Hometown glory…

My girl loved the brinjal here and as a matter of fact, we went there again on a weekend when she was home but unfortunately, they did not have their chap fan (mixed rice) lunch special – RM6.80 per head for 2 meat and 3 vegetable dishes with a complimentary bowl of soup and free flow of a choice of either Chinese tea or ice-cold orange cordial. Well, now that it is the end-of-year school holidays, we can go on a weekday and that was exactly what we did!

Unfortunately, they did not have brinjal that day but it did look like they had a lot more choices than that first time when we came here. There was a nice man, not exactly a young guy, who insisted on helping everyone take whatever one picked and serving everything separately on another plate…

…instead of piling it all on the rice. These were my selections – sweet and sour pork, sesame chicken, cangkuk manis fried with egg, bitter gourd with fermented beans and ladies’ fingers…and yes, I thought they were all good, none of the msg overload that one would find at a lot of places.

The ladies insisted on having theirs all in one plate on their rice though and my missus had the same meat choices but she only picked two of the vegetables with an extra large helping of the salted vegetables…

…while my girl had the salted vegetables and cangkuk manis with egg too plus the tofu and the ketola (ribbed/ridged gourd) along with the fried fish fillet and the omelette…

…and yes, they enjoyed what they had picked as well.

I must say the people here were very good, very friendly and attentive, eager beavers going all out to serve…unlike those at some places here. I don’t know if they can speak English or not though for all the while, I was conversing with them in Mandarin…or was I speaking in Hokkien? I don’t quite remember now but I did get by pretty well, I would say.

I spotted these at the counter while I was settling the bill and bought a tub (RM7.00)…

…home. I sure wouldn’t mind buying this again the next time I drop by the place as I thought it was a steal considering that it was quite a big tub, much bigger than the kaya ones, the size of those that some people sell cookies in and with the slices of fried garlic added, it sure brought the taste to a whole new level…plus ikan bilis (dried anchovies), peanuts and garlic sure aren’t cheap these days. Nothing is. Tsk! Tsk!

After I had finished, I walked around the place to look around. Obviously, this is the meeting place of the Sibu chapter of this club…

…of runners/joggers or hashers…

…or hares and hounds as what they would call themselves at times.

Then, I chanced upon this certificate…

…laminated and displayed on the wall. Gee! They won that in 2011 for 2009/2010? I did drop by here in 2009 and thought the food was all right and the place was pretty nice, nicer than any regular kopitiam, that’s for sure…but it did not really get me jumping up and down with delight and no, I did not come rushing back for more till two years later when I thought the place looked much nicer but I did not pick the right choice from their menu and did not really think what I had that morning was all that great. I did drop by last year, 2014, with both family and friends like on this occasion and this one or this one as well and yes, I quite enjoy some of the items they now have on their menu and would not mind going back for more again and again.

There are some remnants of the unique and nice decor they had way back then and obviously, they had some kind of very nice landscaping done before…

…but unfortunately, all of those are showing signs of prolonged neglect.

I don’t know if this…

…was the work of the people there…

…the night before but one thing’s for sure, a massive clean-up is way overdue to make the place more presentable and nice enough…

…to bring visitors to the town and tourists to and to restore it to its former glory.