They told me…

They told me sometime ago that the food here was pretty nice…

…but I did not stop by to try until the other day.

For one thing, it certainly was an interesting place with a lot of old photographs on the walls. I remember this bank…

…looking exactly like that when I was a kid loitering along that road (Old Street) where my father’s shop was at No. 8 – the bank was two doors away at No. 12. This was one of the old Sibu banks, the others being Kwong Lee (later Malayan United), Hock Hua  and Kong Ming (later EON Bank)…but during the bank mergers sometime ago, it was absorbed into Hong Leong, if I’m not mistaken.

I don’t think I know anybody in this photograph…

In fact, I do not even recall the time when this particular La Salle Brother was in Sibu – I probably was way too small then…and all those would be the Sacred Heart students at that time.

The tiffin carrier sure looks familiar…

…and the cassette tapes too. Somebody had that hand-driven sewing machine when I was small but I cannot remember who now…and that’s the old-time radio-cassette player in the top left.

I have not seen these char khiak (wooden clogs)…

…for a long while now, much less anyone using them…and I remember using that egg-beater in the top left…

…to beat the eggs when I was small everytime my mother wanted to make cakes…and we also had that coffee grinder (bottom left) in the house when I was small. Hah!!! I bet many of us can remember that baby thingy (top right) – this would hang on our makeshift boi-boi – a sarong hanging from a hook on a spring tied with a rope to the ceiling in the house. We would wind it up and let it run – some music would play as the thing whirled round…and those dangling ends would rise to the occasion. Gee!!! This cafe is more like a museum and I certainly enjoyed myself looking at all the things on display.

As for the food, I ordered the Sarawak laksa as I thought it looked good in the photograph on the wall but eventually, I was told that the gravy was not ready and they suggested that I ordered something else instead. They suggested fried mihun with stewed pork – no, thank you!!! I am sure mine is nicer than yours!!! Finally, I ordered Hokkien fried noodles – or at least, that was what they said they had but when it was served, it turned out to be hock chiew char mee – tam (Foochow fried noodles, wet/with gravy) – RM4.00…

This was more expensive than elsewhere (RM3.00) but it had a lot more ingredients including some tiny shrimps and instead of the usual bits of chai hua (sawi), they had some kuchai (chives) strips instead. I don’t like that so I had to go through the chore of picking them out and leaving them by the side. It tasted good though, better than some places that I’ve been to around here.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid I can’t say the same about their cendol (RM3.00)…

– tak cukup lemak (not rich enough), tak cukup gula melaka (not enough palm sugar)…and the red beans were not cooked soft/mushy (but still whole) enough – the way I would love it! To me, the ones at this other place are still the best.

Never mind that the food wasn’t all that good as what I’ve been told – I certainly had a great time looking around and  recalling all those pleasant childhood memories during my brief visit to this place.