Count me in…

We were in the vicinity less than a fortnight ago and when we went again the other day, we noticed that there were at least two or three other cafés including this one…

…that had had its soft opening already and I think there was one, or maybe two, other coffee shops as well besides the two “food courts” that I mentioned in that earlier post…plus at least two hair salons.

With our frail economy the way it is right now, I really wonder if this is a good time to set up a business or maybe it is…as usually, there will be lots and lots of people coming home and and many others visiting Sibu too for the magnificent annual fireworks and firecrackers extravaganza at the stroke of midnight come Chinese New Year’s Eve so these places would probably enjoy brisk business at the time but they would have to make sure that they are a cut above the rest to keep the people coming back, those permanent residents, that is.

This time around, we dropped by here…

…and I had the char siew noodles (RM5.00)…

…from one of the stalls there which I thought was good. I remember we used to get this here but the roast meat stall had been taken over by somebody else and I do not know where they had moved to now.

Just like the other one, they use their thick own-made noodles, something like those in the celebrated KL Hokkien mee but it was their char siew…

…that stole the show. I don’t know which part they used but the meat was tender and succulent and it really tasted great. I went to the stall to ask if they sold the char siew or not but they said no – one would only be able to have it with the noodles, take it or leave it.

There is a stall right beside this one selling roast meat with rice and they had char siew too…but it did not look the same so I did not bother getting any from there to try.

My missus had the claypot mee (RM6.00)…

…from this lady who has shifted her stall from here where she was for a while. I heard she was originally at another shop in this same vicinity before so probably she stays around here and this new place would be a more convenient location…or perhaps the old lady and her kampua mee proved too much of a competition for anyone else setting up a stall at that same shop, I wouldn’t know.

Well, she did not use the usual yee mee so it did not have that special fragrance and taste. Instead, she used her own handmade noodles and I would say it was quite good, different but I thought it was not bad but there was too much for my missus to finish and no prize for guessing who had to finish it off. She left the egg behind – much to my delight and I did spot a few prawns and some minced meat balls in it. Well, anything with prawns doesn’t come cheap these days, that sure goes without saying.

Among the many others, there were a few most probably halal stalls there – one selling nasi lemak, another selling roti canai, one that dishes out all the fried stuff like fried noodles and the like and one selling nasi lalapan, ayam penyet…though I did not see anything that I would feel I would want to have.