Open door…

Our door is always open for anyone who cares to drop by and we will warmly welcome him or her to our humble abode and our little town like Melissa’s friend…

…who came all the way from Sungai Petani, Kedah. She also did the same degree programme as Melissa’s but at a different institute, twinning with a university in Australia but somehow or other, they got to know each other along the way and became great friends.

We met her upon arrival at the airport that evening…

…and whisked her off to dinner before heading back to our house.

I wanted to take her here but for some reason or other, it was jam-packed that night so in the end, we decided to drop by this place that we had not gone to for a very long time instead. I’ve always loved their fish maw mixed vegetable soup…

…and it was still as nice as I remember it to be.

We used to enjoy their mini ngor niang and their prawn fritters but on our last few visits, we found that they were no longer as nice as before and not worth ordering. Somebody said that it was because the original chef had left but I did hear that this is a specialty of the house – cangkuk manis with stewed pork leg…

…so I ordered that and all right, it was pretty nice and Melissa’s friend got to eat the green vegetable that does not seem to be so popular over in the peninsula.

I wanted to order the midin (wild jungle fern) but they did not have any so we settled for the paku instead…

…which they would have over in the mainland especially in their Malay cuisine but they probably would cook it a little bit differently.

To my delight, I saw that they had dabai (wild black olives)…

…so I quickly ordered that and Melissa’s friend liked it. She agreed that it was something like avocado, the rich taste and also the texture of the flesh…except that we eat the skin as well, something which we would not do when indulging in that very expensive imported fruit.

We also had the fried mee sua…

…and though it wasn’t too bad, I can pinpoint at least two or three other places around town that would do a much better job at this.

One thing in their favour was the fact that it was not very expensive. I do recall people warning me that “their knives are kind of sharp” but the bill came up to slightly over RM60.00 only for 4 persons, so minus the drinks and the rice, I guess the food would come up to around RM50.00 only.

After dinner, we drove around town to see Sibu by night and then, we headed on home. The sweet girl brought us these pretty wind chimes made of sea shells that she bought when she was in Sabah…

…and she also brought us some kek lapis from Kuching but we insisted that she took them all home for everyone there to enjoy as we would be able to get those very easily here at any time we feel like it.

Come to think of it, what is there that one would buy home from Sungai Petani in Kedah? I have been there a few times but I do not recall anything that is synonymous with the town like tambun biscuits and Penang or chicken biscuit and Kampar, Perak, for instance. Come, tell me…what is that special thing that people visiting your town or city would definitely buy and cart home?