Me first…

My in-laws and families were all here for our nephew’s wedding bash here in Sibu and my sister-in-law and her hubby, her son and family and her daughter, all back from Penang, would all be going back to Kuching on the first day of Chinese New Year. Normally, every year, I would have my in-laws come over for dinner that night but that would be too late if I would want to get them to join in. That was why I hosted a pre-Reunion Dinner lunch that afternoon on Chinese New Year’s Eve and where else better than the award-winning Payung Cafe.

The boss was so very nice – he went and prepared his own version of the yee sang…

…with his own dressing which was lightly sourish and spicy, something like the taste of those kerabu dishes, and there was even a hint of hay bee (dried prawns) in the dish.

So to start off our lunch, we had the yee sang tossing session…

…for good health, good luck and prosperity in the year ahead. Everybody loved it and we all thought it was nicer than those pickled stuff in the real yee sang.

I brought some freshwater prawns and asked them to help cook their very nice belimbing prawns…

…and I so loved the dishes they used that I just had to take a photo of each…

Ooooo….I’m in love!

Everyone loved the Bangladeshi lamb curry…

…but the green curry stole the show…

…right down to the terung pipit in the dish…until the kacang ma chicken was served…

…and they started singing its praises. Personally, I thought it was especially good that day – very strong on the kacang ma and the ginger and with the extra white wine added, it was simply awesome!

They also enjoyed the otak-otak…

…and the mushroom roll…

…plus the pomelo salad…

I also ordered the Payung fish, ikan keli (catfish) in soy sauce…

…for my Penang nephew’s kid to eat with rice but it was too strong on the ginger so he did not like it very much. In the end, the rest of us finished it off and yes, it was really very nice too.

My in-laws are not as familiar with kampung or ethnic cuisine so this traditional dish of tapioca leaves and sweet potatoes…

…was something complete new to them – tapioca leaves with sweet potato and they loved it to bits!

For dessert, I ordered their dreamy nite pudding…

…and also durian ice cream and mango ice cream to share.

The bill came up to around RM500, including all the extras that I ordered. Drinks, their pineapple ginger soda and another one, probably roselle with cucumber juice or something, and iced water were on the house… and rice was served “free flow” in a banana leaf in a rattan basket.

Considering that there were around 20 of us and we had such a delightful lunch – my in-laws were all so impressed, they enjoyed everything and were full of admiration of the extraordinary dishes, things that they had never had nor seen anywhere else – it really was worth it. I certainly would do it here again if ever I have any excuse or reason to do so.