The next day…

My Singapore friends only had one full day here this time around so we had to squeeze as much in as possible.

I picked them up at the hotel…

…where they were putting up…

…and drove them here for my favourite kampua noodles in town…

…and yes, they liked it too. Alfred did say it was not exactly authentic, more like a cross between kampua noodles and kolo mee and yes, I would say that he hit the nail on the head. Gee! He sure is becoming quite an expert now, eh? Hehehehehe!!!

After that, we drove around in search of this shop for the tom yam giant freshwater prawns served in a coconut but unfortunately, it was no longer there. We found out that they had moved to the Salim area on the far end of town on the other side so we decided we would just give it a miss this time around and reserve it for their next trip to Sibu…and since we were in the vicinity, we just headed to the nearby park and they went up the hill…

…where you will get a bird’s eye view of the whole of Sibu town…

*Alfred’s photo on Facebook*

…if you climb up this tower…

*Alfred’s photo on Facebook*

…and there is this rope suspension bridge…

*Alfred’s photo on Facebook*

…as well, among other things and after some time at the top of the hill, they came down…

I know the kompia and the rojak here are pretty good and visitors can buy the feed to give to the thousands and thousands of kois and the rest in the lake but unfortunately, the stalls were closed – they close on Mondays. I guess that would give the fish a break as the guy there said that there would be a lot of people on weekends so the fish would get a lot to eat over those two days.

After that breather, we headed here for the nice Sarawak laksa that would be very much more like the authentic ones in Kuching, unlike what they had the last time they were in town even though they thought it really tasted so very good and had a second bowl but oh no!!! It was closed  – they close on Mondays too! Tsk! Tsk!

Then they were keen on having some yong tofu, so we stopped by here and they had these…

It seems that one does not need to order in the fixed sets as depicted in the photos displayed at the stall. According to them, one can just order a bowl of fish balls with the tang hoon (glass noodles) and pick whatever else one would like to add to it and they would charge accordingly. There is a list of items with the prices at the stall…but it is in Mandarin.

They said it was nice and I ordered some sio bee for them as well – they were pretty good when I had them once but this time around, I thought they were not at all great. Too bad the middle stall was not open or they would have the big thick own-made noodles (like the one in KL Hokkien mee) with char siew or roast duck or stuff like those…

*Archive photo*

– konlou noodles in KK/Sabah. I guess this one’s closed on Mondays as well. Sigh!!!!!

Next stop – the Sibu Central Market…

…because Alfred wanted to buy some Bintulu belacan (dried prawn paste) and our local unpolished brown rice home…and while we were there, we stopped by the freshwater udang galah (bamboo prawn) stall and bought some big ones at RM45.00 a kilo. The prices have gone down now – the medium-sized ones that we would usually buy are back to RM30 a kilo now that Chinese New Year has gone past and besides, it is in season right now – there are a whole lot available but of course, one need not expect the restaurants around town to lower their prices. Don’t even dream that would ever happen! We also had pineapples, real nice and juicy ones – the so-called kelapa sawit variety and also the ones from Sarikei, very expensive in Singapore, but I did not take a photograph of those.

On the way back to the car, they said that they wanted to stroll around the hawker centre on the first floor just to have a look and they promised not to eat anything as it was almost time for lunch. However, they caught sight of this…

…at the stall with the bright lights on…

…and their defences came down! They said that they love it so much but they cannot get it in the island republic as it has been banned ever since the H1N1 or swine flu or whatever outbreak in the Asian region many years ago. I thought they would always cook this with kangkong (water spinach) but they said that they had asked for midin instead as they loved midin so much and would like to eat as much of it as possible while they were in town. That big platter of pig’s blood plus the ferns only cost RM8.00 (around SGD3.00) and of course, they enjoyed it very much.

They also ordered the rojak…

…from this stall and they liked it but I did not think it was all that great – I’ve had many others a lot nicer elsewhere. I had the ngor-bee therng (literally translated as five-flavour soup)…

…which is supposed to be a cooling dessert but somehow or other, I did not think I derived as much pleasure from it was when I used to have it at a stall in town during my younger years. Time passes, things change…and one’s taste too, I guess.

Now, this, I like!!!

At “some places” (not here, not in Sibu), you will be unceremoniously shouted at, scolded by the rude people there for sitting at the wrong table…or on the wrong stool. I really wonder how/why people can be so nasty – surely they can just say it in a more pleasant way. I always believe that it is not what you say but how you say it that makes the difference.

And YES, believe it or not, right after this, we went for lunch! LOL!!!