Joy…

This place (2.299452,111.830832)…

…along Brooke Drive here in Sibu, on your left if you are driving from town, has been around for a while now but somehow, we had never bothered to drop by even though we would drive past all the time on our way home from the town centre. One reason would be the fact that everytime we came by this way, we would have had something to eat in town already so we would be full and would not have any reason to do so. Another reason was that when it first opened, my friend, Rose, who was living in Sibu at the time, did go and check it out but based on her review of the place in her blog, it was not really anything to look forward to plus she did not like the fact that it was rather noisy – and that certainly would put me off as well.

Then, I saw a friend sharing a photograph on Facebook of some beef steak that he had there and I asked him what else was nice. He said he liked the beef rendang…

…so off I went the other day with my girl and the mum to give the place a try.

It was a simple place, nice and clean and not very big and despite the name, it did not look like one of those classier fine dining joints to me…

One look at the apple green plastic basket of orange chopsticks on the counter would say it all…but the prices certainly seemed to state otherwise. The lady asked us if we wanted something new on their menu, their pork ribs but at RM39.90, we did not think we would be all that keen to give it  a try.

I steadfastly stuck to what I had come for – their beef rendang with rice (RM16.90) which, indeed, was very nice but unfortunately, it was not spicy at all so I would not say I was all that thrilled by it. Incidentally, what you see in the photograph would be about all that you would get. When it was served, I thought that was really a lot – all that in the claypot, served in a rattan basket but it was kind of shallow so there wasn’t all that much, actually. Still, there was more than enough for me but in my honest opinion, I did feel that the price was rather steep and I sure would think twice about having that again.

My girl opted for the orange pork rice (RM11.90)…

…which was definitely more reasonably priced and yes, they were very generous with the meat too…

…and yes, the meat was very nice and very tender and went absolutely well with the orange sauce.

The mum ordered their chicken with tom yam mayonnaise (RM10.90)…

…and it was very good too. We thought that was a strange combination but it did taste pretty good, really – the creamy sauce with a hint of tom yam, something like a very nice and unique variation of the thousand island.

Looking at the prices and also at the fact the rendang was not spicy and not really what would sweep me off my feet, I would think it would make more sense to stick to the pork or chicken…or try something else that they may have on their menu. As for the name, I too, like Rose, had been thinking all this while that it was French but according to this blogger, it is actually a transcription of its Chinese name, meaning “joy” or something like that. There was just one other table, a big group of young people, other than us, and though it was quite noisy, it was quite bearable but I cannot imagine what it would be like if the place was full like the time when Rose went there.

Their opening hours are from 11.00 a.m. till 2.00 p.m. and from 5.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. and they take their weekly break on Tuesdays but not on public holidays. All things considered, I would say this is an option, one place that one may want to stop by for a bite once in a while but based on what we got to sample that day, it take a little more than that to get me to go out of my way just to come here.

Never been to Spain…

No, I’ve never been to Spain. Neither have I tried anything from their cuisine either. The closest I ever got to that were the chicken croquettas that used to be available here when this guy that used to be a tapas chef in Singapore and on some cruise liner was around. That was why when we were here for breakfast not too long ago and I saw that they had paella on their dinner menu, I told my girl that we would be back to give that a try.

The girl who came to take our orders could not speak any English and I was not in the mood to struggle with my limited Mandarin so I asked for one who could. After all, this is a classy WESTERN restaurant, isn’t it? Another one came and she was no better but thankfully, a third one followed suit and yes, she was conversant in the language and well-versed with the items on the menu so we were able to tell her what we wanted and promptly placed our orders. I guess the likes of those would go down well with the general public and most of the customers here – they probably would prefer that being more comfortable with it but I, for one, would not know what things like paella or tapas, for instance, are called in that lingo. As far as I know, spaghetti is “Italy mien” (Italian noodles) and from the adverts on radio during those days when our own local Sarawak fast food franchise first made the scene, I learnt that hamburger is “ham pa pao” but adding one and one equals two, I can get along quite well now with the little that I know just that it will take a little bit of effort on my part.

We had their cream of pumpkin soup (RM6.25, inclusive of GST)…

…which was very nice. We could be wrong but we thought we tasted something a bit like santan (coconut milk) in it. However, it was a little watery so in comparison, my girl prefers the ones her mum makes – thick, rich and creamy.

The tod mum pla (RM7.31, inclusive of GST)…

– their Thai-style fish/seafood cakes, categorised in their menu under the tapas section, were very good and went absolutely well with the light fish sauce and cili padi dip that came with it.

We enjoyed their flower clam aglio olio pasta (RM14.73)…

…very much too but there was hardly anything in those clams, very very small and in some, there was nothing at all plus we had to be careful with some broken bits of the shell in the pasta. I think we would like their pasta of curry seafood (RM11.90) that they had on their previous menu more…or the seafood pasta here but of course, the latter is a lot more expensive.

The crispy pork belly with sweet potato wedges (RM20.03, inclusive of GST)…

…was superb. It tasted so nice that it literally swept us off our feet and we certainly loved that very much but we had one bone to pick with the dish – there was nothing crispy about it. In fact, when I saw the item on the menu, I imagined something like our siew yoke (roast pork) with the crispy skin or what they call crackle or crackling. But other than the kind-of-misleading name, I would say it has a slight edge over the ribs that we like a lot here and is cheaper too, though comparatively, this one is a little smaller…

Still, it was big enough to be shared by two, or even the three of us.

Iced water was FOC and the total for that delightful dinner that we had came up to only RM48.30.

Now, wait a minute! Whatever happened to the paella that we had gone all the way to try? Sadly, we were duly informed that they had run out of the special rice that they would use to cook the dish so it was currently unavailable. Well, it did not really matter all that much, considering that we did enjoy what we had…so I just told the guy (who said that he had worked for two months under a Spanish chef) to post on Facebook once the new stock of the rice had arrived and we would make our way there again…just for the paella!

Dance for you…

The other day, we went to the Esplanade…

…beside the mighty Rajang…

…for the outdoor performances of the Sibu International Dance Festival 2015.

Here, you can see some of the dancers on their way to present their dance with the Rajang River in the background…

There were dancers from several different countries such as these from Singapore…

…that started off the evening’s programme with their jazzy a la Broadway number…

…and they were followed by the ones from Sri Lanka…

…including this guy…

…who danced while doing some acrobatic acts with the bowls he had with him – something like the Chinese one using plates on sticks.

I really enjoyed the one by these Filipinos…

…from the University of the Philippines Dance Company with their very lively and entertaining presentation called Tagu-taguan (Hide and seek). I’ve seen performances by their internationally-acclaimed choir on youtube like this one, for instance…

…and I really must say these people from our neighbouring country are absolutely super multi-talented!!!

This group from Taiwan got some volunteers from the audience…

…to join in and they obviously had a whole lot of fun!

I did not bother to take any more photographs after that as it was very difficult to take nice shots of people in motion, not with my small and cheap digicam but if you are interested, you can always check out the official Facebook page – they do have very much nicer ones there, taken by professionals, I guess.

Spearheaded by the Hornland Dance Theatre here, this event has been going on for the fourth year running now and it certainly has been very well-received. This year, the participants came from the aforementioned countries and also Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and of course, Malaysia and there was even somebody from the US! Other than this outdoor event, there were also performances for two or three consecutive nights at the Dewan Suarah (Civic Centre) here in Sibu as well as dance-related conferences and workshops at selected venues (hotels) in the town. If you are thus inclined, this would be a good time to come to Sibu and you can get to enjoy the dances and everything, both cultural and contemporary.

Ahead of time…

The Mid-autumn Festival, on the 15th Day of the 8th Month in the Chinese lunar calendar, also known as the Mooncake Festival falls on the 27th of September this year, which is today.

Well, school reopens tomorrow after the week-long mid-term holiday so we would be sending my girl back to her school today. This means that we cannot celebrate it this evening and last night (Saturday) would be out of the question too as we would be going for the sunset service in church. That was why we had a little celebration among ourselves, just the three of us, ahead of time on Friday night.

We chose to have a steamboat dinner as that would be less of a hassle since we would not need to go through all that chore of doing all the cooking at the end of which we would be too tired to sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labour. For that, I went and bought these fairly huge freshwater prawns…

…and these big seawater prawns as well…

…and also these lovely scallops…

All these would certainly make the soup extra sweet and tasty…

We did not want to add a lot of stuff for fear that we would not be able to finish everything and indeed, even with the little that we had…

…there was still a bit left over.

For dessert, in keeping with the special occasion, we had one of the mooncakes that my friend, Annie, in KL sent me…

I did not buy any this year, not at the current prices and thankfully, I had two to enjoy whilst observing the tradition and preserving our cultural heritage.

Yes, it was very nice and the best part was that it was not sweet…

…only slightly and we all enjoyed it, thank you so much, Annie.

So have you had your celebration yet? Or are you getting ready for a scrumptious dinner tonight? Well, here’s wishing everybody celebrating a very Happy Mid-autumn/Mooncake Festival. Cheers!!!

How will I know…

Well, I will never know unless I try, right?

For instance, I think it was Princess Ribbon who mentioned that she loved the white chocolate almond ice cream…

…a lot so I just had to go and grab some to try.

They are sold singly here at RM4.00 each…or in boxes of 3 each at RM12.00. Somebody mentioned that they were available at a couple of supermarkets here so I quickly made my way there. Unfortunately, there were none to be seen anywhere at those places. I went back to confirm that it was white, not the regular dark chocolate as those were readily available and yes, it was indeed white and probably they were all sold out.

In the meantime, I saw people here, there and everywhere posting photographs of theirs on Facebook too. Gee! That must be really so good, I thought to myself. Then, I heard that some were seen at another supermarket in town so I quickly rushed there and grabbed a few. And now the moment of truth!

Well, it was nice – after all, how can ice cream ever be not nice? But I did not think I liked the white chocolate on the outside…

…as its taste did not stand out from that of the vanilla ice cream inside. I honestly think I prefer the ones with dark chocolate which I did buy to try as well when I went searching for this one and failed to find any.

Incidentally, when I was buying the ice cream, I could not help but wonder why they are being sold in boxes of 3 and yet, they are available singly or loosely. Perhaps the prices are different elsewhere, not like the ones here but if it is going to be the same, never mind if you are buying 1 or 3 or more, why bother packing them in those not-very-cheap looking boxes then? For one thing, it is not environment-friendly at all as it would end up getting thrown away eventually, right?

Ok, let’s move on from the topic of ice cream to…pancakes!

I had seen boxes of pancake mix at the supermarkets everywhere but I had never bothered to try them out so I did not know whether they were any good or not. Somehow or other, I never even bothered to take one to browse through and see what they said on the box until that day when I received one from Rose…

…in Kuching, made in the USA! Now, now, that must be good, I told myself! Just add water, it said on the box. Now, that sure sounded really easy…and Rose did suggest that I used milk instead so I went out and bought a carton, Devondale no less, made in Australia. It used to be dirt cheap at a time, just over RM1.00 and less than RM2 each and people would come to the supermarket in Sibu and cart boxes and boxes home. It was a lot creamier and nicer, they insisted and for one thing, the Malaysian reconstituted ones at the time were selling for over RM3.00 a carton. Now who on earth would be so foolish as to go for those when we could get fresh milk, the low fat variety included, direct from Australia at around half the price? Unfortunately, the price kept going up and up and up and they are over RM6.00 now so it is no longer all that affordable. Especially with our very weak ringgit these days, things from that southern continent definitely do not come cheap, not anymore. Sobsssss!!!!!!

I followed the instructions…

…on the box faithfully and in no time at all, I was ready to start frying.

After frying two pieces, I tried a little bit and goodness gracious me!!! It was light and fluffy all right but it was completely tasteless – not sweet, not salty, no buttery fragrance, nothing! I quickly added a spoonful of brown sugar to the rest of the batter and continued frying till I was done…

I only got around 8 pieces though despite the fact that it was stated on the box that I would be getting 12-16. Never mind! Since it was not all that nice, it did not matter one bit as I would not be giving any to my parents to enjoy.

Despite having added a little bit of sugar, it did not make much difference and of course, I did not have any of these…

…in the house to go with the pancakes. I did have some honey in the fridge though and that certainly saved the day!

Still, I do not think I would want to go out and buy any more, not at all as it was not all that hassle-free, I must say. Mixing the batter is not all that hard actually and this actually required the same amount of work, greasing the pan and frying the pieces one by one…and considering all that trouble one would have to go through, I would much sooner settle for our own family recipe and come out with pancakes that are just as light and fluffy, with a so much more delightful richer taste and buttery fragrance, so good that we would enjoy just eating them on their own.

But thanks again all the same, Rose, for sending me the box to try – now I know…and actually, I still have a lot left so being very much the wiser now, I would not want to make any more pancakes with it. In fact, at this point in time, I’ve seen some recipes for butter cakes using pancake mix and I think I would want to give it a try…and see the end result. We’ll see how that will turn out, eh?

Crowded…

Last Sunday morning, after the church service, we stopped by here for brunch and boy, it was so very crowded.

My girl and the mum wanted the wat tan hor kway teow (RM4.00)…

…that the latter had the last time and liked a lot but they were told that they would have to wait for at least half an hour and I said it was all right as we were in no hurry to go anywhere anyway so they placed their orders and waited.

Janggut’s stall was closed and my guess would be that he does not open for business on Sundays. I would think that is not a very good move considering that there are so many people on the day and he certainly would enjoy brisk business if he had been around. Perhaps it would be better for him to have his rest day on say, Friday, perhaps.

The roti canai guys were in full swing though and it sure looked like they were getting a lot more orders than on other days. I went and ordered their roti telur (roti canai with egg added) plus bawang (onion), RM2.00…

…and it was very good, very much nicer compared to the roti telur (RM1.80) I had the previous time. The fragrance of the onion sure brought the taste to a whole new level. The dhal dip…

…was consistently good so I really enjoyed it a lot.

The kampua noodle stall was enjoying brisk business too and I decided to try their pian sip (RM2.80)…

…but I would say it was all right, nothing that would make it much different from most of the rest.

Wondering what the porridge special was, I wanted that but the lady told me that they do not have it on Sundays. I guess they would not be able to cope with the crowd if they had to cook that as well so they would just concentrate on the kampua mee and stuff. I asked for the kway teow kampua listed on their menu instead and this was what I got (RM2.80)…

I was wondering what that was – kway teow mixed with the kampua noodles perhaps but it turned out to be just kway teow tossed kampua-style except that it was not exactly like that as kam/kang in kampua/kangpuang means dry and there should not be any sauce in it…

I did not know what sauce that was but it sure made it taste quite unlike kampua noodles as I know it but it did not taste too bad. I thought it was quite nice actually.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, possibly more than a mere half an hour, the wat tan hor kway teow came…

…and after the two ladies had finished off everything on their plates, we left…with a mental note in my head to drop by this place on any other day but, as the song goes, Never On Sunday!

Same place…

After stopping at the SSPCA fund-raising event that day, it was time for lunch and we decided to just go to this place since it was very convenient, being located in that very same mall.

They have some  kind of promotion going on in conjunction with the Mooncake Festival…

…but unfortunately, it would only begin the following day.

My missus opted for the other on-going promotion…

…the chicken curry and rice plus a huge glass of iced lemon tea (RM20.00, exclusive of GST)…

The curry was nice…

…spicy and had a lot of meat and potatoes in the bowl but it was not anything sensational, nothing to shout about. One would be able to get the same, more or less, at any Malay stall or shop in town…at at least half the price.

I had the lasagna (RM18.50, exclusive of GST)…

…and yes, it was very nicely done…

…with a lot of minced beef in between the layers of pasta sheets plus the garlic bread toast that came with it went very well with the bolognese sauce in the dish.

My girl was not in the mood for pasta so she had the lamb shank (RM33.50, exclusive of GST)…

…which seems a little cheaper than elsewhere with the prices usually bordering around RM40.00. The meat was very nicely done, very tender and bursting with flavours and we liked it a lot except that I missed the bed of mashed potatoes underneath that one would usually get when having the dish at most places elsewhere. There wasn’t much else other than the little bit of coleslaw that my girl said was very good and the french fries that came with it…and what on earth was that? A little saucer of tomato ketchup or was it chili by the side of the plate? No, it was not even served separately…or given upon request. Good grief!!! For a classier place like this, surely they can do a lot better than that? One would expect these off-the-shelves tomato and chili sauces at the cheap hawker stalls serving western food where they would give you these in their original bottles for you to use as much as you like.

Iced water was RM1.00 a glass and I was wishing they would turn off the not-very-nice music which they eventually  did and then they turned on the tv instead. Tsk! Tsk! I don’t know about other people but at places such as this, I would like to enjoy the peace and quiet while I eat or to the most, some very light and soft music or songs would be good.

Service was o.k. – two young girls, and one of them seemed to be struggling a bit with English and our orders, probably a newbie on the job, but she was nice and friendly so it was perfectly all right with me. The bill came up to a total of RM78.45, inclusive of GST and though we quite enjoyed the food, as far as the overall dining experience went, for that kind of money, perhaps it would be quite a while before we may decide to come back again.

Bless the beasts and the children…

Last Saturday, we dropped by this shopping mall (2.311785,111.846904) near our house where they had this event going on…

…to raise funds for the SSPCA (the Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

There was a lot of stuff for sale including The Kitchen’s instant kampua noodles…

The nice and generous proprietor said that all proceeds from the sale at the event would go to the association. I’ve blogged about it very often and I’ve given/sent some to friends and family for them to try but if you have never heard of it nor seen it before, you can click these links to see the reviews here and here in this blog that is solely on instant noodles.

I bought these umbrellas…

– RM30.00 for the big one and RM15.00 for the smaller foldable one, not that I am in need of any umbrellas at this point in time but I thought they do look quite nice and at least, I would be doing a little bit on my part for a worthy cause.

My girl bought their t-shirts…

…two for RM50.00…

…and she loved the material very much – very cool and comfortable.

We saw Rilakkuma…

…there. I think anyone could have a selfie/wefie with the character and donate by putting his or her contribution in the box being carried by the boy in the white t-shirt on the right at the back. I did ask my girl if she was keen but she was not. However, we met this clown…

…that was going to do a show and hand out balloon sculptures to the kids at the event and she did have a snapshot with the character – she likes it very much as she loves the colours and it is now her Facebook profile pic. Coincidentally, that was the same clown that Rose engaged for her daughter’s birthday party sometime back – they must have flown him in from Kuching specially for this event.

There were other activities such as a colouring competition for kids…

…but we did not linger around to watch as it was time for lunch but that will be in the next post.

Well, in case anyone is curious as to my choice of title for this post, this video clip says it all…

This is that night…

When my girl came home for the weekend, followed by the mid-term holiday, last Friday, she said that she wanted to go for the Bangladeshi lamb curry…

…here (2.283419,111.833454)…

…so off we went that night…for the second round of celebration in conjunction with her birthday after the first one we had in advance earlier.

She ordered her favourite drink, the very refreshing pineapple ginger soda…

…and the mum wanted her favourite – the green curry, chicken…

…and since there was lamb already and chicken as well, I asked for the otak otak fish…

…which took a long time coming. I enquired to check in case they had forgotten but they said the one they were cooking turned out a bit too dark, probably over-charred, so they did another one and that was why it was taking longer than usual. That was very nice of them but I don’t think we would mind if it had been slightly burnt – that might just bring the taste to a whole new level, who knows?

We asked for the Payung rojak, small as we did not think we could finish but the nice boss insisted that we were served the big one…

…and charged us the price for the small and that was not all! He even made this lovely century egg salad…

…for us on the house!!!

No, no, that wasn’t all either! I was asking him about the different types of ice cream desserts on their menu that I had not tried before but we did not think there was anything that we fancied especially when we were already so very full after the delightful dinner. Still, he served us this – their Maldives ice cream…

…also on the house. I don’t know why it was thus named – probably the scoops of ice cream looked like an island and there was coconut all over it – toasted desiccated coconut that my missus liked a lot as it was crusty and very fragrant but my girl and I were just o.k. with it, being not too fond of that in anything for that matter.

Then the boss mentioned that he was wondering why I had never ordered this dessert…

…that he said was very popular among the diners there. I told him that I thought it was a cake that I tried on one of my very early visits a long long time ago, probably my first time there and it was some cake made of egg white and no butter was used…and I did not think it was anything great. He told me that they had stopped making that a long time already and he quickly went and got this…

…for us to try. Yes, it was indeed very very nice – some kind of pudding (with the sprinkling of raisins and crushed peanut all over it) and we thought we could detect a hint of tapioca in it but he said no, there wasn’t any in it and instead, there were oats and some other stuff that he did not reveal to us. We loved how it was very soft, not like agar-agar, and its very mild and light taste plus it was not sweet…and for sure, the next time, we drop by, we would want to order it again!

The bill came up to only RM64.00 altogether, no charge for the big glasses of iced water that my missus and I had, but of course, half the things we had came free, compliments of the very nice boss, thank you so much, Peter!

I’m not Lisa…

No, I’m not Lisa. My name is Liza…

…with a zee and I am located at the end of Sungai Merah bazaar (2.327044,111.83921), opposite this primary school and church…

If anyone is wondering, no, this is not an English primary school. In the past, some schools were divided into two, one where the medium of instruction was English, and thus named, and the other Chinese until after the switch to Malay here sometime in the 80’s but despite that, they have retained the original name so even though you see the name of a school, tagged as English at the end like this, it is actually a Malay-medium school.

The other day, my missus and I dropped by this coffee shop that has been around for quite sometime now, just that we never bothered to go and check it out. I saw a lot of people eating the roti canai (RM1.20)…

…but I was kind of disappointed when it was served. It looked rather pale and the dhal dip was so diluted…

…not thick and rich the way I would love it. However, the sambal that came with it saved the day – I would not say it was all that great but with that and the dip, the roti canai was not too bad, after all, just that there are better ones around like the nice one round the corner from here that comes with a bowl of curry gravy.

We were early but though it was only mid-morning, the selections for their nasi campur (mixed rice) were ready. Everything looked good so we decided to have brunch there and save us the trouble of having to cook lunch once we got home. There were a few types of curry to choose from – chicken, beef, fish…and I chose the lamb…

…and yes, it was very good and the meat was very nice and tender.

The sambal egg…

…at these Malay places is my favourite so I just had to have one and I had the sotong (squids)…

…masak kicap (cooked with soy sauce) too. Both were good though the squids were a tad too salty and my missus, who had that too, was of the same opinion – they could have used less soy sauce or the sweet type instead.

I picked the very nicely-done ladies’ fingers…

…too and in fact, I took quite a lot of that – probably twice the amount of one regular serving if they do it for you at this type of stalls and just look at that…

– the salted egg yolk, so red and oily, truly a beauty and it was beckoning to me! Come! Come! Take me! Take me! So, how could I resist that, you tell me? LOL!!! Unfortunately, it was not as good as it appeared to be as it was rather salty and not really to my liking. There! I should have known better than to judge it solely based on appearance.

No, my missus had better self-control and did not give in to temptation so very easily so she just had the rice and the sotong and ladies’ fingers and she also had some kangkong, that was all, unlike what I ended up having on my plate…

When I asked them to calculate everything that both my missus and I had, including two glasses of kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee), I could not believe my ears when she told me it was only RM11.20 (excluding the roti canai). I have had a lot less at those nasi kandar shops in the peninsula and charged a whole lot more…like that time when I had to fork out RM11.00 for me alone at this place in Penang and I only had rice plus one quite big sotong and a small piece of fish, nothing else!

Hmmm…give and take a little here and there, at that price, I certainly would not mind coming back here again, that’s for sure!