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.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
With some of my rice dishes I add raisins and a variety of spices. That has always been a hit. I guess you don’t see too many Africans in Malaysia, right? I remember when I visited Sweden I did not see too many, but I did get approached by a lot of Swedes while I was there visiting. Great country, friendly people, I will go back there someday.
Not in Sibu, haven’t seen one here for a long time now but there are international students in Kuching, the capital of the state which I live and of course, at the national capital, Kuala Lumpur, you see lots – many mid-eastern and northern African restaurants and there is even one named “Out of Africa” – been around for a long long time now, I think it still is!
The Moroccon rice looks really nice indeed. The tumpik overdone like that, william won’t eat that. He won’t eat anything charred. For example claypot chicken rice, many people love the bottom part right? William doesn’t and will be extra careful not to scrape it when scooping the rice -.-
Oh? Health freak, eh? I guess he does not eat satay…or any barbecued stuff then? One chicken wing panggang is equal to 8 sticks of cigarettes, they say and ooooo…the burnt parts of the barbecued pork ribs are the best! Char siew and siew yoke he eats or not? Cut off the burnt edges?
Lol. I thought you having some African cuisine. Never judge a book by its cover. ^^
I would like to try that peri-peri chicken rice. Yummy looking. Long time did not eat tumpik bubuk. Last time I used to buy in Satok Sunday market.
They have in Kuching? Didn’t know that. I know there’s a place in Bintangor…and this one is probably the only one in town. Well, peri-peri sauce is African actually – always thought Nandos was Portuguese but no, it’s South African…and Moroccan is African, north-west.
That’s a mighty big sausage!
Yes, two big ones in a pack…from Cold Storage.
I like the breakfast you prepared for Melissa. Moroccon looks too good to resist. Soto jawa looks like mee soup minus the peanuts and another has the similiarity of yong tau fu look. All in all, indeed a nice lunch.
Tofu bakar seems to be the in-thing these days – you will see a lot, come Ramadhan though I don’t see what’s so great about it. I’d rather have my own, stuffed with minced meat, cooked in soup or deep fried and eaten with pounded chili dip. Yum! Yum! I’ve had soto a few times now…and I would not say it is something really special or nice – just so so. Maybe I’ve yet to try the really good ones – my missus loves the soto flavour, Mee Sedaap.
I love Mel’s breakfast, look at that sausage, so nice.. That Moroccan rice looks good, like nasi kunyit.. Oohh, I had soto for lunch yesterday too, like “ching-tong” mee, nice also.
I think I’d prefer our chin therng mee, Foochow/Chinese style…and it would not cost RM4.50! So expensive. Wouldn’t be so bad if it had been extra nice, sweep me off my feet. 😦
The sausage got cut into so many lines…usually I cut 3 to 4 only (lazy, ya…like this also can be lazy) Um, the rice, makes me want to eat nasi lemak right now…
I just cut anyhow, girl already up so in a hurry to fry. I tried my own nasi lemak kukus this morning with one of the sambals my cousin gave me that day – not so nice the rice but the sambal was great so eaten together, I enjoyed it very much. Not going to blog about it…since it was not all that successful.
the sago pellet so cheap for such a big packet
Cheap kah? I think it was RM2.00 not too long ago, can’t remember. Hardly buy that as I am not particularly fond of it despite my Melanau roots.
Tumpik looks like our Apom
Totally different! That one’s rice flour and this one’s sago. This one has grated coconut, that one has coconut milk. Rather bland, but people love the fragrance. I’m ok with it…with lots of the palm sugar. 😛
The tumpik looks good to me.. I would love to try that when I go next time… hahahaha…
Not so soon, I guess, as right now, you are all the way across the Pacific.
I learn so much from your posts!
Good! Good! Things sure are a lot different here.
I wonder if the Moroccan rice is similar to nasi minyak.
Not really. It has a much stronger fragrance, or at least I can say that about the one here. Nasi minyak, I can cook that too…nice but this is nicer.
First time I seen and heard of tumpik. Another Sarawak/Sibu delicacy huh..
Yes. from the Melanau ethnic group. Many of their delicacies are sago based as there is a lot in that lower part of the Rejang River…and they eat the sago worms too.
I like the breakfast set…
Nice eh? That was cooked specially for my girl – with that special ingredient, love. She’s so lucky hor? Hehehehehe!!! 😉
Im a morning person, so that first photo is my first pic, that soto jawa. i would really die just to eat and try that cause i love noodles as well! 🙂
We do have a lot of noodle dishes here, much nicer than this, I would think.
i need those sausages please.. currently finding it tough to find good food in my new area.. it’s so cut off from civilization!
Wahhhh!!!! You live so far away kah? Everywhere there is never far from civilisation – you should try my girl’s school…which actually is not bad already compared to many others here – so hard even to get there.