If you’re driving along Brooke Drive here in Sibu and you see a sign directing you the Rejang Park Shopping Centre, do not imagine that if you go that way you will find a shopping mall or something like that. What you will find instead would be a few blocks of shops, a wet market and a closed-down cinema complex (but there are shops on the ground floor, still very much alive and kicking). You would have seen some of my earlier posts on some of the nice food that we can find there including this one which sells my favourite kompia in town.
A long time ago, there used to be a stall by the pavement/five-foot way of one of the blocks of shops and they would do the frying on the spot – things like chai peah (vegetable fritter) and or koi (yam cake) and at the same time, they would sell all kinds of cakes and delicacies that people would make at home and leave them here to sell. Then, the town council, in an effort to keep the town clean and spruce up its image, put a ban on frying by the roadside so that was it. They still continued their business and have done so to this day but there is no longer any frying done.
I was in the vicinity the other day and I stopped by to see what they had. There were lots of things available and in the end, I decided to buy some steamed chai koi for tea…
They’re only 40 sen each and I remember that the ones I bought here a long time ago were really very good. One way to judge whether it would be good or not would be by looking at the skin…
If it is translucent and you can see the filling inside, then they should be good. The skin must be thin yet firm but not tough or rubbery. I found the skin a little bit thicker this time around and they were no longer as generous with the filling as before. Still, it tasted pretty good and was well worth 40 sen, I would say. You can check out the ones made by my blogger-friend, smallkucing, here. I bet those would be so very nice, absolutely prefect! Hint! Hint! LOL!!!
Moving on from there, I stopped by another stall a short distance away, also on the pavement along that same block of shops. There, I saw these curry puffs that looked very alluring indeed…
If I remember correctly, I used to buy some very nice curry puffs here but that was a long time time ago. These were not really cheap though – RM1.20 each but the pastry was very nice – baked, not fried and very well-done and the filling was nice too…
…except that there were mostly all potatoes.
Well, if you are in the area around 3.OO p.m. or so, you can drop by these stalls to see what they have to offer. I would say they do have some very nice stuff that may appeal to you…and lately, there is yet another stall under a canopy where you will find some people frying keropok lekor (fish crackers), banana fritters, spiral potatoes and so on which makes me wonder – has that old ruling that people are not allowed to fry stuff by the roadside lapsed and is no longer applicable?
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 