Any given Sunday…

Usually, after an early lunch on Sundays, we would drive my girl to her school, half an hour past Selangau Bazaar which is around an hour’s journey from Sibu. Once there, we would help her clean up the place a bit and resettle for the week and then we would sit down for tea together after which my missus and I would head on home.

Now that she’s on holiday, this being the schools’ long year-end break here, we would not need to do that and unless we have something on, we would go for the mid-day service at the cathedral in town, after which we would go some place for lunch like here, for instance.

My girl would tend to stick to what she likes best and here, it is their very nice nasi bryani…

…with mutton curry…

We enjoyed the kampua noodles very much the other day so this time around, my missus wanted that again, tossed with chili sauce but unfortunately, it was rather soft and soggy, obviously overcooked and starchy – either the result of the failure to drain and rinse the noodles well or the chili sauce added…or maybe the lady who did the cooking that  previous time was not around and somebody else did it or there was a dire need for some good quality control. Otherwise, we certainly would think twice about ordering that again.

I also ordered the ayam madu (honey roasted chicken)…

…to try and yes, it was very nice, just that we did not think it was anything that would stand a head above the rest – just something one might want to have when dropping by here but not quite the thing that would make anyone come back specially for it.

I tried their beef noodles (RM5.00)…

…like I said I would the previous time I blogged about this place.

Well, for one thing, I had to get used to eating noodles in soup with a fork and spoon – I guess I am more accustomed to using chopsticks for anything like this and I am not all that fond of the taugeh (bean sprouts) in it plus this was the first time I had seen black fungus in beef noodles…

…though I did not think it made any difference to the taste. It was all right, this much I would say, but personally, I do feel that it comes nowhere near our favourites in town here…or here plus I was not all that fond of the colour of the purple PLASTIC bowl used either.

All things considered, I guess it would be best to just stick to the nasi campur (mixed rice) or the nasi bryani here. They never fail to please.

Getting back to our Sundays, back in the house, I would have my nap in the afternoon and my girl and the mum would go out to visit my MIL or maybe go browsing around the shops…and when I get up, I would think of cooking some stuff for dinner – unless we have already agreed to go out some place to eat. The other Sunday, I fried this dish of peas…

…with one Bombay onion, sliced and some garlic, finely chopped and a bit of minced meat plus tomato sauce and sugar. In my growing up years, my mum would cook this everytime we had chicken which she would slaughter herself, using the innards from the bird – the liver, the gizzard and what not. It would have been very nice, this version that I cooked with minced meat instead, but the peas were a bit hard. I would never buy that brand (Marina) again – they tell me the best would be Ayam…or Ma Ling.

For our meat dish, I roasted this chicken thigh…

…with some chunks of potatoes. When I shared the photograph on Facebook, Sharon asked me for the recipe – well, there’s nothing much to it, really! I just simply marinated the meat with some smoked barbecue sauce and a bot of honey mustard and mixed spices for around an hour and placing it on a baking tray, I put it in the oven to bake – the bottom side first and then, the other side. As for the potatoes, I just rubbed the chunks with butter and a pinch of salt and pepper and placed them beside the meat on the baking tray to bake, sprinkling some parmesan cheese all over them.

Yes, yes…I know! The meat was a little charred! It would have been perfect had I taken it out as soon as it was done but we had some of the lokan left in the fridge and I just placed them by the side of the tray to heat them up in the residual heat after turning off the oven. I guess in cooking, there are no shortcuts…but it was all right. Both the chicken and the potatoes tasted great and the burnt bits of skin had that added special fragrance to it. Hehehehehe!!!!

So how do you all spend your Sundays?