My mind playin’ tricks on me…

I saw a lot of people sharing photographs of what they had at this place…

…on Facebook and somehow, my mind registered the second word as ijio and I thought that sounded something like Indonesian or whatever and I could not figure out how on earth café could be cabe…or was that in Indonesian or some foreign language too? So when I dropped by that day, I asked the waitress how to pronounce the name and she said, “Cha-bik hi-joe!” Good grief!!! That’s in Bahasa Sarawak, the local Malay dialect, meaning green chili and there I went thinking far and wide trying to figure out what the name actually was. Tsk! Tsk! I must say that is a very clever use of the colours…

…red for the chili and green for the ijo (hijau meaning green).

I was early – 11.30 and they were not open yet but I went in, anyway – never mind that they were still cleaning here and there and arranging this and that. I saw this lady barbecuing those lovely chicken thighs at the back…

…so I just had to order that…from their one-page menu.

One thing that caught my attention when I saw my friends’ photographs was their three different kinds of sambal and  I noticed that they were still cooking the light-coloured one…

…when I was snooping around the kitchen. Hehehehehe!!!!

Word had it that the service was poor and slow but no, that certainly was not true or at least, it was not so in my case. What I ordered came very fast – their lalapan ayam panggang (RM12.50)…

…with one huge slab of nicely-panggang-ed chicken but it came with only two types of sambal. I did not bother to ask but a little bit later, they brought the third one…

Hey! How come this one was not in those nice little stone bowls? In case you’re thinking those were lesung batu (mortar and pestle), they were not. Those were very shallow sauce plates made of that same kind of stone so don’t expect a lot of the sambal in each of the thing – what you see is what you get! Nonetheless, it did not matter one bit as with three different types to savour, there was more than enough.

Back to my order, the very nicely-done chicken came with rice wrapped in banana leaf…

…and by the side, there were blanched cabbage and bandong (tapioca) leaves and cucumber plus two teeny-weeny pieces of fried tofu and tempeh – you can order more if you want at RM2.50 per order for 3 pieces though I would not know if they would be just as puny or bigger.

I also had their sup tulang (RM13.50)…

…and yes, it was quite nice and the meat clinging to the beef bones was quite tender all right. The serving was really big though – there would be enough in that bowl for at least 3 or 4 people.

Looking at the menu, however, I must say I was rather disappointed as with a name like that, I would expect more of our own Sarawak Malay or Melanau specialties. Why! They don’t even have our daging masak hitam but yes, they have the Melanau umai (raw fish) and the Dayak ayam pansuh is on the menu. Their paku and midin (wild jungle ferns) are served kerabu style which I would think is more Thai-influenced northern West Malaysian, not quite our Sarawak’s own. Lalapan or lalap is Indonesian, something like our ulam and according to wiki, it is usually served as vegetable side dish next to the main course, such as ayam goreng (fried chicken), ayam bakar (grilled chicken), pecel lele (fried catfish)…and many other ikan goreng (fried fish) or ikan bakar (grilled fish). I googled and found out that in Indonesian, green chili is cabai hijau or chili ijo in Javanese. Ah well…I guess they’re just starting – on the 8th of July to be exact so hopefully, given time, they may be able to add to their menu things that are quintessentially Sarawak.

All in all, I enjoyed what I had that day though it was indeed somewhat pricey…but of course, this place is more upscale, very very nice (They have an air-conditioned section occupying half of the big place but no, I opted not to sit there) and the people are very friendly and while I was there, I loved the English songs that they were playing – the current/recent hits such as Sam Smith’s Stay with me and my favourite, Lay me down and so on…and even Hozier’s Take me to church! Hmmmm!!!!

Well, if anyone is wondering where this is (I think they normally open for business at 12.00 noon), it (2.307974,111.820536) is around the new blocks of shops (not quite visible from the main roads) at Simpang Tiga and if you walk left to the end of the building facing Jalan Ria, you can see the roundabout and the supermarket close by…

…where I would usually go for the very much cheaper and equally nice (though some may insist these are nicer) Moroccan or pili pili (peri-peri) grilled chicken.