No promises…

I’ve driven past this place (2.295876, 111.886387)…

…ever so often, everytime I had to go to the airport and at least once a week when I sent my girl back to her school in the jungle and I often wondered if they really served lontong there and if they did, I sure would want to stop by and give it a try. I had it here not too long ago but it looked like they had closed down the place – my, my…it did not last very long, did it?

Well, if you have never noticed it before and haven’t a clue as to where this is, it is to the left along the road to the airport, past the traffic lights junction to the Sibu General Hospital before the traffic lights junction where you turn right into the bypass to Salim. The Jabatan Kimia Malaysia building…

…is right across the road.

It’s just a coffee shop, nothing fancy and I noticed that there were two other stalls by the side but they were not open so I would not know whether they are still in business or closed for good or perhaps they only open at night. I saw these at the counter…

…and for the initiated, those are sago pellets, toasted sago balls or what we call saguk.

I was very eager to check this place out because I saw the photograph of the lontong somebody had and he shared it on Instagram and it looked very good. That was why we made our way there last Tuesday but it was closed! Tsk! Tsk! I asked the girl at the shop and she told me that they normally close on Mondays but that day, they had a catering job to do so they replaced their off day on Tuesday instead.

A couple of days later, we went all the way there again but we were not all that lucky this time around either…

They were out of lontong so it was not available. Sighhhhhh!!!!!

I decided to try their nasi lemak ayam merah (RM5.00)…

…which was good enough and to my liking though I was wondering what happened to the egg (yolk).

The ayam masak merah…

…was very nice and if not for the distance, I would not mind dropping by again for this. I must say it is more or less like the nasi lemak that I enjoy here but this one is cheaper.

My missus picked something from their other menu…

– the nasi lemak daun pisang which turned out to be nothing more than the regular nasi lemak served on a banana leaf (RM2.50)…

…and I guess it would be exactly like what I had plus the leaf but minus the ayam masak merah. For one thing, I would say that it was very cheap, cheaper than a plate of kampua mee at many places.

They did seem very popular, Imust say, as they had a catering job again that day and probably, the nice ayam masak merah that I had came from here…

…just out from the kitchen, freshly cooked. They had a tray of daging masak hitam but it was already covered with cling wrap so I took a photograph of the little bit of extra in a bowl…

…on the table. How are you getting on with yours, Phong Hong? It sure doesn’t look like the one you cooked following somebody’s recipe sometime ago, right? Yours looked very much nicer but I would give them top marks for their pumpkin dish…

…which certainly appeared rather pleasing to the eye.

I asked the girl when they would be serving lontong again and she said she did not know – it would depend on the boss…and she did say that they do not have it every day, so I would just have to take the chance and drop by again sometime in the hope that I would be luckier, no promises…but considering how out of the way this place is, I think I would just give it a miss.