Winner…

Last Saturday evening, my girl said that she would like the Bangladeshi lamb curry (RM19.00, with rice)…

…for dinner and also the green curry chicken (RM16.00, with rice)…

…so no prize for guessing where we went.

We went early, before 6.00 p.m. as, if I was not wrong, that day was a good day for weddings and on such days, all the banquet rooms at the hotel right behind this cafe would be fully booked for the receptions and the area would be terribly congested. On such days, it would be best to either go early…or go later but if you opt for the latter, there would probably be the problem of finding a place to park.

The boss was not around when we got there but it was very obvious that the staff members were all very thrilled and proud that they had been presented the much-coveted award…

…which is now displayed quite prominently at the cafe along with the certificate…

…that came with it. That kind of spirit is indeed commendable for truly, it is only with the joint effort of all of them as a team that the place has become what it is today. This was not the only time that I had dropped when the boss was not there but those very trustworthy and independent guys would manage very well in his absence. In fact, it was Claire, all the way in Ipoh, Perak, who commented that day that she asked her friend to drop by and she did, with 11 others, and in her own words, “My friend just came back from Sibu. Before she went, I recommended Payung to her and she showed me what she ate there. Very satisfied with everything she ordered for 11 people, kind of special especially the herbs salad, she said… And the boss was not around cos he went to receive an award...”

For one thing, I was kind of disappointed that it was not given much publicity except for a mere mention in this newspaper and in the Sarawak tourism website. There were reports in the more widely circulated Sibu newspaper on the event but sadly, there was no mention at all of our very own homegrown pride and joy…

As  far as I know, I did blog about it and somebody else has done the same in Mandarin and that’s about it! I do feel that they do deserve some publicity as that would help attract more visitors to the town – after all, there isn’t much that Sibu as to offer other than food…food…and more food and of course, the best would be those things that are not all that easily available elsewhere, stuff that is quite different from the rest. Nonetheless, one of the guys did mention that within the week, there had been more people dropping by…including my friends, a family back from Australia. Hmmmm…I wonder who they were as nobody had told me they were back in town.

Going back to the dinner that day, I noticed that the lamb curry with rice…

…had gone up in price by RM1.00 but that is perfectly all right. After all, we are getting quite used to the escalating prices of things – something that has been going on for quite sometime now in our frail economy and the weakening ringgit and word has it that the subsidies of items such as rice, cooking oil and so on would be removed, come 1st January, 2016. It sure does not look like it is going to be a very happy new year for us here, does it?

For a change, we ordered the pomelo salad (RM8.00)…

…and we sure enjoyed it. My girl said that it tasted very refreshing.

We also tried something new that they have on their menu – the Bangladeshi white chicken (RM16.00, with rice)…

…and yes, it was good, something on the lighter side compared to the other two meat dishes that we ordered. I am not sure how it was done but I was told that yogurt and a whole lot of onions went into the cooking.

For dessert, my girl wanted their banana cake with ice cream (RM8.00)…

…and I also ordered their Kahlua ice cream (10.00)…

…with a special request for extra liquor to be added to it.

It certainly was a delightful dinner and needless to say, we would be back again…and again…and again…