Africa…

If you’re wondering what I cooked for my girl last week when she came home, well, there was the beef stew in my previous post…and the next morning, Saturday, for her breakfast, I fried her an egg, one of the two chorizo sausages that I got from my Kuching cousin recently…and I also added some of the potatoes, carrots and mushrooms from the stew…

…and she certainly enjoyed that.

For lunch that day, we headed to the hawker stalls here to try what I had been wanting to go back and try for sometime now. As a matter of fact, we did drop by the previous weekend but the sign there said that it would be closed till the 21st…and this time around, it was open, of course.

They did not have the shajira, whatever that is, and no, they did not have the ayam percik either even though it was stated on their menu board that it would be available on Saturdays and Sundays. This was the guy manning the stall…

…and I was telling my girl that he did not look Malay, more African or African-American and she agreed.

Both my girl and I had the Moroccan rice with grilled chicken (RM9.00)…

…that came with their own-made peri-peri sauce and a very nice salsa-like dip of tomatoes, chili, onions and lime plus some spices as well.

I loved the rice a lot – it was bursting with flavours with all the raisins and spices…

…that went into the cooking and the chicken was tender and tasted great too…and yes, I enjoyed all that was in the plate with the sauce and the dip.

My missus had the “pili pili” rice with grilled chicken (RM9.00)…

…which was very nice too but a little milder so I thought it paled a bit in comparison – between the two, I would go for the Moroccan!

They kept promoting their soto jawa (RM4.50)…

…so I decided to order that to give it a try. It was all right, nice but nothing to get excited about and it was chicken! I think I would prefer that in beef soup or sup tulang (beef bone soup).

After having had our fill, the ladies went to the supermarket opposite to stock up on my girl’s rations for the coming week while I walked around the place to see what else they had in store and I stopped by this one…

…where I bought the tumpik before.

My attention was drawn to it by this sign…

Oh??? They now have two new varieties of the traditional Melanau delicacy? One with midin (wild jungle fern) and another with bubuk (dried tiny shrimps)? Of course I could not eat anymore so I ordered both to take home for afternoon tea later. They said that they had run out of midin so I had no choice but to order one only – the one with bubuk.

I looked around the stall and saw that they were also selling these (50 sen each)…

…served with rojak sauce…and among the things for sale on the counter were these sagu‘ (toasted sago pellets)…

– another Melanau delight!

They were out of the fritters that they were selling including the cucur bubuk and the girl there was cutting the long beans and the chives to make some more. While waiting for my order, I chatted with her and I asked her about that African-looking guy at the Moroccan rice stall…and true enough, he was African, married to a local – the boss at one place here!!!

Our delightful small talk came to an end when my order came and I left the place to head back home. Back in the house, I opened the packet and took out the tumpik bubuk (RM4.00)…

…that I had bought. It was slightly overdone but some people may prefer it this way as there would be the added fragrance and that, with the fragrance of the toasted grated coconut and the bubuk within…

…would bring the taste to a whole new level, along with the gula apong (attap/palm sugar) dip that came with it.

There wasn’t anything else at the other stalls that appealed to me – just the usual stuff like the nasi bryani, nasi lemak, mee jawa, Sarawak laksa…and if I were to go back again, I wouldn’t mind having another go at the Moroccan rice – it was that good albeit being a tad too pricey, in my opinion.