A friend of yours…

…is a friend of mine and it so happened that my friend texted me one day to tell me that her Australian friend would be coming to town and asked if I could take him around to enjoy some of the Foochow delights here in Sibu. Of course, I said I could and there I was at the Sibu Boat Terminal that afternoon in question last week, waiting for the express boat from Kuching which arrived on the dot as scheduled at 1.30 p.m.

Daniel, from Queensland, was in Kuching with his friend, Lina, from Kampuchea to attend a friend’s wedding and he decided to hop over to see what the fuss was about – he had heard his (Sibu) friends Down Under praising the food here to the skies incessantly and how badly they were craving for all that this little town has to offer. As soon as they had disembarked, I took them here but it was not open – normally, after 1.00 p.m., many stalls here would have closed for the day though some would open again at 6.00 p.m. and continue their business till 10 or 11.00 p.m. Oh dear!!!

In the end, I decided to try this place that I went once with my blogger-friend, Rose, and the kolo mee was pretty good…and luck was on our side. In fact, I did try it myself and I too thought it was indeed very nice. So, there we were at this coffee shop…and I ordered two bowls of their kampua noodles (RM2.80 each/around AUD1.00)…

…one for Daniel and the other for Lina and yes, they liked it a lot. Daniel even said that it was nicer than the kolo mee he had in Kuching but then again, I do not know which place he went to for that and like what I always say, when you go some place, it would be best to have friends to take you for the best in town as more often than not, you may end up somewhere eating something that isn’t all that great.

I also asked for a bowl of pian sip soup for the two to share (RM2.80/around AUD1.00)…

…and yes, they enjoyed that too.

The nice guy running the kampua stall saw that I had two foreigners in tow and he probably could guess that I was bringing them around to sample our Sibu food so he dished out this bowl of pian sip, dry…

…on the house specially for them to try! Isn’t that so very sweet of him? I did try this too and yes, it was good! The skin was very thin and there was quite a bit of meat inside, unlike at many places in town.

This plate of Foochow fried noodles (with sauce) came from the chu-char (stir fry) place at the back of the shop (RM3.80/around AUD1.40)…

…and as you can see, there is a lot more meat in the one here compared to elsewhere where the minute bits in the noodles are hardly visible. Of course, they thought this was good too…but Daniel found the teh-c special…

…that I urged him to order a tad too sweet for him because of the gula Melaka (palm sugar) content. At some other places, there would be a layer of green – wheatgrass, if I am not mistaken, and those would not be as sweet.

After they had had their fill, I drove them to the Sibu Resident’s Office to ask for a copy of THE book…and look at what Daniel gave me – a souvenir book of the Great Barrier Reef…

…with such stunningly amazing photographs inside, all of a similar standard as those one would see in the National Geographic magazines. Thank you so much, Daniel, for that lovely gift – it certainly is very much appreciated.

Unfortunately, it was raining heavily by then so I just drove them to check in at a hotel in town and gave them directions as to how to get to the pasar malam (night market) that night and left them to their own devices till I went to see them again the following day.