These shops…
…are relatively new and are located on the other side of town from where I stay so I do not frequent that area very often. They are right across the bypass to the road leading to the airport in Sibu, opposite the area of shops where this supermarket and departmental store is…
I guess they have their own clientele as you will see a lot of people in the vicinity at anytime of day, shopping at the supermarket and its bakery, eating at the coffee shops or going to the branch of a bank there and there is also a Sugar Bun outlet there and the spin-off cafe, Red Carrot is right next door. The food court seems to enjoy brisk business and I do not know whether the good fortune is brought by the presence of this horse that they had put up facing the building…
Some people do believe in good feng shui and all that stuff.
It is comparatively quieter here across the road but I did see quite a lot of people at the coffee shops when I dropped by. There are four in those two blocks and in the end, I decided to check this one…
…out as it seems to look a bit more impressive than the others.
There are a number of stalls and I ordered these Sibu-style Foochow sio-bee (RM3.50 for 3)…
…from one of them. They were pretty good and if I understood the girl correctly, you can get three storeys/baskets for RM10.00. That means that these would be slightly over a ringgit each but for one thing, the ones I had were very big – I suppose that is quite obvious as the sio bee were overflowing over the edge of the saucer inside. Usually, that saucer is big enough for three siew mais at the usual dim sum places with a lot of room to spare.
I also ordered the claypot noodles (RM5.00)…
…which I thought was quite all right but I was disappointed by the lack of ingredients with just the minced meat balls and black fungus and a few strands of green vegetables and the egg was, unfortunately, broken. I would love the poached egg to be whole, the yolk still intact and runny inside and perhaps, they can give their customers the option to add more stuff and pay for the extras – things like prawns or fish balls and fish cake, and liver and intestines as well perhaps.
I walked round the place after that to see what the other coffee shops have to offer and I chanced upon this little one that has these curios for sale…
That old-school radio-cassette recorder/player (top left) is tagged at RM200.00. I wonder if it still works…and I also wonder how much people would be willing to pay for mine which certainly looks a lot better and nicer than that one.
Well, I don’t know when I’ll be back again but I think if I do drop by, I would probably want to try one Malays stall at the coffee shop at the far end (not in the above photo).
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I always wonder if sio bee taste the same as siew mai.. those are jumbo sio bees!
You can always try ebay if you want to know how much your cassette player can fetch. Just list it but don’t sell in the end π
Ebay? Dunno much of these things but isn’t it like some kind of auction, sell to the highest bidder? Nope, sio bee is not like siew mai – the texture is different, not so fishball-like springy, and the taste too They’re more like minced meat balls…with finely-chopped sengkuang and onions and all and the better ones have fish (tenggiri) added…or even prawns, all minced.
Not all are auction based items, you can actually set fixed price or bidding when you list an item. Actually I think 80% of ebay items are fixed price items. I’ve sold a couple of things through ebay π
Not for me, thank you. Come to think of it, I can’t even remember how much I bought that for. Maybe around SIN$100 plus, those days when RM1 = SIN$1, so long ago. Money sure had a lot more value then!
I think it is almost the same… the names sound like the same.. only one is hokkien and one is cantonese? hahhaa.. correct me if I am wrong.. the similarity is there, no doubt…
They’re all meat dumplings – and yes, one is in Hokkien and the other in Cantonese but that is where the similarity ends. They do not even look alike, much less taste alike. Sibu’s ones are different from Kuching ones and much less. those dim sum ones – the ingredients, tastes and textures – as different as piansiap and kiaw from wanton as you know it.. For me, I like them all…but then again, it may vary between places – like not all dim sum places are the same. Some are good, some not really. Don’t tell me you do not realise that – all the same to you?
Both also my favourite – siao bee (siew mai) and claypot mee.. Looks like yee mee π
I can eat 10 siao bee’s, no issues if I order 3 baskets.. Oh, where’s the runny egg in your yee mee? Usually claypot noodles have egg in them, like claypot loh shi fun or other claypot mee…
Yes, I did mention that, didn’t I? So disappointed with the egg – I could have done better…and the lack of ingredients. RM6 for the lor mee at the hawker centre in my earlier post and I got so much with the noodles for just a ringgit more. π¦ Sio bee was ok, but not the best in town.
sio bee looks cheap for that portion
Cheaper than a few places that I know, very popular for these big ones…and I do think theirs are nicer too even though these aren’t too bad, not bad at all.
It seems the cafe is trying to send subliminal messages with its name: “Food Time”. π
Yes, time to eat! I would prefer Chow Time, perhaps…but chow is smelly, in Hokkien. π¦
Sio bee, being my favourite, I can easily finish all by myself. Looks different from Kuching sio bee, looks much bigger and with shredded carrot on top if I am right. Claypot noodles looks good though I prefer it to have more ingredients like what you mentioned.
Yup, Kuching sio bee or the Open Air ones would be 75% the size of these.
ever thought of opening up a cafe yourself? Can name it beautiful fatty cafe, or something like that :D..
Ummm…are you trying to insult me or what? Sticks and stones may break my bones, words never will. Hehehehehehe!!!! I know there is Fatty Sibukampua in KL, Ampang already. This is their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/fatty.sibukampua?fref=photo
hahaha, never intend to insult :D.. oh! that’s interesting, let me check it out π
Ampang is so near to my home
Go! Go! Let me know what you think of Sibu kampua. π
I saw that old school radio, it was so long long time ago, guess now the kids want to see the really thing only get to see in the museum only, hehe!!
Or my house! Hehehehehe!!!!
Serious?? It’s still working well??
Nope – it does look very good though, sparkling new. Been wanting to send it in for repairs but I’ve yet to get down to it. I’ve a very very long life. Take ages to get down to something. Better do it soon…while all those who can repair this kind of old-school radios are still alive and can still do it. Hehehehehe!!!
ooo, i love the horse statue in your pic. i wonder whether we’d be able to sit on the horse and take a pic of us pretending to ride it without the statue breaking apart π
You? Probably not! Me? Very very likely! Muahahahaha!!!!
Loves the sio-bee, hehe…
You’ve never tried ours. Come! Come!
Do people actually buy those old stuff? I also came across a shop that sells these items. Quite nostalgic to look at.
Some cafes do, I guess. Solely for display purposes.