Fairground…

There was a fun and food fair here last week probably held in conjunction with the launching of the Visit Sibu Year 2017 and if I am not mistaken, it is still going on right now until the Ching Ming weekend, 3rd April.

My girl and the mum did go the Friday the week before when she came back from her school for the week-long holidays but they said that they went early at around 5 something so most of the stalls were still closed and it looked like there were not that many compared to the food fairs in previous years.

That was why when we went again, we made sure we did not go so early, this time at around 6.30 p.m. There was this old-school Ferris wheel…

…that thrilled us to no end way back then in the 50’s. I would have thought they would have something a lot more interesting and exciting these days. I don’t recall having this…

…in our time but I guess that is more or less the same thing as the Ferris wheel, possibly a little more exciting with the feet dangling precariously over the edge in the air like that. We did have the carousel or the merry-go-round where we could ride  the horses and go round and round and they did not have that. I did see a small one with what looked like aeroplanes or spaceships – I guess in principle, that is the one and the same thing.

There was also a big area with all the Doraemon-themed rubber inflatables, probably all the slides but I did not bother to go closer to check. There were also those bumper cars that you can enjoy in air-conditioned comfort at the amusement centres in the malls and a lot of those fun-fair games stalls, nothing much to shout about really.

As for the food stalls, we stopped by this one…

…but seeing that it was so expensive, RM10.00 each, I was not all that keen on buying…

…but my missus insisted so she bought one…

…for us to try. It was nice, period.

On the other side, there was a stall where they made these Chinese chive pancakes…

They were selling for only RM3.00 each…

…and they even had free samples for anyone interested in tasting it but we had no intention of buying so we did not bother.

I spotted this lady from the hawker centre near my house selling her satay and there were a whole lot of others selling all those Sibu Foochow delights…

…and those selling burgers, Taiwanese sausages…

…and so on and so forth. There was even a stall selling these pies…

…but no, I did not grab any. The boy said they were still in the process of heating them up and I would have to wait for at least half an hour. I just told him I could always drop by the shop anytime for those should I feel like having any and left.

We stopped by this stall…

…that my girl and the mum went to on their earlier visit. The fried or koi (yam cake) was not good but the sio pao…

…was not too bad, chunks of meat inside, even though the outer appearance sure needed a lot of improvement and I would say the same about the curry puffs…

…too. Well, the ladies wanted to go back there as they bought the Sibu Foochow sio bee…

…as well that day and they turned out to be very nice plus they were only 60 sen each, a whole lot cheaper than elsewhere…and my girl wanted to buy some of the frozen ones to take back to her school to eat there.

On the whole, I found it all rather unexciting and most disappointing. If it was intended to promote Sibu for the Visit Sibu Year 2017, they should have handpicked the very best in town to set up their stalls here – the best Sibu kampua noodles, the best kompia, dianpianngu and all the attractions…like how when they had a Penang food fair some place, they would get the best cendol people, the best char kway teow sellers to go and showcase the best of the best in the state…and not leave it to any Tom, Dick or Harry to set up the stalls according to their whims and fancies. If this is all I can expect to find in such future events, don’t count on seeing me there ever again, thank you very much.