When morning came that first morning when my missus and I were in Bintulu, we had to go to the airport…
…to pick two aunties of mine from Kuching, one Ah Ee (mother’s sister) and one Ah Kim (mother’s brother’s wife), as my cousin was busy and I offered to do that for her.
The Bintulu airport is nice…
…smaller than the one in Sibu but it is as good as new, unlike the one in Miri…
It was very cold inside when we were there that day, a welcome change from the hot and dry weather that we are experiencing here currently.
When the two ladies had landed, we took them to the hotel to check in and then, off we went for breakfast here…
…which was in the same commercial area as the hotel where we were staying. I could not see any name anywhere so I do not know exactly what it is called. Most of the stalls were closed (on Mondays) except for one bak kut teh stall and since we did not fancy that, we settled for this one…
…instead.
I had the piansip mee, dry (RM4.00)…
…which was in fact, kampua mee plus pian sip…even though on the stall, it was listed as mee wanton which it definitely was not, not at all!
My missus and aunties had their chao chai bihun (RM5.00)…
…and all in all, we thought that what we had were all quite good but yes, things in Bintulu are obviously more expensive than in Sibu and I did think that my noodles had too much msg in it, so much so that I had to endure the lingering taste for quite a while before it disappeared.
After breakfast, we dropped by this bakery…
…which was right across the road from the coffee shop.
I remember my very dear friend, the late Jimmy, bought these pineapple cakes…
…from there for me when he was still teaching in Bintulu. Good grief! They’re RM2.40 each!!! The ones in Sibu are selling for RM1.50 and I already feel that is mighty expensive. I certainly would not want to fork out all that money for that one small mouthful when I can go for a nice plate of kampua noodles in Sibu for the same amount or maybe just a bit more, depending on where you go.
They do have the mini ones as well now…
…and a whole lot of stuff that people would go to Taiwan and buy and cart home…
…to give to their families and friends.
I loved the sun biscuit that my friend, Alex, gave me many years ago when he came back from Taiwan after a trip there so I bought two boxes of these (RM2.00 a piece)…
– one for my parents and one for my mother-in-law though I do not know whether they are any good or not as I did not get myself any to try.
My missus bought these panggang sambal (RM3.00)…
…and we had it in the hotel that afternoon for our afternoon tea. It was very nice – the sambal was very fragrant and spicy but of course, the pulut had none of that panggang fragrance…and at RM3.00 each, I certainly would think many many times before buying one.
After that, we headed to the market…
…to see if there was anything we could buy and take home.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Ahh… finally, morning “cum” after a while LOL! Anyway, i had Sun biscuit from Taiwan once and i didn’t think it was that great, maybe not the right brand, not too sure on this though. Waiting for your review on the one you bought π
My sis, she stays with my parents, said it wasn’t much different from those old wives’ biscuits – I guess they weren’t as nice the one I got from my friend – with the awesome buttery taste and fragrance. Ok…ok…that’s about it. There ain ‘t gonna be any “night comes” for you, I’m afraid.
Very nice. And I love the Chef Secret sign. π
Nice? Kind of cute, I guess. π
Have a good long weekend ahead…
You too. Sing-a-pork only one day or two days also?
Check in to the hotel in the morning.. Oohh here, I thought we can only check in after 2pm? It’s a good thing, then you guys can have nice breakfast after that.. Yesterday dinner I had piansip soup too (it was actually wanton soup), thought of you, hehe..
Oooo…how sweet of you to think of me! Hehehehehehe!!!! Same with hotels everywhere. If there are rooms available, they will let you check in. A cousin from Kuching came the following day – the hotel was full so she could not check in till later.
If my memory didn’t fail, long time ago, Bintulu Airport was right in the middle of the town, rite? Pulut panggang looks fat & filling. I like the way the pulut panggang was wrap at the end, not using staples. Enjoy your long long weekend jalan jalan cari makan or visiting.
Yes, it was right in the middle of the town – used to just walk to the hotel upon landing, so convenient. They say only the Chinese panggang, they will use staplers.
Yeah food in Bintulu is definitely more expensive than Sibu. And yes the airport is always super cold.
And I thought Sibu airport is cold – this one is almost freezing. I like!!! π
The snacks looks good, Sun biscuits… wanna try a bit of everything there.. hahahaa…. I am sure the ladies have lots to buy, right?
Not really. I think I bought more. Hehehehehehe!!!!
What’s kampua mee? You know I heard 2 Sarawakians at my office debate about it. One said kampua mee is the noodle that is used to make the kolo mee dish, another said kampua mee is a different noodle dish as opposed to kolo mee. So which is it?
And what is pian sip? The kolo mee shop here doesn’t sell it..
Your side, kolo mee shop? They probably call it kiaw. Kolo mee is Kuching’s and they call pian sip kiaw there. Same thing – both something like wantons but the skin is different – thinner, whiter and softer. Yes, kampua and kolo mee are VERY different – one fella (probably Singaporean) wrote a very comprehensive piece on them, you can read it here:
http://www.sharesinv.com/articles/2010/11/30/myths-on-mee-debunking-the-myths-on-sarawak%E2%80%99s-kampua-noodles/
Pangang now cost RM3???? π±π±π±
That was HUGE…like those Cantonese pillow chang, so I guess that would be three RM1 panggang put together. Price ok, just that I am more into the panggang-ed panggang…not quite crazy about this sambal filling type.
Oh! I can see BDU! π
I remember going there for meetings, the round local native hat shaped building, we called it.
We went to a bakery chain from Taiwan yesterday and the prices were quite expensive too – I remember the pineapple cakes going for RM 5 each and it was about that size or smaller (size of a mahjong tile but half as thick).
There was this RM 5 bun that we thought looked good but it turned out to be empty of fillings. There are some good items there but the prices are steeper than other bakeries (but not as steep as the Japanese bakery in town).
I had forgotten about chau chai hung ang. That’s a very Foochow dish, haven’t had it in a very long time!
You can have it the next time you come back. I ‘m not a fan of it myself but my daughter and missus like it a lot.
Ya, I heard those things that they cart home from Taiwan like the pineapple cakes can be really expensive – not so bad if they’re really so good, value for money but honestly, I don’t feel it is anything special – not worth all that trouble of bringing them all the way home.
The chao chai bihun looks nice. I see tomato in there. Your piansip mee looks pale. I wonder why they called it wonton mee when it is actually kampua mee? Surely they know the difference.
Indeed. I guess some people are equally confused or they think that fancy name would merit the higher price cahrge? π¦