So near, yet so far – how true that actually is! King Hua lived less than an hour’s drive away most of her life but she does not know much about the places in Sibu nor her way around town, other than what she has read in my blog, that is. But then again, I had friends coming over to KL proper to see me and they too did not know the directions in the city centre. They would tell me that they lived in PJ or Shah Alam and they rarely ventured into the national capital at all. But anyway, it was my pleasure to take her around to all the places she wanted to go to and to buy what she wanted to buy.
After having bought the kek lapis earlier, we went to the supermarket in the town centre. This is the one that sells all the imported stuff – chocolates, cookies, canned and dried foods, fresh milk, breakfast cereals and even the made-in-the-UK real beef Bovril. King Hua just could not resist grabbing all the things that they had on their shelves – I think in total, she spent way over RM100 in just a few minutes! And she was so nice as to get me a pack of the Japanese green tea Kit-Kat that I like a lot…
Incidentally, she also brought me a bottle of my favourite out-of-this-world Bintangor rojak sauce, some kopi-o (black coffee) that she says is very nice and would like me to try…and a packet of tomato flat noodles. Hmmmm…interesting! Thank you so much, King Hua – it is so thoughtful of you…and I’m so sorry that it completely slipped my mind and I did not get you anything! Never mind, I’ll make it up to you some day, promise!
She loved the coffee that we had at the kampua place earlier so I took her here to buy some – theirs is simply the best…and she kept saying how fragrant it was, so fragrant that it filled the entire car. After that, we stopped by the Sibu Central Market to buy some terbaloi to give to her friends back in the peninsula but for some reason or other, there was none available.
Finally, we stopped by here…
…for an early lunch, no prize for guessing where we went…
She loved the Payung rojak…
…so so much and said that it was even nicer than the highly-acclaimed Bintangor one and she too fell in love with the buah kedundong leaves that they had in it. So how good was it exactly? Well, I kept telling her not to eat so much of it as we were both still rather full after our heavy breakfast and there would be other things that I would want her to try and enjoy…but she said she loved it so much and insisted on finishing everything that was on the plate.
She thought the Payung otak-otak…
…was indeed different from what she would find in Johore and felt it was very nice but a bit too spicy for her and she’s not really into anything spicy but her hubby would love it a lot, she said.
They have a new guy at the café and he made a mess of the mushroom roll…
…so the presentation was not as nice as usual but nonetheless, King Hua loved it a lot!
She tried the durian ice cream but was not exactly thrilled as she said she had one a lot nicer at some place in Singapore. We were filled to the brim already by then so there was no possibility of getting her to try some of the other delightful desserts that they serve here.
After that, I took her to the bus station to catch one back to Bintangor. That was a very short trip indeed but I would say that it was really very fruitful. At least, she got what she wanted and more…and she managed to try some of the nice stuff we have in this little town but of course, she will have to come back again and stay much longer if she wants to sample more of the best we have around.
I went straight home after that and my daughter could not wait to tell me what Annie-Q‘s mum had given me – her special own home-made organic tofu…
They had dropped by my house while I was out and Annie also gave me the very nice nasi lemak sambal that she bought on her one-day eating trip to Sarikei and Bintangor. That very night, I went to the airport to pick Philip’s son who was in town for a few days to visit his grandma and that very nice friend of mine in the US insisted on getting his son to bring over for me that can of made-in-Canada Ma Ling luncheon meat. Honestly, everyone’s so kind and generous I really do not know how I could possibly repay all of them other than a simple thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Incidentally, I have already tried the relatively new Q-Q (curly) version of the instant Sibu kampua noodles…
…and I must say that I liked it a lot, thank you so much to Eric, the guy behind the business venture, who gave me a pack to sample and to show his appreciation for helping him promote his product via my blog and also on Facebook.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 