Time to go…

All too soon, it was time for my Trengganu friends to pack up and go back home but not before we dropped by here to see them making  kompia and of course, they bought some to take back with them. After that, I drove them here for the kampua noodles, the white and also the black version…

They thought they were good but they still liked the red kampua in Kanowit better.

I had the Sibu Foochow-style fried noodles…

…and after that, we dropped by my regular Malay kuih stall here at Bandong so they could buy some of the kek lapis (layer cake) home – everybody’s favourite, the sisik ikan, but unfortunately, they had run out of the hati parek which is also very nice. In the end, I persuaded them to buy the Horlicks Honey cake too – it is, in fact, kek batek but instead of chocolate, they use Horlicks and honey to hold the biscuits together. I quite like that one and I hope they would too.

My friends wanted to stop by here to buy some of the out-of-this-world kompia that they had the day they arrived for their daughter-in-law but before that, I took them here…

…to ask for a copy of the book…

…for the daughter-in-law and another one to replace the one that I gave to them from the few copies that I was given myself.

Perhaps some of you may still recall that sometime ago, I went out all over town with some friends of mine…

…to eat…eat…eat…eat…eat…eat…eat…eat…eat…and eat…but I was not at liberty at the time to reveal what it was all about. Actually, one of them was given this project by the Resident’s Office here to work on a book on the food in Sibu and he would be taking the photographs…

…and he roped me in and also another friend to write brief descriptions…

…of whatever he had shortlisted for the publication.

There are also some maps in the book…

…and a glossary at the back…

Finally, the book has been published and officially launched and is now made available to visitors/tourists…but one would have to go to the Sibu Resident’s Office on the 5th Floor of the newly-completed Islamic Centre, Jalan Awang Ramli Amit to ask for a copy. I hear they are not very strict with the distribution so anyone dropping by will be asked to write his or her name and where he or she is from and leave with a copy in hand…

…though I wonder why any local would want to have one when they can just go out and look at the real thing…and enjoy eating it!

After having got what we wanted, we went on our way to get the kompia…and upon my friends’ insisting, I sent them to the airport and dropped them off there, a good four hours or so before their flight. I did suggest that they went to the Sugar Bun outlet there to try our very own Sarawak franchise and I strongly recommended the fish burger/sandwich that is anytime better than those available at the other better-known franchises. The missus had that and she loved it but the hubby went and had their cheeseburger and he said it was just so so. Cheeseburger??? I didn’t say anything about cheeseburgers! Tsk! Tsk! Their flight was on schedule and I guess they would have arrived before 5.00 p.m. but later, I gathered that they were waiting for the son to pick them up at KL Sentral and they only got back to their place by around 9.00 p.m. Gosh!!! That certainly was a very very long day.

Anyway, thanks again, my friends, for dropping by our little town – I certainly hope you two have no regrets over your decision to make the trip and come all the way and that you have had a more-than-delightful stay here. Well, they did say they had been to many places in the Asian and ASEAN region but this was the only place where they had chauffeured tours to some of the places of interest and nowhere else did they ever seem to be shovelling food into the mouth all day long! LOL!!! Do come again – still some places that you did not manage to visit and lots more delights that you have yet to try…and bring everybody along as well! In the meantime, take care, you two, and God bless always.