Little bit later…

Last Thursday morning, I was up and about as usual, boiled water, made coffee and breakfast and then I went outside to water the plants when I noticed that I had a flat tyre – rear wheel, left side. There was just a little bit of air left and thankfully, it was enough for me to drive to the shop quickly to get it fixed. They found a nail stuck in it. RM7.00.

As soon as I got there, it started to rain heavily and when I got home, my missus said that my girl was unwell and asked us to go and get her to go and see a doctor. She had been down with a severe flu and cough for a week or two now…and when we reached the school, she had a slight fever as well. It rained most of the way there and back and I sure was relieved and so very thankful that it wasn’t along the way in the pouring rain in the middle of nowhere that I had the flat tyre – over the years, I have often seen many cars in such a predicament and also many stranded halfway with engine trouble and what not. Truly, God is merciful, praise the Lord!

So all weekend we were home mostly, letting my girl take all the medication prescribed by the doctor and have a good rest in the hope that she would recover quickly. That was why I did not manage to go back here to return the plate that Mary had used to let me take the lovely grilled ikan keli home. That had to wait a little bit later before I could get down to doing that. By Sunday, my girl was slightly better though not fully recovered but she wanted to go back to the school and get back to work so we sent here all the way as usual.

On the way back, we stopped by the market at Selangau Bazaar and got some very nice buah emplam that I wanted to give to Mary. That evening…

…after the evening mass at the cathedral in town, we went to return the aforementioned plate to Mary and pass her the fruits and have dinner there.

This looked like a nice cosy corner…

…but it was booked that night so we had to take another table instead.

To our surprise, we were served this…

…as an appetiser – the buah emplam, peeled and nicely sliced…

…using some special knife or peeler or shredder and that certainly gave it a classier look than how we would simply cut it into chunks of all odd shapes and sizes. We had it with this very nice rojak sauce…

…that Mary said she got from Penang…and yes, we certainly enjoyed that very much.

Then, Mary served us this – her Norwegian sardine tosazu…

No, it’s not on their menu – she made that for herself and gave us a bit to let us try. We’ve never had it anywhere before and we loved it a lot but of course, my missus had to have it with the sliced fresh chili provided and she too enjoyed it very much.

We had the pineapple fried rice (RM13.90)…

…single serving but it was big, more than enough for two and there were generous chunks of chicken in it and cashew nuts too. It certainly was a whole lot nicer (and very much cheaper too) than the one we had here though I must say I had had something here before that had an edge over it but unfortunately, the owner decided to wind up the business and the place was closed down unceremoniously and the authentic lady Thai chef had to go back to her own country.

Mary asked us to try the chef’s fried long beans (RM10.50)…

…cut diagonally like what I would usually do with French beans and not long beans and cooked with lots of garlic and a few daun limau perut plus whatever sauce he used in the cooking, probably fish sauce – the Thais use that a lot. It was very good and my missus said the whole cloves of garlic in it tasted great too!

Now, one reason why we did not quite finish the fried rice, leaving just a little bit behind, was because we enjoyed the pad thai (RM13.90)…

…so very much. One just can’t go wrong with prawns and there were so many in it! I never expected that even the raw taugeh (bean sprouts) by the side would taste so good when mixed with the fried noodles. My ex-student and friend, Andrew, went and had this too and he too praised it to the skies but he did add that he missed having the peanuts that one would usually find in pad thai. This is one dish I certainly would want to order again…and again…each time I go back there.

The total came up to RM38.30 – there was free flow of iced water but in fact, just that plate of pad thai and a vegetable dish, less than RM25.00, would have been enough for a pleasant dinner for two…or you may opt for the som tam or mango salad instead. We have yet to try the green curry – Mary said it was sold out the night before, Saturday, and they had yet to get down to making the paste…and I wonder if they have my favourite Thai dessert, the mango sticky rice. Will find out the next time I drop by…