Brothers…

I taught the younger brother English, those years before I retired. He has since graduated from the university and is currently teaching in a school around an hour from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah so no prize for guessing where he spends his weekends. However, every opportunity he has, he will fly home to Sibu to help his mum at the coffee shop…

She does all the frying and cooking at the back.

His elder brother is the one who runs the place…

…located right across the road from Sacred Heart Secondary School and he makes and sells the drinks there. I did not teach him when he was in school but I knew him well as he was very good at singing and would perform time and time again at school functions and from what I gathered then, he did that outside too like at singing contests and so on.

I did drop by this shop once a long time ago – I think it was because it was too early and the one that I used to frequent a lot a few doors away was closed. I don’t think I knew then who ran the place but I had the kampua noodles and I thought it was all right, nothing that made it stand out above the rest…and that was what my friend, Annie, home from KL said about the bowl she had that day…

She loved the ang chao chicken…

…very much though. That was available as one of the options at this stall in front…

…if you choose to go for the chap fan (mixed rice). She did say, however, that she would prefer pork or pork belly to be exact. I did try a bit of it and yes, it was very nice – they serve this at many places here but most do not do it well. I find a lot of them rather diluted, not as fragrant and tasty so generally, they’re not as nice.

I was glad to note that they were doing very well – the place was so very crowded and we did have a problem initially trying to get a table or two for so many of us. My ex-student, the older one, is very active on Facebook and he would post photographs of what is available at the coffee shop and I did see the ones of the frothy  kopi-o-peng (iced coffee)…

…that my missus and I had. It was nice but no, it did not sweep me off my first and I felt the same way about the ang tao cendol (plus sian chao)…

…that I ordered for my girl – it was very much nicer than the ones here but I prefer the ones here even though that one too would pale in comparison to what I had in Kuching. According to Annie’s brother who was with us that day, the ones with green beans instead of the red would be nicer so I guess I would have to go back there one of these days to try.

Annie said that her mum loved the fried pek koi (rice cakes) here and according to her, they make their own and do not use those imported in packs from China. My girl loves pek koi so she had that…

…and the mum as well. They said it was very nice and enjoyed it a lot…but Annie’s mum said that the dry version, not this moist one that the two had, would be nicer. It sure looks like we will have to try that too as well when we go back to this coffee shop.

I had the Foochow fried noodles…

…and yes, if you want it done like the ones I had all those years when I was growing up, this would be the place to go to. I sure would want to have that again the next time around but then they were telling me that the fried rice is really good and I should have a go at it. Oh dear!!!

One thing’s for sure, whatever I would decide to have when the time comes, we would be back!