Old friends…

That morning when I was at the airport to pick up my friend from Penang, I chanced upon an ex-classmate of mine and his missus who were coming in on the flight from Kuching that landed at around the same time. They are living in Australia now and were back in Sibu for a while. Then, a day or two later, I got a message from an ex-classmate of ours who asked me if I could join them for breakfast. Unfortunately, my schedule for those few mornings was already full but later, he texted me again to suggest getting together for dinner and fortunately, I was able to make it so there we were, all of us – old friends, at this place in town…

I always thought it was a place serving halal Chinese food and we did drop by to try once a long long time ago when it first opened and although the food was all right, somehow or other, we never got round to eating there again. They opened a branch in the vicinity of the Sibu Bus Terminal and I did go there a few times here, here and here but not on a very regular basis. They did open another one in another area around town but that one has since closed down. This one at the original location along Hardin Walk where they first started certainly seems to enjoy very brisk business and what I did not know then was that in fact, they have an extension at the back that serves non-halal dishes and the business is no less impressive as well.

My ex-classmate ordered this meat combo…

– the pork ribs marinated with ang chao (red yeast rice) and perhaps a bit of tau ju (fermented tofu) as well were so very nice!

Oooooo….somebody must have heard my prayers for lo and behold! Pig’s blood…

…with kangkong (water spinach) and boy, did I enjoy that? Nom…nom…nom!!!

I wasn’t too excited about the sweet and sour freshwater prawns…

…or what is called udang galah or tua thow hay (big head prawns) here as I’m just so-so with sweet and sour anything but nonetheless, it was good, very nicely done.

There was midin (wild jungle fern) as well but I did not take a photo of the dish – after all, you must have seen  photographs of it a thousand and one times before, not just here in my blog but everywhere else…but this one is new to me. They say it is a Foochow dish but somehow, prior to this, I had never seen nor heard of it before. This was steamed tilapia served with a topping of chai po (preserved turnip)…

…and it was really very nice!

Just when we thought that was it, out came these…

…gorgeous giants – CRABS!!! Yum! Yum! Yum!!!

We also tried the ABC…

…which was very good and rest assured that we will be back there soon to try all the other sweet desserts on display on their signboard.

I hear that they sell kampua noodles here at only RM1.50 compared to over RM2.00 at every other place in town and it is actually quite nice but you would have to eat it at their premises. Normal charges apply if you choose to tapao the noodles instead…so that is one thing that I would want to go back there and try as well.

Well, it certainly was a very scrumptious dinner and we all enjoyed it very much, thanks so much to you, Robert…and it sure was nice meeting you again, Philip, and catching up with all that has transpired in our lives since the time we left school way back in 1969.