Came and went…

I was out for dinner one evening last week with my teacher/blogger friend and his wife (Yes, he’s married now!) and his sister who is currently studying in the university in Sibu. I took them here (2.30367,111.849346)…

…which used to be a West Malaysian franchise. I had dinner at this restaurant with my in-laws once and I was there twice before, here and here. For the uninitiated, it is along Jalan Pahlawan behind the block of shops where Secret Recipe is, more or less back to back with this coffee shop with the nice steamed paos.

There is an air-conditioned section…

…but everybody did not want to sit there and it was perfectly all right by me.

I ordered the meat…

…with the cincaluk (fermented shrimps) dip (RM12.00)…

…that I had the first time I was there and loved so much and yes, they all loved it too. I thought the meat was a little bit dry this time around but the very very nice dip sure saved the day!

We also had the sweet and sour fish (RM12.00)…

…which was not all that well done when I was here with my in-laws but this time around, they got it spot on. It was just right…and maybe it was because we were early, the only people around at the time, so the cook was able to give his best.

For the vegetable dish, we had the cangkuk manis fried with egg (RM8.00)…

…and yes, they do it pretty well here and we also had the Foochow-style tofu soup (RM8.00)…

…which was nice and went absolutely well with the black vinegar provided but I wished they had added more of the canned oysters as there was so little in it that I could hardly taste it.

After dinner, RM40.00 for the food for the four of us, I dropped my friend’s sister off at the university hostel and drove the two to the airport. They had to catch a flight to KL for some business that they had to deal with.

On the way back, I had a rather unnerving experience.  I drove along the rather dark trunk road (so-called highway) and at a junction, the traffic lights had turned orange so I slowed down and subsequently, stopped. I saw in my rear view mirror a vehicle coming really very fast from behind – it was a trailer or rather one of those long vehicles, minus the trailer…and it swerved to avoid my car. Thankfully, there were no other cars in the other lanes and I lived to tell the tale. It zoomed past and continued on its way right ahead without slowing down or anything even though the lights had turned red…and it sure was a relief that the cars from the other side had not started moving yet – for once, I was thankful that some/many cars take their sweet time to start moving when the lights have turn green! Otherwise, it would have been a real ugly sight!

With drivers like this on the road, when accidents happen, don’t blame the road, don’t blame the government, don’t blame anybody else. It is very obvious who is to blame! It is not so bad if they go and kill themselves and they never think of the loved ones that they leave behind but innocent lives may be lost just because of these people with XXXL egos and XXXS brains. The sad thing is that this is not an isolated case – he is not alone! When will they ever learn?

Anyway, my friend and his missus did what they had to do in KL the following day and came back the next morning. I picked them up at the airport and took them for breakfast here. The other night, my friend’s wife was talking about how she loved the steamed ikan tapah here so I thought she would love this – the Foochow-style fried noodles with slices of the much coveted fish (RM12.00)…

…and yes, she did. I would not say that was expensive – if you put together all those generous slices of fish, you would get quite a substantial piece for your plate of steamed fish at a restaurant and that would probably cost a lot more…but still, RM12.00 is rather steep, I must say. Perhaps, they could give less fish and charge say, RM8.00, to make it more affordable. After all, it’s a noodle dish…not a fish dish with a bit of noodles added.

I tried the tomato kway teow with the fish as well (RM12.00)…

…and yes, they do it pretty well here. I am not all that fond of it if they are over-generous with the ketchup so much so that it would drown out the taste of everything else.

It sure was nice seeing you two again, Jarod & Michelle, and thanks so much for the dinner and breakfast treats. All the best in everything that lies ahead. Cheers!!!