The first one…

Many of us in the maternal side of my family grew up in this town but most have them have moved away already and there would be a sprinkling of us left here and yours truly being one of the very few, I was asked to organise the party for the reunion gathering that we had on Saturday night last weekend.

We’ll have more on that in a later post but the first one to get here was a cousin of mine who took an extra day off to come ahead of the rest flying in from Kuching and others from Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and from as far as Australia while there were others who drove from Miri and Bintulu and needless to say, she MUST get her kampua noodles fix the moment she touched down…

…and those photographs that she shared later on Facebook show whether or not she enjoyed what I took her to eat (RM2.50)…

I had the flat version of the noodles – the mee pok (RM2.50)…

…which was good too as it was virtually the same thing, more or less, except for the shape of the noodles.

While we were at the coffee shop, I saw some of our local Sibu-style sio bee/siew mai (meat dumplings) so I asked the lady if she was selling those too. Well, she wasn’t – she got them from the other coffee shop at the end of the block some two doors away. Of course, I made the beeline there instantly and got these few to try (RM1.00 each)…

They were very nice but mostly meat. The authentic ones would have a mixture of meat and mangkuang/sengkuang (turnip) and though these may not be quite like the originals, I would say they were very good. Incidentally, the guy does not make them every day – I was just lucky but according to him, those interested may place an order for him to make some and collect when they are ready.

Before dropping her off to check in at the hotel, I made a quick stop here so she could try the rum & raisin mille crepe (RM7.80). She loved it very much and started making plans to go back there to buy some home….but it was this…

…that swept her off her feet and rendered her speechless – the chocolate lava cake (RM9.00) and she virtually finished most of that by herself. The poor pork belly kompia (RM4.50) that I had also ordered was sadly overshadowed – I did feel that they should have served it first as having that after the sweet indulgences was something like an anti-climax.

She brought me some dill and rosemary…

…from her father’s garden as I had taken some from him before but the dill never came alive whereas the rosemary grew very well but one fine day, it just withered and died – I did not know why. I certainly hope that it would not happen again this time around.

She also brought me this intoxicating fruit pudding that her mum made…

This is an age-old family recipe that my mum and all the aunties used to make come Christmas and also for Chinese New Year…and when she married my uncle (my mum’s brother), she learned to make it too. I did try a bit and of course, it was absolutely awesome, as always, but I’m putting the rest in the freezer to keep for a special occasion.

Well, that wasn’t all, no, siree! My cousin also bought me these delightful nyonya kuihs from Kuching…

– the serimuka and the variations from the traditional ang koo – the purple ones and yellow ones (peanut filling). They tasted great, of course – I love these traditional nyonya kuihs from Kuching. If you know the right places to get them, you will find that they’re a lot nicer than those that I’ve had in KL, Malacca, Penang or even Singapore…or maybe, I do not know where to go for the best ones.

Thanks so much, cousin – great seeing you again and thanks for all the nice stuff you brought along for me.

Hang on, everybody, the fun is just about to begin…