Feast…

It’s Chinese New Year and as we usher in the Year of the Horse…

…here’s wishing everyone a wonderfully happy and abundantly prosperous year ahead – Sin Nee Huat Cai!!!

How was it in your area? Lots of firecrackers and fireworks? I bet everybody had a grand reunion dinner. Was everybody able to make it for the family gathering? Come, tell me what special dishes you had on your menu!

Did you have anything like these GIANT freshwater prawns?…

They certainly look so very impressive, don’t you think? I certainly was not surprised that they were the pride and joy of the chef himself at this restaurant in Sibu…

The Four Seasons dish…

…was also filled with all kinds of culinary delights. I used to drop by this place to tapao the prawn fritters and the ngor hiang or what is called lor bak in the peninsula , the meat rolls except that his are small and round, the size of golf balls…because Melissa loved them a lot and I would buy for her to enjoy ever since she was small for as long as I can remember. Other than these two, there were also their own-made tofu, deep-fried and served with mayo and the fourth item was the jellyfish, umai-style which, of course, is similar to the Thai version as well.

The steamed fish in undiluted traditional Foochow red wine…

…was so so so good too and these ribs were their own original recipe…

– I understand that a friend shared it with the chef and now it is available at this restaurant upon request and if I am not wrong, the ribs are marinated in traditional Foochow red wine, a bit of ang chao (the residue from making the wine) and also tau joo (fermented bean curd) and then, deep fried…

Needless to say, they tasted really great!

A popular signature dish at this restaurant would be their stewed pork leg or a slab of pork belly served on a bed of cangkuk manis…

Now, don’t you think that looks so very scrumptious?

But no, these were not the dishes that we had for our reunion dinner last night. In actual fact, this was our last stop on our food marathon and the chef specially prepared this stunningly-impressive feast for our lunch that day to enjoy to our hearts’ content!

I guess they will not be open for business today nor tomorrow but if you are salivating like crazy by now and simply cannot wait to head to this restaurant to savour these and all the other nice dishes with your family and friends especially those who are home for the festive season, you may give the boss, Mr. Sik, a tinkle at telephone number 019-8186071 or 019-8156971 to confirm with him when he will resume business after his Chinese New Year break and to place your orders.

Bon appetit!!!

What…

They did tell me, maybe even more than once, but I cannot, for the dear life of me, remember what came from where but of course, I have a good excuse and will put it down to the fact that I’m not all that young and my memory is not all that good anymore. Hehehehehe!!!!

Anyway, that night, we had our dinner here – first floor, out on the balcony…

…which was not too bad an idea as it had been raining so much here and it got rather cold throughout the day. Thus, it was nice and cool outside even for me who would be the first to frown at the idea of al fresco dining in our tropical heat.

The pub is downstairs on the ground floor…and don’t ask me why this sign…

…is on the outside. If I’m not mistaken, that’s one and the same place, serving coffee and some food as well, including some western/Italian delights.

I know there is a restaurant by that same name there and we did order some dishes from that one too and if you are not confused yet, we had some from here as well…

Anyway, let’s start at the top and being at a coffee joint, of course, some of us ordered the coffee…

…and from that same place, we had this very nice chicken dish…

…and their Pattaya fried rice…

…which was quite good…

…and went very well with the sambal hay bee (dried prawn dip) that came with it.

Then we had this very nice salt-baked fish…

…that I had had before – in KL and also in Sibu, but some of the others who had the other side of it were complaining that they used a different type of salt and it was too salty and not really to their liking. I just had a bit from the top and I thought it was good, just as nice as what I had here and they tell me that these are the only two places in town where one would be able to get to eat this special dish. Anybody having this fish dish for their reunion dinner tonight – it’s the Chinese belief that one much have fish at one’s Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner so as to enjoy a bountiful year ahead.

Anyway, back to our dinner that night, we had two duck dishes – this one with the plum sauce…

…and this sour duck…

…both of which were very nice though somehow, the duck taste/smell was not that obvious and some of us could not tell whether it was duck or chicken.

Then, there was the pork marinated in tau joo (fermented bean curd) and whatever else and deep fried…

…which was good but I remember having something nicer here, primarily nicer because it was served with cincaluk (fermented shrimps)…and that’s my weakness. Slurpsssss!!!!

We also had this delightful stewed pork belly served on a bad of greens…

…and this hot plate sizzling tofu…

All in all, in my honest and humble opinion, everything tasted good and the company was great too – my friend invited some of his friends to join us and they were indeed really pleasant and easy to get along with.

After that scrumptious dinner, it was time to head on home and hit the sack…and recuperate before another round of feasting the following day…

Where do we go…

We stopped by two other places first but they were both closed (on Wednesdays, perhaps) so that was how we ended up here for lunch, not that it was not in our list of places to visit but there were, in fact, too many and we could not possibly go to all and preference was given to those “along the way”.

I wasted no time in ordering the fried tom yam kway teow (RM13.00)…

…as I wanted to see if it was better than my tom yam bee hoon. I would say it was very very nice but I could not detect any of that typical sourish taste in tom yam dishes and maybe I’m biased but I do think mine is nicer. Hehehehehe!!!! For one thing, I would say that is a tad too expensive for a noodle dish even though they had prawns and all in it.

We also ordered this nasi uduk (RM14.00)…

…which I was told is, in fact, the Indonesian version of our Malaysian nasi lemak and if the rice was supposed to taste like nasi lemak, I must say it was, at best, all right – good but I would prefer it to have a stronger richness of santan (coconut milk) that would make it more lemak and at the same time, more fragrant. My friend loved it though and was praising it to the skies and she enjoyed the sambal cili very much too.

For that same price, I would very much prefer this kalio ayam (RM14.00) a lot more…

This is a dish from West Sumatra (Padang) and I absolutely loved the rich creamy chicken curry. I remember the last time we had that, it was served in some cabbage leaves…but I do think it looks a lot nicer and more presentable this way.

From the Indian menu, I suggested that the rest in the group should try the tandoori chicken (RM16.00)…

…especially considering the fact that this is the only place in town where one would be able to taste the real thing cooked in an authentic stone/clay tandoori oven by their North Indian chef. At other places, they may be deep-fried or cooked in an electric oven and I have seen in KL where the slabs of chicken are left standing on the skewers in a cauldron-like metal tandoori with hot burning charcoal at the bottom.

Some friends of mine are not fans of this dish as according to them, the chicken is often hard and dry. I guess at those places where they went to, they cooked a whole lot at one go and they would just leave them all standing in the hot cauldron…and consequently, all the fat and juices would have dripped off the meat which would end up dry and overcooked. That will never happen here as every individual order is freshly cooked to perfection and because of this, they would forewarn anyone who feels like having this that they would have to wait a while, say 20 minutes or more.

I did not like the raita (RM5.00)…

– the Indian yogurt vegetable salad but it was simply because it is an acquired taste that I have not acquired – same as the Korean kim chi, no, thank you!

All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy most, if not all, of what we had. I would say that generally, it was good too and the best part was that when my friend wanted to settle the bill, the boss of this place said that lunch was on him. Wasn’t that so very nice of the guy?

After having had our fill, we left and went on our own way home for a snooze before we would all congregate again in the evening for…DINNER!

A brand new day…

It was a brand new day – Day 3 of our food marathon and we started off with a beef noodle breakfast at my favourite place in town. I had the kampua kosong (without meat) and a bowl of soup with beef, tendon and tripe…

…while some had the soup version with the bigger yellow noodles…

…and one of us had the kway teow (flat rice noodles)…

After that, we adjourned here to take photographs of the desserts but unfortunately, they did not have their chocolate lava cake that morning and only their rum and raisin mille crepe was available…

…and also their tiramisu mille crepe…

…and their creme brulee…

The others also sampled some of the other items on their menu but I just could not take in anymore after that initial round of beef noodles.

Next stop, the SEDC stalls at Simpang Tiga – the junction where these roads – Jalam Awang Ramli Amit (formerly Race Course Road), Jalan Ria, Jalan Kpg Nangka and Jalan Kpg Hilir meet. This is where one can get the Melanau delicacy, tumpik, from Stall No. 10 at RM3.00 a piece…

…inclusive of the gula apong (nipah palm sugar) dip…and we also had the opportunity to take photographs of their rojak à la gado-gado (RM4.50)…

…which was quite nice and theirs had potatoes in it plus three sticks of satay…

I wish they could add one hard-boiled egg as well though – I would not mind paying a bit extra for that.

Other than that, I also insisted that we simply had to take a photograph of their Sarawak laksa special (RM6.50)…

…as the two big awesome-looking prawns would make it look so good! Unfortunately, it only looked good – as far as the taste went, I don’t think I would bother dropping by there for it again.

Having got the photographs we wanted there, we left the place and went in search of a place for…LUNCH!

Let’s get loud…

Gosh!!! The proprietor of this place…

…who goes around taking orders from table to table himself personally is indeed very loud, to say the least, and some may find his attempts at being funny and witty to be somewhat brash and offensive. It certainly seems rather popular though and I’ve seen a lot of people eating here all the time but personally, I’ve never dropped by to give it a try and since my friend has it in his itinerary for our food marathon, there I was that night with him and the rest involved.

The chee loi (balitong)…

that we had were very nice, nicer than any that I have had elsewhere. I loved the thick caramelised sauce that wrapped each and every one of the snails which is different from the somewhat watery gravy that I would find in this dish at the other eating places in town.

The Thai-style jellyfish salad…

…tasted quite good too but I thought they could have done a finer job at slicing the onions especially – they were a little bit too coarse, I think and in the end, all of it was left behind on the dish…and they could do the same with the jellyfish slices as well.

The Thai-style midin kerabu (salad)…

…was not bad but I’ve tasted others that may be just as good or perhaps even better.

The fish…

…was a disappointment as it was kind of bland and so tasteless that even the nice sauce could not save the day and I did not like how they fried the cangkuk manis…

…which was wet plus the leaves were rather old and kind of difficult to chew.

Incidentally, a few people were telling me on Facebook that people would buy their ground coffee powder from here these days  instead of the regular place where I would get mine and insisted that theirs would be better. Well, because of this, that night I ordered their kopi-o-peng kao kao kao (iced black coffee, extra strong)…and if that is the yardstick to gauge how good their coffee is, I think I would rather stick to my good ol’ Mui Hock, thank you very much.

On the whole, I would say that it wasn’t the best dinner I’ve had but it was not exactly all that bad either. However, the astronomical bill that came up to over RM100 for four persons was a shocker…and no prize for guessing whether you will find me here again or not…

My number one…

Well, if anyone is going to do a feature on the culinary delights in Sibu, this place would definitely be among the top few around and personally, I would rank it as my number one.

Why, even if I do not state it clearly in black and white or provide the link, I am sure everyone can tell where this is…just from looking at the food. Hmmm…it seems that it has been given special mention on this website…

…not once but a few times as they have a number of these stickers on the wall.

Among the dishes sharing the limelight would be their rojak…

…which is different from the usual and all the rest – even the sauce is not exactly the same.

Another one would be their very popular mushroom roll…

…which one would not be able to find anywhere else, only here…and their otak otak fish…

…which is exclusively their own original recipe…

– totally different from others in the other parts of the country, north, south, east or west.

This is ikan keli (catfish)…

…cooked along the same lines as how the Foochows would do it – with lots of ginger, garlic, soy sauce and brandy or their traditional red wine and here, it seems that they’ve gone a bit further and added a little bit more…and though this is more a Kuching original recipe – the kacang ma chicken…

I would recommend that it be included as it is not commonly found elsewhere, not even in Sibu. If I am not mistaken, the place where I used to be able to get it has stopped serving it and likewise in Kuching, it is not all over the place like kolo mee or laksa for the simple reason that there, everyone would cook their own at home and claim that theirs is the best! LOL!!!

While we were there, they cooked this paku (jungle fern) in santan (coconut milk) dish…

…specially for us even though it is not on their regular menu…but they did say that if anyone is interested, they can let them know before hand and they would see what they can do about it.

Ok, so that was lunch….and next will be dinner! Stick around, folks!

Let the day begin…

They went for a bowl of the celebrated Foochow dish, the dianpianngu…but I did not want to join them as I have never been a fan of that. I joined my friends on our food marathon a little bit later at this place for breakfast and I had the pek ting eyok too kha (Eight Treasures pork leg)…

…and I would say that this one I had was really very very good – the best I’ve tasted but then again, I hardly ever eat that…usually.

Of course if you want to take a series of photographs of Sibu’s culinary delights, you will have to include our kompia, stuffed with stewed pork belly and served basked in the absolutely delicious gravy…

…or oven-baked till nice and crusty…

…and served, stuffed with minced meat.

Somebody had the mee sua…

…served in chicken soup cooked with lots of ginger and traditional Foochow red wine…and it certainly looked a whole lot nicer than when I had it the last time. It was good then…except that it was a little too oily, probably the result of simmering the chicken in the soup for too long and the fat came out of the meat and the skin.

My friend ordered the bubur cacar to try…

…and I also had a bit…

…and a bit more…and a bit more…as it was so very nice – so rich and flavourful, not too sweet though I did wish that they had not cut the sweet potatoes and yam till so very small – I would prefer them in slightly bigger chunks that that.

So there you have it – our breakfast for the day, the second round for some of them and next stop – LUNCH!

In the night…

After our lunch on that first day, my friend and the rest went some place else but I did not want to follow them. Instead, I went home for a nap and a quick rest and we met again that evening for dinner here…

If I’m not mistaken, this is one of Annie-Q’s favourite dining places in town and I remember I went there with her and her mum and her twins once…and she would definitely drop by here to eat whenever she comes back to Sibu.

Business was brisk and we had to go upstairs but it was no big matter really – service was good and we were served in no time at all. We had this huge dish of ikan bawal putih (silver/white pomfret) with some very nice sauce…

…and it was really good. For one thing, I bet it did not come cheap too as this fish is rather pricey, that much I know.

We also had this duck dish…

…named chest duck on the menu but somebody said it should be chess(board) duck but I think the waitress said something quite different. From what I could understand, it should be chest all right, chest as in breast or breast meat, I suppose.

Other than that, we had the fried sea cucumber…

…which people often regard as a great substitute for fried sharks’ fins since many have stopped eating that nowadays. They certainly were very generous with the thin strips of ham here, as you can see.

The claypot mutton…

…was very nicely done and no, it wasn’t all meat for when we dug in, we found that it was only on the top and underneath, they had… KANGKONG!!!

LOL!!! Ok, no comments on that, please. I think we have had more than enough of it and it has since ceased to be funny or anything. Frankly, I am really quite sick of it all.

Besides that bit of veg, we also had their fried sweet potato leaves…

…which I enjoyed a lot – nicer than most other places where I had that…and there was also this dish of bean sprouts fried with salted fish…

Hey!!! They got rid of the beans too, not just the tail. Somebody said that this way, there is no danger of getting a gout attack from eating it. Has anybody heard anything like that too?

It certainly was an enjoyable dinner…and after having had our fill, we headed on home to sleep and get ready for the continuation of our food marathon the very next day.  Do make sure you’ll come back to join us in the next post tomorrow!

Hitchin’ a ride…

A friend of mine is involved in this project on the culinary delights in Sibu and for that, he will have to go round to take photographs of all the best in town and he invited me to come along. Of course, that would be an offer too good to refuse and there I went, hitchin’ a ride, so to speak…to eat…eat and eat!!!

Our first stop was for lunch at this restaurant…

…that I have blogged about many times before, known for its unique Melanau and other exotic ethnic dishes on its menu.

There was this very impressive-looking udang galah…

– the giant freshwater prawn, grilled to perfection as well as those cooked with asam (tamarind) and kunyit (tumeric), Melanau style…

– the way I would do it myself at home and I must say they did a terrific job at that. It was sooooo very nice and I could not resist a second bowl of rice to go with the delicious soup.

They take pride in their lokan…

…the only one in Malaysia, they claim, and at RM1.50 each, I would say that they’re reasonably priced.

Of course, we did not miss out the Melanau sashimi, the umai…

…eaten tossed in the sambal belacan…

…with sagu (sago pellets) as its accompaniment…

We were also served the grilled ikan terubok (toli shad)…

…which is best grilled with little or no ingredients added. I would also cook it this way at home and to the most, I would just rub it with a bit of salt. This is only good when the fish is fresh and lemak (oily) enough as one would be able to enjoy its sweetness and unique taste. I am not particularly fond of it steamed and even less, deep fried.

For our vegetable dishes, we had their bestseller – the paku (jungle fern) cooked with sambal and prawns and santan (coconut milk)…

…and also their midin (jungle fern, another variety), fried with belacan (dried prawn paste)…

That certainly was a really heavy lunch but it was so so good and I thoroughly enjoyed myself very much.

After that, I headed on home for a nap and rest a bit before we were out again for dinner…but that will be in  my next post. You’ll come back tomorrow for that, won’t you?

Gotta have you…

If you may recall, over a week ago, we dropped by here at around noon in the hope of enjoying their nasi kerabu but it was all sold out so when Melissa came home last weekend, without any second thought, that was what she wanted and we headed to the place at around 10.00 a.m. for brunch.

I had the fish, RM5.00 for the whole works…

…and it was really really good. I loved the sambal belacan (dried prawn paste dip) that came with it by the side…

…a lot!

Melissa had the chicken, RM5.50…

…and she enjoyed it very much too though I thought that piece of chicken was somewhat small.

I asked the girl for extra gravy – those that they would pour all over the rice and she said ok. I think there were at least two and other than that, there would be the air budu as well…and to my surprise, she gave us one whole bowl of this…

If I’m not mistaken, that was the kuah tumis, santan (coconut milk) and all. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves to the max and boy, that was so filling that we decided we would have to skip lunch that day.

Moving on from our scrumptious lunch, I received these the other day all the way from my cousin in Melbourne, Australia…

Thank you so much, coz. Now, I’m thinking whether I should serve Bovril kampua mee/mee kua or mee sua for my Chinese New Year open house. Muahahahahaha!!!!!