Little boy…

I was at their wedding in September, 2013 and they had a son, Kingsley, a year later. Of course, I was delighted when Jimmy and Juliet invited me to the little boy’s 1st birthday party…

…here.

No, they did not enlist the help of an event planner and did most everything themselves…

…right down to the labels on the bottles of water…

…and everything. Gosh!

I cannot remember having many birthday parties when I was a kid. I know I had one once as I remember seeing a photograph somewhere of me cutting the birthday cake and my great-grandma standing beside me. Then, there was another one much later when I was in upper primary school but I don’t recall much of it either other than the fact that some of my classmates from school were there. One that I remember only too well was in 1972 when I was 20 – there was a cake, food and after that, we had dancing! But no, we did not bother very much about the decor and all that. I’ve seen in some blogs or elsewhere those birthday parties where they recruited some people to organise the whole thing and they even set up a playground in the garden for the children to play! Kids really have it so good these days, not like during my time.

There was the singing of the birthday song, of course…

…and the blowing out of the candle and the cutting of the cake, followed by dinner…

I didn’t take photographs of everything in the buffet spread, of course…

– just these two.

It sure was nice to be invited to share the joy of this very happy occasion with them and their family and friends that night and upon leaving, I was given one of these door gifts…

…that they had prepared. Inside…

…were one lovely cupcake, some sweets and an egg, coloured red in line with the age-old Chinese tradition.

Well, if anyone is curious as to what I gave little Kingsley, I got him this Korean-made patchwork quilt…

*Juliet’s photo on Facebook*

I thought of getting him the Bob the Builder one but he might not be into that cartoon character so much (plus I did not think it was all that nice) and there was one very pretty one but I thought that would be more appropriate for girls so that was why in the end, I got him this one that my girl liked and I would agree that it was quite a good choice too. What do you all think?

Thank you once again, Jimmy and Juliet, for the invitation – now, I’m looking forward to the next one! Wink! Wink! Hehehehehehe!!!!

Don’t ask me…

Don’t ask me what’s good when it comes to Korean food – other than our Korean fried chicken franchise here, when I was in Seoul a long long time ago in the winter, it was so cold and we enjoyed the mee sua in ginseng chicken soup and their traditional wine so much that we asked for that every meal every day during our stay there. Other than that, I had it once in Auckland, New Zealand and I thought it was pretty good but no, I did not like the kim chi. I do not even like the one my missus would make again and again despite fave reviews from all over but I would say that I loved it when she used it to fry some meat, pork or chicken…or to cook some fried rice. But for me, eating it straight is totally out of the question.

Anyway, that did not stop me from going to try this new Korean place in town. Let me rephrase that – my girl and the mum are so into anything Korean these days and they could not wait to go and try but it was a Wednesday and according to their Facebook page, they would be closed. Nonetheless, I just smsed them using a number that I found somewhere on their page to ask (seeing that they were closed that Monday for whatever reason), “Open tonight?” And they promptly replied, “Ya!” Off we went in the heavy rain – of all the days, it had to rain that night when it had been hot and dry almost every other day. Tsk! Tsk! When we got there, we saw a sign on the door saying that it was closed. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot! Well, that night, we ended up here eventually and since we enjoyed what we had there, we got over the initial displeasure soon enough.

Actually, they keep saying that they are not officially open yet, that they are still trailling their dishes and tweaking the menu. They do not even have a shop sign up! However, they do have a website, other than their Facebook page…and everybody seems to know about it. Everytime we drove past, we would see a lot of people eating there – it is on the first floor…

…above that very popular coffee place, opposite this building on the other side of the road…

And that was what I was told a long time ago!

Well, finally, we managed to drop by one Saturday evening after the sunset service at the church not that far away. It was way past 8.00 p.m. already but opening hours would be from 6.00 to 9.30 p.m. so we reckoned we would have enough time and yes, we did! It was a nice place, pretty basic, nice and simple and the only thing Korean in the decor was this nice thing that I spotted hanging on the wall…

Other than that, there were a lot of posters of those K-pop boy bands and stars though I wished they had not put those up as they made the place look kind of tacky. It would be perfectly all right to have such posters, or ones that are a bit nicer, on the bedroom walls of some star-stuck teenager girl or boy, not at a fine, classy restaurant.

Of course, what’s most important would be the food so let us look at our orders. As soon as we had taken our seats and asked for what we wanted, we were given these sides…

…and free flow of tea. I hear that they would keep refilling but no, we did not manage to finish them at all. Of course I did not touch the kim chi but my girl and her mum declared that the latter’s was a cut above what they served here. I was fine with everything else – the sausages, the pickled cucumber slices, the seaweed and even the fried ikan bilis and the taucheo (fermented bean paste) was a great help in enhancing the taste of some of the things that we had!

The pajeon seafood pancake (RM15.00)…

…was served first and it was, at best, all right. Ah well, how could anything cooked with egg be not all right? I would say it was a tad too oily for my liking though. They could have let it stand on some kitchen towels for a while before serving…and it sure looks a whole lot nicer in their photograph of the same on Facebook. Probably the chef forgot to flip it over…and for that kind of money, I would expect a lot more prawns or whatever seafood…

…than the miserable bits that took quite a bit of effort to detect.

The dolsot bibimbap (RM18.00)…

…was all right too but there was too much for the three of us to finish – we ordered two!!! Why? Well, I asked the waiter and he insisted that it was a serving for one and there would not be enough. He was rather persistent in insisting that we should order a second bowl so I relented. I guess it would be just nice for a person if one does not order anything else but we did!

The sam gyoub sal (RM12.00)…

…wasn’t anything to shout about. I may be wrong but it came across like just lightly-grilled pork marinated with salt and pepper. I would prefer crispy lettuce instead and the taucheo sure came in handy here – it did taste quite good after I put it all together and rolled everything up and ate.

The jab chae (RM18.00)…

…was so very sweet that each of us tried a little bit and basically left the whole lot on the plate.

This…

…was about the only thing that truly got our thumbs up – their gal bi tang (RM21.00). The soup was really good but unfortunately, some of the beef was so tough we just had to leave it by the side of our bowls…for fear of breaking a tooth or two!

An ex-colleague of mine was here sometime ago and he shared a photograph of what he had on Facebook. I quickly asked him how it was and he replied, “So-so! Expensive. Service is good.” I would say that I do agree with him – our bill that night came up to a whooping RM102.00 and that certainly was not cheap and what we had sure did not sweep us off our feet. Personally I do feel we could have gone for something a whole lot nicer elsewhere with that kind of money but then again, it may be because I am not really into this kind of cuisine…so perhaps, others would go for the same and like it a lot more that I did.

Here today gone tomorrow…

My girl said that she wanted kampua noodles…

…that day so of course, we would go for the one here – this seems like the only place in town where she would enjoy the noodles with the beef soup…

Despite being born and raised all her life in Sibu, she is not exactly fond of THE main attraction of this little Foochow town. Yes, she would not mind having it time and time again but no, she will not go out of her way for it and more often than not, she would rather opt for something else that may be available.

The mum had the same too but I did not feel like it. I was thinking of something along the lines of the claypot noodles that my missus had the last time we were here. Unfortunately, those were no longer available, it seemed. Huh? Here today, gone tomorrow…so so soon! Perhaps the one doing it had moved elsewhere which I think would be very likely, considering all the new eating places sprouting out here, there and everywhere these days.

However, they had something else now that they did not have before – this (RM5.50)…

– the stewed pork rice…that my friend, Alfred, in Singapore said in his comment on Facebook was Taiwan-influenced, served this way. Well, I wouldn’t know as I had not been to Taiwan for years and years – when I was there, my girl was not even born yet! As far as I know, they serve it more or less the same way here…

…and theirs is just as nice so we would go for it sometime but of course, it would be a lot more expensive plus there is GST there now.

The stewed pork belly…

…was good though I know many would shudder at the sight of the fat – perhaps, they should read some of the current articles on that but whatever it is, as always, I would subscribe to the maxim that moderation is the key – once in a long while is all right, not too often…and definitely not every day, the way how some people must have a plate of kampua noodles every day to keep them going, not me!

Of course, I loved the stewed egg…

– I enjoy that without fail every time…and I also ordered a bowl of the aforementioned beef soup to go with this.

That sure was a delightful lunch for the three of us, RM25.00 only in total (inclusive of drinks).

P.S.:
I was checking out my site stats that day when I spotted this link. Gee! I’ve been featured in an article in that online newspaper but it is in Mandarin…and coincidentally, it is on this very shop that I have blogged about a number of times now.

One of many…

This is one of the many all over town…

…located near Sungai Merah (2.327275,111.840791), somewhere opposite the Catholic and SIB churches there. I’ve been to one of their spin-off, the Xpress outlet here and here and enjoyed what we had on those two occasions though I wish I could say the same about the third time we went there.

For one thing, where these franchise places are concerned, much may depend on the resident chefs. We may be cooking the exact same thing but what I dish out may be a whole lot nicer than yours…and other than that, the food may be really good for a while but once the chef has left, it would all go downhill all the way.

Anyway, we were passing by here that day…

…and we thought we would just stop by to give this one…

…a try.

One thing that is consistent across the board is their chili dip…

– you can drop by any one of their outlets and there would surely be a lot for you to help yourself to and one is as good as the other…but the chicken rice we had that day (RM2.10 per plate)…

…was so so good. The moment the plates were placed in front of us, we could detect the very delightful fragrance, something we had not experienced before at any of their other outlets that we had been to in the past.

We ordered their sweet and sour fish (RM10.20)…

…and yes, it was very nice though I would not say it is the best in town. For one thing, the serving is a little too big for the three of us and there is no option – whether one would like it small, medium or large.

Of course, I could not resist their stewed eggs (RM1.25 each)…

…and yes, I did enjoy that.

My girl enjoyed this snack platter (RM10.40)…

– she likes anything deep-fried…but the fish ball soup (RM7.00)…

…that I enjoyed very much at the other place was not as great here – I thought there was a little bit too much pepper in it for my liking.

The paku (jungle fern) with belacan (dried prawn paste), RM7.75…

…was fine, not as nice as the midin we had, but it was all right though I did wish they had put in a little effort to make it a bit more presentable.

The bill came up to RM44.15 for the food and rice alone (excluding GST) which I would think is very reasonable considering the amount that we had ordered but on the whole, I think I prefer the other place more.

Touch of class…

This place…

…has been opened for a few months now but no, I never stopped by to check it out.

Why, you may ask? Well, so far only two Facebook friends shared photographs of the place. I asked one how it was and he replied, “Menu, one page only.” Another one showed a snapshot of what he ate and it looked quite good but when I asked, he said, “Expensive, chicken rice,” and one would be able to sense the disdain in the response. In the meantime, I was told that people had been sharing pics of what they ate here on Instagram and everything looked very good. Well, I wouldn’t know as I do not have a smartphone nor an Instagram account so I do not get to see all of them.

For one thing, it looks like a really posh place, real classy and I would feel like a fish out of water as I never bother to dress up nicely whenever I go out plus it did seem kind of crowded (and bright) everytime we drove past. Nevertheless, the other day, I decided to just go and give it a try.

There was this beauty parked right in front…

– I gathered that it belonged to the owner/chef and yes, inside, it was really very elegant…

…with a kind of continental setting and ambiance somewhat. I would say it was real classy but no, it is no fine dining kind of place. The crowd came in, all more or less dressed like me…and made themselves at home, if you can catch the drift. I met an ex-student there – that boy in black behind the counter. He had finished his tertiary education and was there to help out – his brother-in-law and sister are the owners – while waiting for his convocation later in the year.

They had set lunches that day though I am not too sure if that is an everyday thing. Nobody wanted the spaghetti, aglio olio with a sausage…so my girl and the mum both went for the chicken with mushroom sauce…

…served with rice (RM12.90)…

…and a free drink, iced lemon tea. Rice? Yes, you heard right! No, nobody said it would be some western fare…even though one look at the place, one would expect nothing else but that. The chicken was nice though and the mushroom sauce was very good – I did try a bit and I thought it tasted…oriental, a perfect match for the rice by the side.

I saw there was nasi lemak (RM13.90)…

…on the menu and instantly, I said I wanted that. I had yet to find one that I, without a second thought, would want to go back for more.

The sambal was very good though I would prefer it to be a lot spicier – I think I like the one here more but the chicken rendang…

…was simply out of this world, very very nice.

As for the rice…

…I would say it was the best around, a little more lemak (rich with santan/coconut milk) than the others and it was not dry and hard like many of the rest.

Sky juice/iced water was 50 sen a glass and the total came up to RM40.20, no GST here…but no, I had to fork out that miserable 20 sen to pay all that is due on the bill! *frown*

It seems that they have a separate/different menu for dinner here and I did have a glance at it and yes, they do have a lot more stuff that is a lot more western so it sure looks like I will have to drop by another time…in the evening to see what’s good or otherwise here. Stick around!

One after another…

Say what you want about the country’s flagging economy, some people certainly seem to be doing very well at this point in time. First, there was this café and then came this supermarket. Word has it that they’ve opened a chicken rice place right across the road opposite the supermarket but I have not been to anywhere around that area so I can’t confirm this but what I do know for sure is that they have a brand new food court…

…here (2.297275,111.824849), right across the road from the Kin Orient Plaza (old Sing Kwong). Well, I would not say it is some fancy food court, just a big coffee shop and a very very big one at that with lots and lots of stalls.

I saw the kampua lady from here but she is no longer selling the noodles – probably somebody else has beaten her to it and is running a stall selling that so she has to sell something else. I am not sure what else she is selling now but I do know they have Sarawak laksa as when I was there around noontime, they were closed for the day and I saw the hubby or somebody frying the egg…

…and he said it was for the laksa the following day…

Now, THAT, I must say, is the way to do it! The egg must be fried really really thin, like popiah skin, and then cut into very thin strips to garnish the bowl of Sarawak laksa together with very thinly-shredded chicken, taugeh (bean sprouts)and all. It seems that people are not so concerned about doing it like this these days so don’t be surprised to see many serving you their bowl of Sarawak laksa in their very coarse, somewhat unrefined and not too presentable ways.

At another stall, there is this lady who used to sell what many claimed to be the best kampua noodles and Sarawak laksa in town at her stall at a coffee shop opposite the school that I was attached to before I retired and then she moved elsewhere and the last I heard she was at this coffee shop in Sg Merah. Word had it that she was unwell so the husband had to run the business on his own and eventually, he too left. I did not know where they went to after that but I sure was glad to see the wife again, looking very strong and healthy, with the hubby and sons helping out at her stall. Of course, she cannot sell those two anymore as obviously, others are already doing it but on the sign at her stall, it looks like she is now selling sotong kangkong and some other stuff.

The place opens from 7.00 a.m. till 11.00 p.m., so I’ve been told, and yes, there are lots and lots of stalls but be forewarned that some open only in the morning and some only at night and like most elsewhere, they may close one day in the week.

My girl had the tom yam fish hung ngang (big bihun)…

…from one of the stalls and she said it was good but she liked the one here a lot better.

I decided to try the dry bak kut teh…

…from this stall…

…and it came with a plate of rice, RM9.00 altogether…

…while my missus had their bak kut teh noodles (RM6.00)…

Both of us thought what we had were all right but we could hardly detect the herbal taste and it came across like our regular stewed pork or something along those lines. I would say that what we had here were very much better.

We may or may not drop by again but if we do, we certainly would like to try something else from the other stalls. I guess that is one drawback setting up a stall at a big place like this – most would want to hop from one stall to the other to try and if yours is among the best there is, it would be quite sometime before they come back to yours again…if they have not decided to just go elsewhere after a couple of disappointments in the meantime.

Dime a dozen…

No, you can’t get anything for one cent here…

…not even for a dime…

…despite the name. I’ve blogged about this place a few times before including that time in 2012 when I was here with my blogger friends from the peninsula and once when I was here with my young blogger friend for breakfast.

Well, if anyone is interested in the exact location (2.311277,111.847358), it is to the extreme left (facing Jalan Sena) among the shops in the Lot 9 area, right across Jalan Pedada from this mall…

…and these are their opening hours…

It sure looks like they are open every day but be forewarned that some of the stalls may take a day off each week, like this one…

…which, I understand, sells every nice mee sua and they have something with their own home-made fish balls as well.

My! It even has this certificate from a food-handling course that I hear, is compulsory for everyone in the food business in this town to attend in order that they may be allowed to carry on with their trade.

Well, since it was closed, I had to order something from another stall at that place and I had this (RM4.00)…

…the fried lao shu fun (rice drops) and yes, I would say it was very good indeed.

I also ordered the Sarawak laksa (RM4.50)…

…to try. The broth was very good but I did not like the egg that way. For Sarawak laksa, it would have to be an omelette, fried very thinly and sliced just as thinly too. Other than that, I thought they could give less of the shredded chicken and tofu puffs and substitute those with a prawn or two even if those would have to be somewhat small ones.

My missus had the fried tom yam mee (RM5.00)…

…from another stall and she said it was good as well.

People always say that one can tell whether the food is good or not by looking at the crowd and yes, this place was very crowded when my missus and I dropped by that morning.

On our way home, I saw this banner on the road…

It’s coming soon! The Borneo Cultural Festival, from the 30th of July till the 8th of August. That week would be a good time to come to Sibu and after that, you can hop over to Kuching for the renowned Rainforest World Music Festival from the 7th till the 9th of August this year…and you can fly back home from there, two birds with one stone. Any takers?

Had it all…

My (Facebook) friend living in Perth, Australia was home obviously and one fine day, he shared the photograph of the char kway teow (and another one of the church across the road) he had here, proclaiming it to be so very good and thanking me for blogging about it. He even added that he would go back the next day for more – dunno if he did. I did meet him once before here when he approached me and asked me if he could have his photograph taken with me – who could forget that and oh my goodness!!! He was on my same flight to Kuching, he said, and when he boarded and was walking past my seat, he asked me if I was going to Kuching…and added that thinking back, he thought that was a silly question. Why else would I be sitting in the plane, eh? Hehehehehe!!!!!

Yes, the char kway teow at this place is indeed very nice, along with a number of the other things available. I would say I’ve had it all, all that is available on the daytime menu, except for the bitter gourd bihun. This being a pork-free place, the guy uses chicken and for that dish, I would prefer pork – minced pork so that is why I have never given it a try. There are some western dishes available on the dinner menu though and I had yet to sample those until that night when we dropped by for dinner.

My girl had their lamb chop (RM13.50, the same as the beef steak)…

…with black pepper sauce and she loved it! Very juicy and tender, very nicely done. In her own words, this was the nicest she had had anywhere for a long time.

The mum had the chicken chop (RM8.50)…

…with the whole drumstick/thigh deboned and grilled to perfection, served with the very nice mushroom gravy. We all felt that it was the best of the lot – I had that too in the mixed grill platter (RM22.50)…

…that I had – with a choice of 3 out of 4 – lamb, beef, chicken and fish. I was not sure what fish he would use and I would not be keen on those frozen fish fillet available at the supermarkets so I opted not to have that. The beef was not all that great – I can’t say I am all that fond of beef, anyway, plus I am not a fan of black pepper sauce. I think if we ever drop by for dinner again, I would just have the chicken chop.

My girl and I had the mushroom soup (RM1.50)…

…which did not thrill us all that much. We would prefer it thicker and richer but I guess for RM1.50, there was no cause for complaint.

It appeared that many of the things available in the morning and for lunch were also served come dinnertime except perhaps, the nasi lemak and chicken rice. I saw people having the Sarawak laksa and the char kway teow and the kampua noodles as well and I also saw somebody who had fried rice with the very nice masak hitam beef by the side.

We were so full already but I saw somebody having the waffle and I could not resist asking for one (RM3.50)…

…to try. They were out of honey so I settled for strawberry instead and yes, it was so very nice. In the meantime, I spotted somebody else ordering that – it certainly looked like it was quite popular and according to my girl, this one here was nicer than the more expensive one with ice cream and all at one of those pricey classy coffee places in town that she went to once with her mum – her verdict: expensive and nothing really nice.

Well, now that we’ve tried and liked what we had, we probably would go back there time and time again…and perhaps, I should find out a bit more about the fish and try the fish and chips (RM9.50) sometime.

Eighty-two…

My mother-in-law celebrated her 82nd birthday…

…last Wednesday, the 15th of July, but we had a small celebration earlier that Saturday evening before the actual date so that the grandson from KL and her grand-daughter from Singapore could fly back to join in the dinner. Yes, it was the birthday cake that we would order everytime as  my niece, the grand-daughter in Singapore, loves it so much and would insist on it and it alone.

We all got together at this restaurant, together with my two brothers-in-law and their wives and in keeping with the tradition, the evening started off with the longevity mee sua, fried…

…that came with a “golden egg”.

That was followed by the “hot plate”…

…our version of the Four Seasons except that we have a lot more than just four here.

Here, you can see the filial grandson…

…dishing out some of the goodies from that platter for his grandma. I don’t know if he and his Thai girlfriend beside him would look familiar to any of you. Perhaps some of you may have seen them in person or on Facebook or in the newspapers or on TV – they are the people behind that Sangkaya coconut ice cream venture found at many places in KL and I hear it’s available at AEON in Seremban as well now and will be available in Malacca very soon.

There was this 2-in-1 chicken…

…roast chicken on one side and Thai-style chicken on the other or in fact, it was 3-in-1 as there was also the Thai-style jelly fish in the dish. We had this same thing not too long ago here.

Then, of course, we had their signature dish – the curry fish…

…with rice except that this time we had fish, not the head but I would prefer the latter as I did not quite like the texture and taste of the fish they used that night – everything else was great, of course and as always, the gravy went absolutely well with rice.

We had these spare ribs…

…a number of times before too except that this time, they were served in a yam basket though it did not look like the ones I would be more accustomed with – those in which they would serve the mixed vegetables.

Talking about vegetables, we had broccoli…

…and everything inside the ring and a soup dish plus a fruit platter at the end.

My very nice niece and nephew (the grand-daughter and the grandson) picked up the tab and shared everything between the two of them. This was RM500.00 (excluding GST) which I thought was rather expensive for a 7+1 dish set dinner. We did not even have prawns other than what they served in the “hot plate”…

…and I was told that there was a standard RM20.00 charge for the rice served with the curry, never mind whether somebody wanted just a spoonful or a big scoop or two, RM2.00 per head for 10 persons…and of course, the plate of stewed peanuts on the table at the start of the dinner did not come for free and neither did the wet towels at the end. Other than those, there were the charges for the drinks that we had and the 6% GST and I overheard them talking about a RM5.00 service charge  or something or was that for the corkage for some special beer or wine that they brought along?  All in all , the total came up to over RM580.00, almost RM600.00. Well, I would say the service was very good and the dishes were served promptly, piping hot from the kitchen and other than the aforementioned not-so-nice fish used, everything tasted fine but all things considered, I would much sooner go for the very much nicer RM400.00 set that we had at the other place here where I could request for the use of the VIP room, away from the crowds at the other tables and all the noise and everything…and I could sing karaoke too! Hehehehehe!!!!

In the meantime…

We did not cook lunch that morning when we all went to the fund-raising food fair as we would be going out for dinner that night. In the meantime, we dropped by that Y2K Restaurant here that we had been to many times before for my girl’s favourite – their sweet and sour fish fillet…

She was not keen on the sweet potato leaves this time around so we had their cangkuk manis fried with egg…

…instead. They seemed to do it a little bit differently here – notice how it looked like the egg had coated the leaves? Everyone thought it was very well done, no complaints whatsoever.

However, I can’t say the same about their bitter gourd fried with salted egg…

It was very nice, don’t get me wrong about that…but it came across like the vegetable fried with eggs – I could hardly detect the taste of the salted egg in it. The saving grace was the very strong wok hei fragrance so we did enjoy it very much.

No, this wasn’t my girl’s favourite…and no, they do not cook it the way I like it – how my missus or her mum or my mum would cook it but I just felt like having some pork leg…

…and they do it quite well here so I decided to order it. Theirs is a lot more diluted, not so heavy on the soy sauce and five spice powder…but with a strong hint of the spices used, star anise and cinnamon sticks. I asked for more lean meat and I told them that I did not want the trotters and they were only too glad to oblige and I loved the sauce in my rice.

All in all, it was a delightful lunch. The food came up to some RM48.00 something, I think – over RM50.00 with the rice. I had forgotten to tell them to cook for 2 persons only which probably would have reduced the total in the bill a bit,  so the servings were quite big – would be good for 6 persons, I think and more than enough for the 4 of us.

Next stop, dinner!!!