Some of my ex-students, the ones I taught in Form 2 in Kanowit in 1982 who invited me to their reunion a few nights earlier, contacted me and asked me if I could join them for dinner again as a few of them would be leaving to go back to their stations.
This time around, they chose to gather at this café…
…where I had lunch not too long ago with my girl and her mum. The difference was that this was at night and the place was so dimly-lit that it was near impossible to take some decently good pictures to share…and I am never fond of using flash as the snapshots would not look so great.
Ok…ok…before anyone starts asking, here’s a photograph of the group…
Hands up if you can spot me in the picture. LOL!!! We had no choice but to use the flash for this one, of course, but for the rest, I tried to manage without…and due to the insufficient light, some did not come out too well and had to be done away with.
The ladies ordered their pineapple fried rice…
…and goodness gracious! This place is noted for its HUGE servings and that one plate would be enough for around six people to share and they ordered two plates of it! I did not think it was really great – I’ve had better elsewhere (though I enjoyed those two meatballs that you may be able to see at the far end) – and I still think their cincaluk (fermented shrimps) fried rice…
…still takes the cake. This one is not as big as the aforementioned – I would think there would be enough for two…or three or four for small eaters or if one is ordering some other dishes to go with it just like what we did.
They also asked for two of this dish of ladies’ fingers in sambal…
…which was very nice, possibly better than any other place in town. There were also two of the other dish – bitter gourd in egg gravy that looked something like wat tan hor or ying yong, but the photograph turned out blur. Anyway, it wasn’t a sight to behold – the slices of bitter gourd were drowned in the gravy and were barely visible.
I asked for their tuna toast…
…that I remember was one of their most popular items on their menu before though I am not too sure whether it still is now. In fact, I don’t recall it looking like this but it did not matter one bit as yes, it was still as good as before.
Another favourite at this place is the mee mamak…
*Sorry, blurry pic*
…which I felt was a tad too sweet but the ladies thought otherwise. In fact, one of them liked it so much that she immediately placed an order for another plate to take home, along with an additional order for this chao chai hung ngang with prawns…
…as well – they all loved it a lot. The guys begged to differ though – it was nice, no doubt, but we thought it was a little too sour for us. Ah well! Women are from Venus, men are from Mars…or so they say.
Needless to say, it was a delightful evening and like the previous time, there was so much to catch up with and to talk about…and somebody did suggest that they should get together like this at least once a year. I certainly enjoyed myself…on both occasions, the reunion earlier and this one as well. Thanks again to one and all!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 