You’ll never know…

…unless you try!

That was why we decided to drop by this place (2.32652,111.840234)…

…opposite a fairly big supermarket (Mega Store) in the Sungai Merah area here to see what they had in store. It has been around for a long long time just that I never bothered to stop by to check it out but the other day, when I went to the supermarket to get the ice cream (RM4.00 each, compared to RM4.50 elsewhere…and over RM6.00 at the Sibu airport), I noticed that there were quite a lot of people eating there so my guess was that the food here shouldn’t be too bad.

There is a kampua noodle stall…

…on one side of the coffee shop and a chicken rice one right beside it but we did not order anything from either of them.

My missus had the Foochow-style fried noodles…

…from the chu-char (cook and fry) place at the back and I noticed that they do serve chap fan (mixed rice) there too. I did not take note of how much that cost, probably the usual RM3.80 or to the most, RM4.00, but my missus was not very impressed. She thought it was a little too starchy for her liking and she did not manage to finish all of that.

A long time ago, there was a man running a coffee shop in the area of shops opposite the school where I was teaching before I retired. He took great pride in his rojak and he even claimed that there were people from other towns buying the rojak sauce from him and taking it home with them. What I knew then was that his wife was running a stall at the Taman Jubilee Bukit Aup  (Aup Hill Jubilee Park) but for some reason or other, the guy moved here and then here…and his wife was nowhere to be seen the number of times we dropped by the park. There is  a stall at this coffee shop selling stuffed kompia, sotong kangkong and what the sign claims, the Taman Jubilee Aup rojak (RM5.00)…

…which turned out to be as good as it looked, hardly any taste of the most essential ingredient, the prawn paste. The lady running the stall was not familiar at all and no, she sure wasn’t the man’s wife. At best, I would say it was all right but it sure was not something I would want to order again.

The Malay stall…

…seemed to be the one enjoying the most business – everyone was having their nasi lemak and I also ordered that to see if it was any good, their special.

I loved the golden fringe in their fried egg…

…but usually, when I am cooking one myself, I would splash a bit of the hot oil over the yolk to cook it a bit so it would not look that raw.

The fried chicken wing…

…was very small and tasted…like fried chicken wing coated with some rather usual batter, nothing sensational.

The rice was good though, more lemak than many other places around town…

…and I would not mind going for it again should I happen to be around there again but for RM5.50, I think if I were to make my way some place for nasi lemak, I would much sooner go for the one here (RM6.00, chicken wing) and there, I could always fork out a little bit more for the added curry or masak hitam beef and enjoy everything (RM7.00) a whole lot more.

Incidentally, if you are around that part of town and happen to be looking for something to eat, perhaps you may consider dropping by here instead for the chicken rice. They are having a promotion right now, RM4.90 for a plate of chicken, steamed or roasted, the rice and complimentary soup. If I am not wrong, the set would cost RM6.50 normally and who knows, you may prefer this to the nasi lemak…and enjoy eating in air-conditioned comfort.