February 14th was Valentine’s Day but no, we did not go for one of those over-priced romantic set dinners that they were having at many places in town.
We were bringing Melissa’s friend who came that very day all around town and by evening, we had arrived at the town centre. I did get to show her these floating grocery stores parked at a wharf by the river…
If you get on board one of those boats, you will find that it is like any shop or grocery store and is well-stocked with canned foods, stuff in packets or boxes, instant noodles, bottled sauces, rice and the whole works, even kerosene. These will sail along the river and will stop at villages and longhouses along the way and the folks there would usually buy on credit. Everything they take would be recorded in the little 555 notebooks and come pay day at the end of the month, they would pay what they owe.
We parked the car and was about to get out to go on a tour of the pasar malam (night market) when it started to rain and we had to cancel the plan. We drove past the 7-storey pagoda, the Sibu Central Market and made our way here. It was still early and they were all so very busy cleaning up the place and decorating it in preparation for that special night for lovebirds…
They had some special floral decorations for the occasion…
…all around and on the tables like this one, for instance…
…or this one…
I noticed this peculiar looking plant…
…and according to the boss, it is some kind of ginger and the flowers are edible…
In fact, they use it in some of their dishes, he said.
Since it was a special occasion, we ordered some of their special drinks instead of our usual f-o-c iced water. These are their sexy pink lady and their pineapple ginger soda…
They had increased the price just for that day by RM2.00 for everything on the menu which I thought was perfectly all right. I ordered my favourites for Melissa’s friend to try – their mushroom roll and Payung rojak…
…their belimbing prawns, the ikan keli (catfish) dish and their otak-otak…
I also ordered this what-we-call ikan pusu or what is more commonly known as ikan bilis (dried anchovies)…
Somebody had that before and said it was very nice. I thought it was ok – very tasty with some salt and sugar added plus lots of sliced onions and a squeeze of calamansi lime but I would think it is something that we can easily prepare ourselves at home and not something I would want to order when dining outside…but at least, now I can say that I have tried that before.
Actually, we had intended to order dessert but after eating all that, we could not possibly manage to eat anymore…so we quickly left the place before the lovebirds came in and after a few stops here and there for photographs e.g. at the Sibu Gateway and the Horoscope Garden, we called it a day and headed on home.
Early the next morning, we drove Melissa’s friend to the airport to catch her flight back to the peninsula. We certainly hope she had enjoyed her very very brief stay with us and would come by to visit us again sometime.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 