Fattie bum bum…

There was a song that was quite popular over the airwaves some time ago and the lyrics go like this: “Hey, fattie bum bum…sweet sugar dumpling!“

Well, there is a fattie all right – a very fat young girl selling dumplings, not sugar dumplings but meat dumplings or what we call bak chang. She used to sell them by the pavement but now she has moved her stall…

…inside the coffee shop next to this one in Kuching.

Well, while Melissa was busy with her own thing that morning, I did go out to look around the shops in the vicinity and I ended up buying one of each of her dumplings to try…and that was why I was so full when I met up with Melissa around lunchtime later that day.

This is the meat and shitake mushroom dumpling (RM3.00)…

…which was just so-so – nothing to shout about…

…and I believe the last time I was there, I did buy one or two from her to try and was not impressed. Well, I must say that my opinion has not changed since.

However, this time around, I also bought one of her sambal chicken chang (RM3.50)…

…and I loved it very much – spicy and tasted really great.

But the one that I loved best was the or nee (yam paste) bak chang (RM3.50)…

There was so much or nee inside and the sweetness blended so well with the salty minced meat and pulut (glutinous rice) to make the overall taste absolutely awesome. I made up my mind right away that I would go back to the stall the next day to buy a whole lot to take home. These are so much nicer than the ones that I bought in Malacca (RM4.50) and are cheaper too.

Unfortunately, when I went back to the stall the next morning, she only had 3 of the or nee bak chang left so I bought all three and all nine of the sambal chicken ones that she had. She had a lot of the meat and shitake mushroom ones but I did not want those and neither did I want the ones with salted egg – she did not have those the day before.

I saw these the day before though…

…and at first, I thought she was selling otak-otak. She told me it was sambal panggang and I was not in the least interested until somebody commented on my status on Facebook that hers are the best in town. That was why I ended up buying a few home…

They were very nice but probably it was because of the pandan leaves used in wrapping them, they tasted more like chang than panggang to me. It was fine by  me though as what was most important would be the fact that they tasted pretty good.

One thing’s for sure, should I happen to be hopping over to Kuching again, chances are I would be dropping by her stall again to cart some more of her lovely dumplings home. Yum! Yum! Fattie bum bum!