The other day, Huai Bin was back in town for a week as there were rumours circulating at one time and he wanted to be around to carry out his democratic right but unfortunately, what he expected would happen never did… and since, he had already booked the air tickets, he went ahead and came home to spend some time with his family.
While he was here, we managed to go out for dinner together but that night, many of the places in town were closed. It was the day after the Father’s Day weekend so probably, they had been so busy and all of them needed a break to recuperate and rejuvenate. In the end, we agreed upon this nice little restaurant in the middle of town.
I ordered my usual favourites – their black pepper and honey prawn balls…
…and their black pepper lamb…
If you should look at the other tables, most of them would be ordering the same things and that would bear testimony to the fact that these were great, as always. Of course they have their other all-time favourites but we did not order those as there were only the two of us and we couldn’t possibly eat so much.
I also ordered some fried midin (wild jungle fern) with belacan (dried prawn paste)…
…and it was good – maybe a little bit too oily…but good, nonetheless.
I was thinking of ordering the sizzling beef on a hot plate, another popular dish there, when we spotted on the menu two duck options that we could choose from. Both Huai Bin and I love duck and since the waitress recommended the apple duck, we ordered that right away, no second thought about it.
Horror of horrors! When it came, we saw that the portion was extremely HUGE, at least half a duck, no less…
The waitress did not say anything – she should have forewarned us that the bird would be served half or whole…and we would have braced ourselves for the surprise. Well, I would not say it was great, not something that would get me rushing back there again anytime soon for more… but it was pretty good especially when eating the meat with the green apple strips though they could have been a bit more generous with those.
The place was not very crowded that night which suited me fine – I hate it when it is fully packed as owing to the low ceiling at the place, it would get extremely noisy and I would get put off by that and my dining pleasure would be absolutely ruined. One thing that I’ve noticed about that place is they will cook the orders table by table…and even when everybody is ordering one same dish, they would not cook it in bulk and distribute it among the tables equally. That was why when Huai Bin had just popped a prawn into his mouth, more dishes arrived and he had to store it in his cheek to be eaten later…
…while he went about his business of taking the photographs of the food. LOL!!! I guess this is good in a way as it would control the quality of the food served…but if there are many people and you are the last table to arrive, you may need to wait a very long time. Thus, it would be good to call them and book a place and make the orders beforehand. In case anyone is interested, the address and telephone number is as follows:
Nice House Restaurant
1E, Ground Floor, Brooke Drive, 96000 Sibu, Sarawak
084-33 6050
I certainly enjoyed Huai Bin’s company, as always, and for one thing, he would, time and again, pick some of the food and place it in my bowl for me to eat – I thought that was so very sweet and respectful and so very nice of him. My daughter does that as well sometimes…but I reckon only a handful of young people these days would do the same. It was a great night out for the two of us, no doubt about that, and I certainly look forward to doing it again some time.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 