftover home. I would say that it was very nice…but I guess not everyone shares the same taste. Like I always say, to each his own!

The prawn balls in honey…

…were good and she loved the so-called Four Heavenly King beans or whatever it is called…

…except that ours had more than the four – there was brinjal in it too and Mandy said that it was the first time she had tasted that fried with belacan (dried prawn paste) and pork belly. So far, she only had it fried with garlic. I thought it was nice too but it was a bit too oily and it could do with a bit less msg.

I  also ordered the sea cucumber soup…

…to let her try what it would be like usually and it certainly was different from what we had the previous night. Like all my West Malaysian blogger-friends who came before her, she loved it, of course!

The bill came up to RM45.00 that day…so minus the drinks (fruit juices), I think the food actually cost around RM30-something only.

Soon it was time to send her to the airport and to say goodbye, till we meet again. Thanks so much for coming to Sibu, Mandy and to you too, Yee Ling and your girls. Do come again whenever you can – everyone who cares to drop by is always warmly welcomed to our simple little town….