On their first night in Sibu, we took our visitors, my old friends from Trengganu, out for dinner here, together with my friends, Lim and his missus and children, and I wanted to let them taste our local Foochow cuisine so I ordered the ang chao pork belly…
…which I thought was good but did not come near what my missus would usually dish out at home.
We also had the Sibu Foochow-style sio bee…
…which were nicer than when I tapao-ed some home on one occasion some time ago. Maybe like most things. it is usually best to eat it on the spot at the restaurant itself and having it at home, somehow it may not taste quite the same.
We also had the mani chai/cangkuk manis fried with egg…
…and of course, the midin with Foochow red wine was simply a must…
…as they do not have this wild jungle fern in the peninsula and it is the favourite of many, locals and visitors alike.
Upon the suggestion of the lady boss, I agreed to give their kampua noodles…
…a try and I would say it was indeed very nice except that I thought that whole mountain of it was really a little bit too much – perhaps, half of that amount would do especially when we had so many other things to eat.
Then, there was the Foochow-style tofu soup with canned oysters…
…and other than all the above, I did order a couple of dishes that were not quintessentially Foochow. The fried pumpkin in salted egg batter…
…stole the show and was everybody’s favourite that night.
I asked for the creamy butter prawn balls but I think they got the order wrong so we had these instead…
…which did not really matter as they were pretty good as well.
Of course, there are many nice dishes here, maybe a lot nicer than these, but I wanted my friends to sample some of our local Foochow cuisine so that was why I ended up selecting most of what I picked that night. They also got to try some dabai that we brought from home – of course, they were not so nice as they were those that we had been keeping for them in the freezer, not the fresh ones from the market…but at least, they got to sample some.
The servings that night were extremely huge so much so that we could not finish everything and had to tapao some home. The bill for 7 adults and 3 children, 10 altogether, came up to RM210.00, inclusive of rice and drinks. I thought that was all right, not too expensive for all the eight dishes for so many people. Most importantly, my friends enjoyed themselves…and they had the opportunity to try some of our local Foochow delights during their visit to our little town.
After dinner, we took them on a tour of our pasar malam (night market) before calling it a day.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
The noodles look great, i think that portion is just nice enough for me LOL
You’re sure that would be enough? No worries, can always order another plate for you.
Lovely photos! The fried pumpkin is something I had never heard of until you mentioned it here, but it sounds like a hit! 🙂
First time having it here sometime back and no turning back since. Very nice!
You know Foochow. Everything big. Huge! Lol.
The food was great.
I haven’t been to pasar malam here.
I’m not a fan – very hot, parking’s a pain…but with friends in town, I would bring them there, different from any in the peninsula….especially the pig’s head (and snout)! 😀 😀 😀
Pork belly seems to have taken the international world by storm – it’s on every menu it seems.
For this dish, we had a choice of that or duck or chicken. My missus would not touch duck so that was out…and in the end, I agreed upon pork on condition that they chose the least fat cuts for us.
That’s what my Miri friend said, Foochow style = big big portions, so I guess your noodles is alright 😀
Haha I’ve seen these dishes featured so many times now, every time got visitor, standard dishes to order, easy, no need to think too hard how to give them “the local experience” 😀
Unfortunately, that is not the case. The truth is they are not easily available, not at all – not if you want them served in a restaurant like this, that is. I guess everyone cooks their own at home so the restaurants around here would not bother to offer those same things on their menu…so authentic Foochow dishes would not be easily available unless you are quite happy with those you may find at the economy fast food places sometimes and of course, those like the kampua and sio bee, you can get all over town at the stalls and coffee shops – not always the same though and not necessarily good all the time – one would need to know where to go.
I do know of some that are not all that great, or one at least, and there are a couple that are, in my opinion, nicer than this place…but parking around those places would be such a pain…and I had no intention of parking half a mile away and walking all the way. I would be in no mood to eat after that, dripping all over in my perspiration. 😦
Ahhh, as always, all the food you ordered look so good. I love that red wine pork belly, siao bee, noodles and that salted egg pumpkin.. Wahhhh, that mountain of noodles, I like! Til today, I’ve not tried to cook cangkuk manis with egg, maybe I should really try it one day..
Yes, my friends said the same thing. They certainly would want to try and cook that once they had got back home.
With all the mouth watering dishes, indeed it was an awesome dinner. Love all the dishes. The midin looks so crunchy. Price is reasonable too.
Yes, they had midin every day but the best was here – but they prefer it cooked with belacan, not quite like this. I think, my good friend, Annie-Q, would prefer it this way though.
i’ve not tried half the dishes you’ve listed here, and they all look so scrumptious. big feast, i think i’d happily eat double portions of everything and i wouldn’t be able to crawl out of the restaurant. the pork belly looks so creamy and the colour is really appetising, ya. i’ve not seen most of these dishes in a few of the kl foochow-style restaurants that i’ve visited…
I’m not sure if they’re the same – I know many things in Sitiawan, though Foochow too, are very different…right down to their kampua mee.
Loves all the dishes, yummy yummy…
Stick around! You will see a lot more in the course of this week… 😉
Wow! Portion of Kampua noodles is huge! I would it it for 2 days 🙂 all the dishes look very nice though 🙂
That’s supposed to be for 10. Obviously, they did not take into account that we were having so many other dishes at the same time. Should have just enough for two or three spoonful each.
All the dishes look good to me… I like them all and the price is also very reasonable.. By the way, did I come by here last time? I didn’t, did I?
Yes, you were here – first night too (before our karaoke session) but I ordered their best dishes – did not focus on Sibu Foochow cuisine then so maybe you only had the midin…and with belacan, not the same. The rest all different.
I think I tried most of the food except the ang chau pork and the last 2 dishes. the pork looks very special, I guess it taste like red wine chicken.
Yes, you’ve tried kampua – I sent you the instant ones. You’ve tried our Sibu Foochow style sio bee too? They’re VERY different from your regular dim-sum siew mai, mind you. And you’ve had midin before as well? You’ve been to Kuching?
The pumpkin in salted egg batter looks good. No wonder it stole the show that night 🙂
VERY good!
Okay, so many food, as always, in this blog haha.
But the first thing that came to mind when I look at the first picture is how in the world you have so many octopus. Well, they really look like Sushi King’s octopus sushi 😛
Happy Monday, yo! And happy blogging hehe.
http://www.theokayarms.com/
Yes, they cut the pork belly into long strips – I prefer how my missus does it usually, in slices. This was just their first night here, don’t play-play. Hehehehehehe!!!!
Fried pumpkin in salted egg batter sounds interesting and looks yummy! I would also like to try the Sibu style tofu soup…don’t think I’ve ever seen it here.
Not that I know of. Ya, the salted egg pumpkin was a hit – everyone loved it! I guess a lot of people love deep-fried stuff a lot.
hehe I love it!! i want to be there
Any plans yet? Just let me know when you’re heading this way…and I’ll take it from here. 😉
Wow…i like the kampua! How they cook, fried it or just tossed it, looks really good! And that ang chao belly looks very good too! How to cook that, i want to learn, i still have some ang chao at home.
Tossed…and I think I tasted bits of pork fat crusts in it. Nice! I don’t know how to cook ang chao meat – my missus cooks all the time, never bothered to learn. 😦 Hers is very nice!
cikgu geografi… nah … http://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padang_Midin siapa cakap sini takde Midin… satu padang full of midin u knowww…
My friend’s house near this place – she said no curls…got red leaves one. I said the red leaves one also midin, can go pluck and cook, nice also…but of course, not crunchy and gravy will be red. Cheaper – RM2 satu ikat here…the curls, double the price. Dunno if she has gone to pluck or not, said scared of going into the belukar, dunno got snakes or what.
http://blogtokwan.blogspot.com/2012/08/khasiat-pucuk-paku-merah-pucuk-midin.html
That shumai is one of my favourite
Yes, you’ve that in the Philippines too, eh? I’ve seen my Filipino blogger-friends mentioning this in their blogs, the name’s the same.