I’m famous…

Well, if you insist you are but frankly, I’ve never heard of you until my friend, Huai Bin, told me that his father got the salted egg puffs from you and he was praising them to the skies. He told me your name but I did not have the slightest idea where your shop is located so I had to google to find out. Hey! There is this blogpost from way back in 2008 all about you – it certainly looks like you’re quite famous, after all.

It so happened that  I had to go to the bank in that part of town the other day so I decided to drop by and check things out. It wasn’t too difficult as you’re pretty close by in the Grand Heights commercial area – maybe less than 5 minutes away from where I was by car. I ended buying a box of your mooncakes…

…lotus paste…

…at RM12.80 each…

…and I must say that they are not all that cheap, not at all…but at least, they’re a bit cheaper than those brought over all the way from the peninsula. The skin is very thin…or at least, not thick and dry like some of the local made ones…and the best part is that the lotus paste is not sweet unlike others that are so sweet that they leave a sticky feeling in the throat like one is going to have  a sore throat or something.

The puffs are cheaper, RM11.00 for a pack of 6 of the plain lotus paste ones…

…and RM13.00 for those with salted egg yolk inside…

Nope, Huai Bin, they do not have the whole yolk inside, just half…but they really look very nice and fresh.

I don’t know if it was the owner of the bakery – somebody not that young…but he seemed to know me. The moment he set eyes on me, he smiled as if in recognition and he remarked, “Mong siak, mong pui!!!” which in Foochow, means something like “The more you eat, the fatter you grow!” Tsk! Tsk! Luckily, sticks and stones may break my bones but words never will…or else he would have lost a customer that day. LOL!!! The total came up to over RM77.00 but the lady at the counter (probably the wife) asked me not to bother about the small change and rounded it up to RM77.00 for me. That certainly was nice of her, don’t you think?

It is the Mooncake Festival today, aka the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Zhongqiu Festival…and at least, I have done my part by eating our own Sibu-made mooncakes to preserve the tradition and keep it very much alive. Have you?

A very Happy Mooncake Festival to one and all…

My cup runneth over…

Are you one of those who would need a cuppa to start off your day? I am. I simply must have a cup of nice, black coffee in the morning to get me going. When I was growing up, my mum would brew a big pot of coffee for everybody and a pot of Chinese tea for my father and we would be drinking that throughout the day. Then when we dropped by my grandma’s house in the kampung, there would surely be a pot of coffee on the table too and if there wasn’t enough, they would brew some more and all of us would sit down for tea.

I don’t know where they got their supply of coffee powder from in the early years but I do know that eventually, they would get it from this small shop…

…by the side of the now closed-down Palace Theatre building in the town centre.

What I was told was that they would roast the beans in butter, Golden Churn no less, and that would explain why their coffee would always be nicer than any elsewhere. They did confess that because butter has become so expensive these days, they are now forced to mix a little bit of margarine but there still must be butter or the coffee will not be so nice.

I bought a kilo for my friend, Mandy, when she was in town and for some unexplained reason (probably they sealed the plastic bag when the powder was still hot – they used freshly-roasted beans that day, you see), the bag expanded and looked as if it was going to explode. Mandy took a pin and pricked a hole in the bag and everything was all right after that. However, her hotel room was filled with the fragrance of the coffee and according to her, she slept so well that night – probably, it was like some kind of aroma therapy and that accounted for her sleeping very soundly till morning. She and her parents loved the coffee – she said that the coffee was not very black, quite unlike the usual they would find there but it was so very fragrant and they loved it a lot.

My friend who came not too long ago also bought a kilo home and he said that when he took his bags out of the overhead stowage compartment in the aircraft, the fragrance filled the whole cabin and he could not wait to brew some for breakfast the next morning. In his own words, he called it “Sibu’s best coffee”!

I do not know what type of coffee beans they are but for one thing, it does not come cheap – RM32 a kilo for the very best quality…

The man did say that the RM20 a kilo one would be just as good…

…but I have not got down to trying it yet. The beans look a lot darker so I wonder if the coffee would be darker too.

You can buy the beans or you can ask them to grind them into powder for you using this machine…

Then, they will pack it in plastic bags which they will seal with the equipment that they have and they will also stick their sticker on it…

My cousin who was in town as well also bought a kilo or two when she was here not too long ago. She thinks the one that she usually gets from some place in Kenyalang Park in Kuching  is the best in the state capital…but the one from this shop in Sibu is “a little bit better”.

So if you’re a coffee lover and you happen to be in Sibu, make sure that you stop by to get some of the coffee to take home. I assure you that you definitely will not regret it.

Leavin’…

His long summer holidays had come to an end and he would be leaving home again to go back to London the following day so that morning, Xavier and I went out for breakfast at this place…

I had been here before a long time ago once and then, another time and I had never been all that thrilled by the food there…but it was somewhat hot that morning and I was looking for some place nice and cool and comfortable and air-conditioned and since I had not dropped by for a while, I thought I would want to check it out to see if things had changed for the better.

I loved the umbrella holders at the entrance…

Hmmmm…if I happen to see that anywhere, I would certainly grab one for the house. I guess that’s a frog on the left and Melissa would love that, I know…but somehow, it looks a bit like E.T. to me.

Both Xavier and I had their nasi lemak (RM9.30). I opted for the masak hitam beef…

…which was good enough – not the best that I had had but it was good enough…

The rice was good with the distinct fragrance of the santan (coconut milk) and I loved the sambal too. I was actually excited over the fact that they gave a piece of papadum with the nasi lemak but I was so very disappointed to discover that unfortunately, it had gone all limp (lau hong/masuk angin) and that certainly was a let-down for a supposedly-classier place like that.

Xavier wanted the chicken curry…

…and like the masak hitam, it was good but not the best around. I really wonder if those people have heard of the A1 Mountain Globe curry paste or not because, from my personal point of view, they would not go wrong with that as they could  easily whip up curry that would be much nicer if they had used that. I would say that the same applies to the curry at this other place but comparing the nasi lemak at this place and that other one, I would prefer the latter. For one thing, it is cheaper, RM6.90 only and they are very generous with the peanuts, the ikan bilis and even though I was not too impressed with the fried chicken wing, they do not serve it with a limp papadum. Tsk! Tsk! Actually, I did ask Xavier how his papadum was, thinking that perhaps I was unlucky and got one that had seen better days but he said that his was the same.

At the prices that they charge, they should at least put in a little bit of effort to ensure the quality of everything they serve. Even the ones I had at this coffee shop were very nice and crispy and that’s a coffee shop, mind you…and not one of these so-called higher-end cafes and restaurants! Sad to say, I guess it certainly will be quite a while before I would stop by this place again…

Never mind…

Yes, never mind! Pay no attention to what people may say. Everybody knows that I don’t bake and I’m hopeless at following recipes…but at least I tried. I baked my own bingka labu (pumpkin cake) the other day.

I had some pumpkin left in the fridge after the soup that I cooked sometime ago and my missus was showing no intention of cooking it so I decided to make use of it. I came across a recipe for bingka labu that looked simple enough so I decided to give it a try.

First, I removed the skin from the pumpkin (500 gm. according to the recipe but I just used what I had!) and cleared the seeds and the fibrous part inside. After that, I cut it into small pieces and boiled it in some water in a pot for around 10 minutes. Next, I drained the pumpkin and adding two tablespoons of margarine to it, I went on to mash it and mix everything together…

Butter may be used instead of margarine but I did not have any in the house and I did not want to go out and buy. It probably would have been a lot more fragrant and nicer if I had used butter.

Having done that, I added two cups of flour…

…two cups of santan (coconut milk)…

…one cup of sugar…

…and three eggs, beaten…

…and mixed everything together and whisked it till smooth…

I was supposed to use a 8″ X 8″ baking tin but I could only find a 12-inch square in the house so I decided to use this round one instead. I poured everything into it and put it in the oven to bake.

Oh no! I was supposed to have turned it on at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes before putting it in but I did not do that. I just put the thing inside and turned on the oven. After about 20 – 30 minutes, I realised that I had turned the temperature of the oven to full and I quickly went to check. Good grief! That was 250 degrees Celsius, glory be! I turned it down to 180 right away and let it continue baking. This was supposed to go on for 1 hour altogether but at around 45 minutes, I turned off the oven and let the bingka continue to bake for another 15 minutes. Once the time was up, I took it out! Omigawd!!! It looked as if there had been an earthquake right down the centre…

Oh me oh my! Where did I go wrong? Was it because I did not heat up the oven first? Hmmmm…I’m sure it was because the oven was too hot for the first 20 – 30 minutes.

Well, the consoling part was that it turned out pretty well…

It tasted all right and I loved the crusty top but personally, I thought it was a little too sweet – perhaps the next time I make it, half a cup of sugar would do.

Take over…

There used to be a West Malaysian franchise here before and actually, I went there not once but twice and I thought the food was pretty good but like most franchises, the prices were somewhat on the high side…and I guess that did not go down too well with the folks in Sibu so eventually, they called it a day.

Well, somebody has taken over the premises now…

…and like the previous owner, they have rented two shoplots – one on the left end of a block and the other on the right end of the next block with a vacant space (covered) in between the two. I would not say the same about the shop sign outside but I thought the logo by the side of the entrance did look rather impressive…

They have the drinks station at that shoplot on the left and I guess they do the cooking there as well. You can choose to have their chap fan (mixed economy rice)…

…and sit outside or go inside the shoplot on the right and enjoy your food in air-conditioned comfort. The chap fan certainly looked popular as I saw many people having that and for one thing, I liked the fact that they took the trouble to keep the food covered when no one was helping themselves to what they had in store – unlike at some places that I had the displeasure of encountering. Tsk! Tsk!

My missus and I decided to order their chu-char (à la carte) as we wanted to try and see if they were any good. I would not say that the place was very grand – it would be nicer if they had put in a bit of effort to arrange and place everything in its own place nicely. The tables were fine, covered with nice crimson red table cloth and on the one where we sat, they had this…

No, I don’t drink – not anymore…and that was not a can of that made-in-China beer. It was a toothpick dispenser – you press the tab and a toothpick will shoot out of the hole like this…

Come to think of it, I don’t think I have seen anybody here doing some major excavation works after a meal for a long while now – it used to be rampant, this horrendous habitual practice and I thought it had died a natural death. Obviously, I was mistaken.

They also use these sterilised/disinfected dining utensils here…

…like at the other restaurant that I went to not too long ago. I did check the bill later and no, they did not charge me for that unlike what smallkucing claimed she experienced at some steamboat or whatever place that she went to in the peninsula.

I was intrigued by the name – Hongkong kailan (RM8.00)…

…so I ordered that. When it was served, I thought it looked kind of plain but when I tried it, I found that it tasted very good – perfectly done, neither under-cooked nor overcooked…and very fragrant, very nice. I guess they fried it with garlic and some kind of sauce. The serving was huge though – I would think there was enough for 4 persons.

We also ordered the claypot tofu (RM12.00)…

…and if I thought their serving of kailan was big, this was even bigger! There was tofu (bean curd), some bits of yam, baby corn, strips of meat and so on inside.

My missus commented that they must have made their own tofu…

…seeing that it was so soft and smooth, almost like tofu fua (bean curd jelly) and even tasted a bit like that.

They said their roast pork (RM12.00) was their specialty so we decided that we wanted to try that…

…and it certainly was very nice – I was quite positive that they had used a bit of ang chao (red wine residue) to marinate the meat…but what I loved the most was the cincaluk dip that came with this dish…

I would prefer more cincaluk and perhaps, it could have been spicier but as it was, I would say that I did like it quite a lot – sort of sweet and sour, a little bit hot (but not enough for me or my missus) plus the mild cincaluk taste. I suppose they would need to cater to the general taste of the Sibu population and anything that is very spicy hot may not go down too well with most of them.

All in all, the bill came up to RM36.70, RM32.00 for the food and considering that there was enough for at least 4 people, I would say that it was reasonably priced. But of course, what would be most important would be the quality of the food and based on what I had that day, it was good enough for me to want to drop by again sometime.

Well, if anyone is interested and is not too sure of the place, it is at No. 41-43, Jalan Pahlawan 9, among the shops near the Sibu Bus Terminal somewhere BEHIND Secret Recipe and the telephone number, 084-216759

P.S.:
This came in the mail yesterday from a dear friend all the way in Ipoh, Perak…

Thank you so much, Elin. It certainly is so very sweet of you to go through all that trouble. Appreciate it heaps and will certainly try it out soon…and hoping to drop by Ipoh one of these days to sample “the real thing”! Wink! Wink! Regards to Wild Boar and your little piggies…

One more time…

I don’t know what this fruit is called in English or in any other languages…

*Gundot’s photo from Facebook*

…but in Melanau, we call it bua‘ (with a soft “k” sound) alung.

Inside, the flesh is orange in colour, sour and not really tasty. Most of the time, we did not bother to eat it but my mum would cut it open and throw away the flesh and dry the skin in the sun. She would use it when cooking the kampung-style masak kunyit (cooked with tumeric) prawns or fish to get the sour taste in the soup. This is a very much simpler version of the nyonya-style assam fish or prawns and as a matter of fact, I had a post on it some time ago whereby I cooked some prawns following this recipe. These days, since the skin of the bua’ alung is not available for us to use, we would have to depend on using asam keping (tamarind slices) as a substitute instead.

I cooked this dish again the other day and this time around, instead of prawns, I had some fish instead…

I shared this photo on Facebook and it certainly drew a lot of attention and a whole lot of oooo‘s and ahhh‘s……

Well, if you missed it the previous time around, don’t worry for I shall share with you the recipe for this very simple ethnic dish one  more time. You will need these ingredients…

…some kunyit (tumeric), chilies, belacan (dried prawn paste), a few pieces of asam keping and some serai (lemon grass).

I pounded the kunyit and chilies together and since I was in the mood, I also pounded the belacan though it wasn’t really necessary. You will have to pound and bruise the ends of the serai as well so as to get the flavour out…

Then, I threw everything into some water and stirred it well…

Once that was done, I put the pot on the fire and brought it to boil. You would have to simmer it for a while to let the sweetness and taste come out of the ingredients. You may want to add a pinch of msg or a bit of ikan bilis (dried anchovies) granules, if you so desire, to enhance the taste further.

Finally, I put in the fish and brought it back to boil. Once the fish was cooked, it was ready to be served…

As you can see, it is very simple and yet, very tasty. You will be able to enjoy the fish and have the soup to drink and also to pour all over your rice. They go so very well together.

My regular commentor, Irene Tan, in Kuching tried cooking it and her hubby loved it so much that he asked her to cook it again the following weekend…and since then, there has been no turning back – she has been cooking it, it seems, again and again and they all enjoyed eating it very much. Perhaps you would like to give it a try as well?

Patches…

This was a very popular song in the 60’s and even today, there are some who still consider it as one of their evergreen favourites. I never liked the song though – I always thought it was kind of depressing because if you listen to the lyrics, you will see that the story is about a boy who wanted to marry a girl from a poor family background but the parents objected to the whole idea and resorted to “watching the door” to prevent them from meeting each other…and in the end, the poor girl, thinking that the boy did not love her anymore, committed suicide and she was “…found floating face down in that dirty old river…”

Anyway, this is not going to be about the song or the singer…nor a dog we once had and we called it Patches because of the patches of black that it had on its body, but about something my mother used to make when I was young. I remember how she would save bits and pieces of cloth and cut them into square or triangles and then she would arrange them in patterns and sew them altogether to make simple patchwork quilts for us to use as blankets. She also made smaller ones to cover the radiogram (and later the television set) and also the sewing machine.

Well, she does not make them anymore, of course…but the other day, when I was at the shopping mall round the corner from my house, I was captivated by these very lovely patchwork quilts on display. They have bed covers (with two matching pillow cases)…

…that may double as blankets for king or queen-sized beds…

…and smaller ones for singles…

…and they also have what they call carpets but I would prefer to refer to them as rugs…

…and cushions.

According to the people, they are from Korea and may be washed in the washing machine, no problem at all. Some of them are really so very beautiful even though they are obviously machine and factory made, not hand sewn or with a sewing machine…and definitely not the result of a labour of love like the ones my mum used to make.

I bought a few that day…

…including one for my friend, Jimmy, who is on transfer and will be leaving Bintulu and moving into his new house soon…and I also got one for my daughter…

…and keeping it for her till she comes home sometime in November.

I really was at a loss as to which to choose as they all seemed so nice to me – I certainly hope that they will be happy with the ones I have chosen for them.

Too little, too late…

I have a lot of hay bee (dried prawns) or in Malay, udang kering, in the fridge and we do not need that much usually as we will only use a bit to fry our wild ferns – the midin and paku or sometimes, vegetables such as kangkong and long beans perhaps. Well, my cousin from Kota Kinabalu just gave me two big packets not too long ago and I remember that Yee Ling gave me one too when she came to Sibu in April/May. That was quite sometime ago and my missus said that she could not remember seeing it. I went digging for it in the fridge and I found it at the bottom of one of the crisper drawers. Probably my missus did not  realise what was inside because it was all wrapped up inside the foil bag and could not be seen from outside.

Anyway, I decided not to keep it any longer and to use it to make some sambal hay bee or perhaps what some people will call serunding udang kering (dried prawn floss). I got down immediately to getting the ingredients ready…

I had some shallots, garlic, ginger, kunyit (tumeric), lengkuas (galangal), chilies…and also some belacan (dried prawn paste), curry leaves and a few stalks of serai (lemon grass). I pounded everything (except the curry leaves and the serai) together…

…and put that aside.

When I opened the packet of hay bee, I had the shock of my life! It was so compact and there was simply TOO MUCH inside that little packet – double this amount that you can see in the picture…

I knew there and then that I had TOO LITTLE ingredients and would need a lot more than what I had prepared but I was not bothered to go through it all again. I just went ahead and soaked the hay bee till they became a bit soft and pounded the whole lot…

…and I was ready to start cooking.

After filling the wok with oil, I threw in the pounded ingredients and fried them till fragrant and then I added the serai, ends pounded and bruised, and the curry leaves and after a while, I put in the pounded hay bee. I had to cook it for a long time to get it to turn golden brown and nice and crusty…

It looked good, was very fragrant and very nice…

…despite my initial fears that the ingredients might not be enough. It was certainly heavenly, eaten with hot steaming white rice…and of course, I simply HAD to go to my regular shop to grab some kompia and chu-nu-miang to eat with the sambal as well.

Gosh!!! It was sooooo delicious, I tell you – so very compatible. They went absolutely well together…

…a perfect match, I must say – this marriage between Foochow and nyonya.

Instead…

The other morning, I saw my missus taking out the minced meat from the freezer and I asked her what she was going to do with it and she said she was going to cook her usual steamed minced pork with soy sauce. Hmmm…I felt like something different for a change so I asked her to leave it there and let me cook it…instead.

What I did was to chop one small Bombay onion and slice a few pieces of ginger and add those to the minced meat. There was a little bit of cincaluk (fermented shrimps) in the fridge, about one tablespoon, so I threw that in, plus a pinch of msg…and after breaking an egg into it, I mixed everything well. There wasn’t any need to add any salt as the cincaluk would make it salty enough already. I also had some leftover century eggs in the fridge from dinner the previous day so I mixed a bit inside and arranged the rest of the slices on top…

Then, I steamed it until it was cooked…

It tasted good…

…but I would prefer a bit more cincaluk as I could hardly taste it at all, another tablespoon perhaps.

For the soup, I cooked some pumpkin, masak rebus kampung style…

I boiled a handful of ikan bilis (dried anchovies), a cube of belacan (dried prawn paste) and a chili, seeds removed, in some water and let it simmer to bring out the fragrance and the taste of the ingredients. Then I added some shrimps and pumpkin cut into bite-size pieces and bring it back to boil. That was easy, wasn’t it? And the best part was there was no oil used, no added salt necessary and no msg – all the ingredients used would make the soup sweet and salty enough.

So that was our simple lunch (and dinner) that day…

The sign…

This was formerly at another location not too far away, maybe 100 metres or so and it was also very popular then. The place would always be so very crowded with people, all there for their kampua noodles. Then, all of a sudden, it closed down and nobody knew what lay in store for all their kampua lovers.

It must have been a few months later at least when it resumed business at its present location. The new place is a whole lot nicer and it is air-conditioned if you choose to sit inside but the crowd came back and more often than not, one would need to sit at one of the tables along the pavement. One interesting thing is the fact that they brought along the old sign from their previous place…

…and they just put it up, untouched – exactly the way it used to be despite the fact that they now have a much nicer place and to date, the sign has remained the same – no new coat of paint, no touch-ups, nothing. Perhaps it has got something to do with good luck or feng shui, I wouldn’t know.

Well, I had not been there for quite a while – not since Yee Ling and Mandy were in town in April, I think it was…and I took them there for what I feel is the best in town…

Like I said before, I cannot go back to the same places to eat the same things as I cannot be blogging about the same things over and over again and consequently, I would not have anything to post in my blog if I were to do that. But the other day, I had this craving that simply could not be ignored so there I was back at the cafe again to enjoy the much-loved noodles for lunch.

It is RM2.50 a bowl now compared to RM2.00 at the start and I think it went up to RM2.20 once and the crowd thinned…but that was only temporary. I think when they got over the shock and were dying for the kampua noodles again, they all came back eventually.

It was served in a bowl and the noodles were heaped up like that so you can imagine how much there was in that one serving…and they were very generous with the minced meat and the thick slices of braised pork as well. But of course, what matters most would be the taste – and it still tastes as good as ever!

I also ordered a bowl of pian sip (minced meat dumplings), also RM2.50 a bowl…

– the dry version and it was pretty good too. Long ago, at the old place, I did order this once but it came out like the soup version, minus the soup or with just a bit of it and I would say that it was bland, quite tasteless and most disappointing. That was why I had avoided ordering the dry version since. Now that they can do it pretty well, I guess I would be ordering that again should I happen to drop by anytime in future. By the way, I wonder if you’ve noticed that they do not use those miserable plastic or melamine plates and bowls that one can find all over the place? That is certainly another point in their favour, don’t you think?

They also sell beef noodles and laksa both at RM5.00 a bowl but I am not really a fan of theirs and that is why I do not bother to order them at all ever.

For the two bowls of noodles and the pian sip plus two glasses of kopi-o-peng (RM1.50 each), the total came up to only RM10.50. Yes, we can go out for breakfast or lunch here and spend less than RM10.00 for two persons, believe it or not and that certainly was a heavy lunch, I must say – just the noodles and the pian sip which I shared with my missus but of course, I had the lion’s share and I was so full for the rest of the day that I could hardly have dinner that evening.