Different day…

We had not been here ever since that time when we dropped by on a Sunday and I was put off by the poor service and what we were served that day.

We did drive by frequently though (my house is just round the corner) and we noticed that it was open on Tuesdays which used to be their off day and they were closed on Mondays instead. True enough, when we dropped by the other day, we saw this sign…

…there which means that they only open in the morning on Sundays and the shop is closed Sunday night and every Monday. If I am not wrong, I do not think they open the whole day – usually, it is from 7.00 a.m. till 2.00 p.m. and they open again in the evening at around 6.00 p.m. till 10 or 11.

A friend of mine was also grumbling to me that day about their smaller servings…and I thought my experience that Sunday was just an isolated case and it was because of the crowd and they were so busy that the servings were not consistent, not as much as what we would get usually. She said that she used to order one plate of fried kway teow and there was enough for her to share with her kid but when she went recently, there was so little on the plate that she had to let her kid have all of it and order another one for herself.

Well, that morning, both my missus and I ordered their nasi lemak and she wanted hers with beef curry…

It looked all right this time around – there was quite a lot of the sambal and even though it did not look like there was a lot of beef, they sure were very generous with the gravy…

I did wish they were not all that messy though.

I did not want to take the chance of getting just a spoonful of masak hitam beef like the last time so I asked for the chicken wing – after all, a wing is a wing and surely they would not be giving me just the drumette or the rest of it and yes, I did get the whole wing…

…and yes, I got a whole lot of the sambal…

 …as well. It was a little spicy that day, just the way I like it.

It so happened that my neighbour and his wife were there too that morning for brunch and both of them had the Sarawak laksa – it looked all right, the serving. I did not think they got less than usual so I guess things are pretty much back to normal…so it is all right to drop by here again but maybe, not on a Sunday.

The guy there who was making the drinks, including the horrible coffee that I had, was nowhere to be seen. My guess is they have terminated his service and what I had that morning, my kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) was to me, good enough.

My neighbour and his wife finished eating first and as they were leaving, they told us that they had settled our bill for us. That was so kind and generous of them, thank you, Robert  and missus. Hopefully, we’ll bump into the two of you again some place someday. Hehehehehe!!!!

Neither here nor there…

That day, when we were walking to this restaurant at Jalan Maju here, we walked past this one and I noticed that they had closed down half of it. It used to occupy two shop lots but now there is only one – the other side was closed but business still looked very good at the remaining half though – there were a lot of people eating there.

I heard that one of the brothers had moved to one of the shops at the other side of the Sibu Bus Terminal…

…and his coffee was very good plus they had the KL Hokkien mee and liked it a lot too.

That was why I decided to go and check it out but I did not know which shop it was exactly. All I knew was that there are a number of coffee shops in that solitary block there and I did go for the stewed pork leg rice at one of them once but though it was all right, I did not think it was anything like our own homecooked one and I never did go back again. The coffee shop is still there, bigger and occupying two separate shop lots now but I did not think the stall that I ordered what I had from was still there, I’m not too sure.

I spotted this one (2.305427, 111.850441)…

…there and I did not recall seeing it before so I just assumed that must be the one I was looking for. This probably is the name in Mandarin…

…for those of you who can read the written form of the language.

There was this banner in front…

…and this must be the stall…

…but we were not in the mood for any chicken rice so we did not order anything from there.

I was intent on having the KL Hokkien mee but when I went to enquire at the chu-char place at the back, they did not seem to have any idea what I was talking about. No, despite my not-so-good Mandarin, they could understand me all right just that they did not seem to know what KL Hokkien mee was. In the face of that kind of situation, I just settled for the more familiar fried kway teow (RM4.00)…

…which was very nice and had a lot of ingredients in it…

…and the serving was big.

My missus had the Foochow fried noodles (RM4.00)…

…which was good too and yes, the serving was rather substantial as well and it was quite a struggle for her, being not a very big eater, to finish all of it.

I noticed that they were selling the noodles with those giant freshwater prawns too so I asked about the price – they said it would be RM15.00 a bowl which makes it even cheaper than the one here or here – maybe the prawns are smaller, I wouldn’t know as we did not order that to try but since the Foochow fried noodles tasted great, the prawn noodles would be nice too. After all, it is more or less the same thing with the crustaceans added.

The kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) I had was good and the boss of this coffee shop was a tall and rather loud man, quite like the one at the aforementioned shop so I thought this must be the brother! It turned out that he was not the one – he was originally from Kapit (and hence, he could converse very fluently in Iban) but he left for Miri in his teens and now he is here, since five months ago. He is obviously a very nice guy – he bought some bananas from a woman going from table to table selling the fruit and some bags of midin (I would have bought one, at least but the boss’ wife grabbed both of them)…and he even offered us some.

I asked him and he said, no, he was not the one I was looking for – that guy is not here but there – at another coffee shop right at the end of that same block. Hmmm…I would have to go to that one the next time then.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained…

*This is not a paid post.*

She and her brother were my students in my English tuition class some years ago and both have graduated by now. Her brother is presently working in Singapore while she is pursuing her post-graduate studies after she obtained her TESL (Teaching of English as a second language) degree. In fact, she attained such outstandingly excellent results that the ministry had waived her PTPTN loan. Ain’t that great?

Well, she is home at the moment and puts her time to good use baking tarts and pies for sale…and the other day, she shared some photos of the fruits of her labour on Facebook. I jokingly asked if there were any free samples and before I knew it, I had these delivered to my doorstep…

…her mushroom pies…

…and yes, they were indeed very very good!

The filling was so very tasty…

…but it was the pie crust that won me over. The chicken quiche here, that a friend told me were very nice, would come nowhere near and the crust was hard! I love the coconut tarts here and though the crust is not so hard, it sure pales in comparison as far as the texture and taste are concerned. Hers was so good that it crumbled at even a light bite and as for the taste, I absolutely loved it!

Good luck comes in twos, they say, and the following night, I got these…

…her cheese tarts…

Yes, they were very good too! Like what I told her, they were so pretty and delicate just like the person making them. Wink! Wink!

I may have bought these cheese tarts from some bakery before but I don’t think I ever went back to buy some more so that speaks volumes, I guess. If I remember correctly, I may have had those at the dessert section in hotel buffets too. For one thing, the pastry would not be as nice and for another, I seem to recall the filling being on the hard side, kind of crusty while hers is actually soft and creamy and very much nicer. However, these are sweet – not very sweet, just a bit…and I am more into savoury things so between the two, I would prefer the aforementioned mushroom pies. In fact, I thought they were so nice that I wasted no time in ordering some to give to family and friends to try. So far, feedback has been more than positive – everyone that I gave some to loved them a lot!

Well, if anyone else in Sibu is interested in placing an order, the contact number is given on the labels – the mushroom pies are 6 for RM9.00 only and for orders of over 50, there is free home delivery…but I hear that even if you are getting fewer than that, it may be negotiable. The cheese ones are more expensive though but of course, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering that cheese is so expensive here – they are RM13.50 for 6.

Good luck, Stephanie, in your little home-based venture! Ummm…trying your hand at making some chicken pies this Friday? *cough…cough* LOL!!!

Next to you…

I said I would go back to this place to try their kway teow th’ng (flat rice noodles in soup) but despite it being a Thursday and it was not towards the end of the month either, the stall was closed. I positively remember that the guy said that they only close on Mondays and sometime at the end of the month as well. Tsk! Tsk!

Well, I did not fancy anything from the other stalls so I decided to go to this place…

…just next door, more or less – two doors away from the hotel entrance to the right of the food court. The last time I was here was in 2012 and the sign had started to fade then – now, one can hardly see the name in English anymore, Uncle Bakery.

They do not seem to have an elaborate menu – you can see it on the wall here…

…and here…

…as well.

I did not see Foochow fried noodles (RM4.00)…

…listed anywhere but that was what my missus wanted and that was what she got…

She said it was nice, thankfully – we did not like their kampua noodles that last time we were here.

I remember people were saying at the time that the mee sua was among the best in town and I remember when I had it before, it was very good so I ordered that again (RM6.00)…

…this time around. The price is the same as elsewhere but it seems that you will only get one chunk of chicken here but to be fair, it was a huge chunk, more or less equal to two pieces of the meat in the mee sua elsewhere.

I tried it and to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. I did not think it was very nice for want of a whole lot of the traditional Foochow red wine, nowhere near what I had here. Then, I spotted it at the table next to ours…

…so I went and grabbed it and added a generous amount to my bowl.

Yes!!! That was all it needed and it…

…sure was very nice after that…and yes, I wouldn’t mind stopping by for this should I happen to be in the vicinity or on days when I feel like having it again.

Second round…

We had this…

…once here and we loved it so we decided to have a second round of the same.

It was only available on weekends then. However, I was told that now, it is available every day, but only for lunch and if you would like it for dinner, you can always put in a special request in advance and they will get it done for you.

Before my girl and the mum left for Korea, we did drop by on the Saturday prior to the trip and the place was full. Wowwww!!! That’s new! Business must have picked up tremendously as on our previous visits, there would be some people, not that many and no, it was never full. We had to go some place else that day…so when they came back from their holiday, we just had to stop by here for what we missed then…

– RM20.00 for this medium-sized bowl, enough for 2-3 persons and no, they did not forget the salted fish…

…for us to sprinkle all over and mix before we dug in. This used to be a poor man’s meal – salted fish and plain white rice but it is getting so expensive that this is all they will give, none of the thin whole slices that one would get in the past. Sigh!!!

Incidentally, the L-sized bowl is RM30.00 and there would be enough for 3-4, they say but I guess if you are having something else, that should be enough for 4-5.

On all our previous visits, I always had their iced black coffee but this time around, I asked for their “trio-of-tea” (RM4.90)…

…commonly known as the tri-colour tea or the teh-see special. However, I did not think it was all that nice, nowhere near the awesome one I had here so I guess the next time we drop by here, I would go back to my good ol’ kopi-o-peng.

My girl wanted to try their lemon grass chicken wings with Thai mayo (RM7.90)…

…and of course, her wish was my command. It was nice, as nice as any fried chicken wing could be and having said that, I did not think I could detect much lemon grass in the batter, if at all there was any, and the Thai mayo was…just mayo, more or less. My girl enjoyed it though – the mum and I had a piece each, the equivalent of one wing, and she had all the rest which would be two chicken wings – there were 3 in the basket.

Word has been going round about their nice pork dishes – no, this is not a pork-free place, sorry to all concerned…and I hear their lamb shank is really good so we will be back, that’s for sure.

Fortune…

This place (2.305207, 111.863536)…

…to the right of this mega mall here…

…has been around for a while now and I had often noticed quite a lot of people there each time I drove past and even though I kept telling myself I would stop by to check it out, I never did get down to it.

There is a kampua noodle stall in front…

…and a Malay stall selling nasi lemak and stuff but we did not order anything from those.

My missus opted for something from the people at the back…

– their fried kway teow with a special request for it to be extra spicy (RM4.50)…

She said it was good but I would think that was kind of pricey considering that there was hardly anything in it other than some barely visible bits of lap cheong (Chinese sausage) and ONE small prawn.

I decided to go for something from this stall…

…instead and as you can see in the photograph, they sure have a whole lot on their menu but no, I had no intention of trying any of their nasi goreng, not even the gila (mad) one…

I do think that I have had enough of fried rice of my own at home.

However, according to the Indian guy at the stall, married to a local – a Sibu Foochow who’s a teacher at a secondary school here…

…those were things that they started off with but most did not go down so well with the customers, mostly Chinese, so they have stopped serving a lot of them. Hmmmm….they should delete those from the elaborate list then.

Anyway, I ordered the mee mamak (RM6.00)…

…from him and no, I did not think it was all that expensive considering the fact that there were prawns and a whole lot of sotong (squid) and even a portion of a chicken wing…

…and I sure liked it a lot more than those I had elsewhere, the very sweet ones with all that bottled chili sauce added.

I asked for it to be extra spicy but I really liked the sambal…

– that little bit of it by the side – it really brought the taste to a whole new level and I sure would ask for a lot more should I be having this here again.

The guy said he has nasi bryani on Sundays with one’s choice of curry to go with it so I probably would drop by there again at a convenient time to give it a try.

Looking out my back door…

…or this is actually the back door…

…looking in, at this very popular chicken rice place here in the vicinity of the Delta Mall in Sibu.

The stall is at a somewhat obscure location all the way at the back with all the other stalls in front but we did try something from there once and though we had something not quite what we thought we had ordered, we did like it very much.

We stopped by for lunch two Fridays ago and as it was our no-meat day, we steered clear of all the meat dishes and went for the kiam sor hu phee (salty crusty/crispy fish fillet)…

…that we had the last time and yes, this time around, it was just as good…

We also had my girl’s favourite veg – cangkuk manis fried with egg…

…and I also asked for the chao chai hay (preserved vegetables with prawns) soup…

I thought it would cost a bomb seeing there there were three BIG freshwater tua thow hay (big-headed prawns), the udang galah…

…in it but the total came up to only RM35.00 inclusive of rice for three.

I went and asked and I found out that the soup cost RM18.00 only…and I was told that they also serve the very much coveted prawn noodles…

…here too at only RM20.00 a bowl. The guy said that he, being a newbie, could not compete with those established places where prices would range from RM30.00 to over RM50.00 a bowl and he did say that he would use one Grade B prawn – very big with the kor (some sort of paste) in the head and the other, Grade C. The ones we had in the soup that I thought were very big already were unclassified – not big enough for a Grade C even.

I have not gone back there for this but I do hope to get down to doing that one of these days and give the guy’s prawn noodles a try.

Long time…

It sure had been a long time since I dropped by here (2.304404, 111.849343)…

…for the Penang har mee (prawn noodles)…

If I am not wrong, that was in 2013 with my very dear friend, Jimmy, since deceased, may he rest in peace.

Well, if anyone is interested, it is located right across the road from the Sibu Bus Terminal, below the Medan Hotel there, near this huge supermarket…

They have this outlet of one of the popular KL bak kua (barbecued pork) companies there now…

…but I have never bought any from them to try so I can’t say whether it is nice or otherwise.

The stall…

…is closed on Mondays and according to the hubby, they also close for a few days sometime towards the end of the month, around the 20th thereabout, as he would have to go to Tanjung Manis to see to his business there so there would nobody around to help his wife at the stall.

It was RM6.50 then, RM8.00 now, but you sure get a lot of good stuff in the bowl, including four big prawns…

…a few fish balls, half a hardboiled egg and I asked for the fried wantons to be served separately…

…for me to dip in the soup and the sambal provided…

…and enjoy. Usually they would serve the wantons in the bowl and immersed in the hot soup, they would turn soft and soggy and would not be all that nice.

Add a bit of the sambal to the soup and that would bring the taste to a whole new level…and it was so very nice, good to the last drop…

…take my word for it!

I sure would want to go back for more…

…but I noticed that they now have something new, in addition to all the good stuff that they have to offer – the kway teow th’ng. I wonder if theirs is as good at the ones that I had had in Penang. Let me go and try it first and I’ll get back to you on this…

Much to my surprise…

This was last Saturday night, the evening before Father’s Day.

Actually, we were planning to go to that new Thai place after the sunset service in church – my girl wanted to check it out and at the same time, give me a special dinner treat that night. We could not do it on the actual day, Sunday, as I would have sent her back to her school in the jungle before classes resumed the very next day. However, it was raining that night and the air-conditioning was extra cold and my girl, who is not so well-insulated like me, felt somewhat unwell by the time the service ended so we had to head straight home.

It so happened then that coincidentally, I got an unexpected call from Peter, the boss of Payung Café, asking me to drop by to collect some things that he had cooked and packed nicely for me to take home and enjoy. That sure was a pleasant surprise! I thought it would be some new dish that he had created, nothing really substantial, nothing to get excited about but boy, how wrong could I be!

There was salmon…

…two thick slabs of it…

…with the special dip for it…

…but it was good on its own so we did not really need that.

No, that wasn’t all! There was also the salad…

…celery, tomato and sliced Bombay onions on one side and potatoes and egg on the other and the dressing that came with it was so very nice as well.

As if those weren’t quite enough, there were also these delightful wedges…

I could not really figure out what went into the cooking but my guess was there was garlic and a lot of herbs. They tasted really good and I did mention to Peter that he should add it to their menu – that should go down well with the regulars, I’m sure…plus it would be something parents could order for their kids to enjoy.

That sure was a lot for the three of us – we only managed to finish one slab of the salmon and had to save the other for the next day and there was at least half of the salad left as well. Of course, we did not get the nice plating that they had at their café, he and his staff that night…

*Karan’s photo on Facebook*

They’re really so creative and I do feel that such nice presentations sure go a long way in making something taste a whole lot better…

*Karan’s photo on Facebook*

I wonder if they are going to have this as a permanent feature in their menu – that big platter would be enough for 4 or more, at least, I think.

That was indeed a pleasant surprise, a truly delightful dinner and an unexpected Father’s Day treat, thank you so very much, Peter.

Goodbye and hello…

My girl had planned to go to Korea (Busan and Jeju) with her colleague and her colleague’s friends since last year and they started making the air ticket and hotel bookings way back in January…and she specially wanted to take her mum along seeing how she is so hooked on those Korean dramas and Korean food which explains the ever ready supply of kim chi in all those jars in our fridge at home. Thank goodness she is not into K-pop – well, for that matter, she is not really into any kind of music and songs…and no, I am no fan of kim chi or anything Korean and I had heard of people going on their own and all that walking and climbing and running here and there to visit all the attractions…and losing weight more from the lack of nice (and affordable) food than all that exercise –  no, thank you!

They were leaving that very same day when I was flying off to Kuching for my nephew’s wedding. I had booked my ticket on the evening flight at 6.30 p.m. just so we could go to the Sibu Airport together…

…and I would be able to say goodbye to them and wish them well – they departed earlier at around 3.

Once they had left, I dropped by here…

We had noodles for brunch that morning, no lunch and with  3½ hours to kill, I decided to do what I do best – eat!

The fish fillet…

…seemed to have shrunk by at least one-third and I prefer the coarser bread crumb coating they used to have before. This one came across like one of those fish fillet sold in boxes at the supermarkets in town. Well, if it was any consolation, I thought it was all right…

…and so was the broasted chicken…

…that came in the plate along with the pickles…

…and the savoury rice…

…but I thought RM16.50 for that plus one free drink was somewhat on the high side.

I went for one round on one of those Rest & Go massage chairs, 30 minutes and I did go online on my laptop to reply to some comments on my blogpost that day…but no, I don’t think there is free wifi at the airport – I had brought my girl’s wireless modem (that she uses in the jungle to go online) along. Then I went outside for a bit of fresh air a few times and I walked around – really, time does seem to stand still when you’re waiting! It actually seemed like forever, going by so so slowly…so to kill time, I decided to check this place…

…out.

It’s a nice small eatery…

…right beside the arrival gate and these are the things on their menu…

I had a glass of pretty decent kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) and this plate of mee goreng (fried noodles)…

…which was all right too – more or less what one would get when eating at many Malay shops and stalls in town, nothing really to shout about but at RM9.00 for the drink and the mee, I thought that would be a much more preferred choice should you be at the airport in Sibu and are hungry and looking for a bite to tide you over till the next meal. Something there smells really nice – I had noticed that every time I landed and was walking out of the airport but I never did go and check. Maybe it was the dishes for their nasi campur…but it sure would not be the mee, that much I can say.

If you would like something lighter, maybe this snack shop…

…would be an option or maybe you can pick up something from the convenience store…

…but I did check out their Walls’ Magnum ice cream once though and I found that the prices were a lot higher than what you would need to fork out at the shops and supermarkets in town.

There is another café…

…in the departure lounge and a convenience store beside it. I learnt something that day – one can’t take nice photos while shakin’ all over sitting in a massage chair. Yes, I had another round of that – 30 minutes…before I boarded the plane and flew over to Kuching.

The Air Asia flight was on time, a little early, in fact and a cousin of mine was there waiting for me to take me to my uncle’s house – he was hosting a pot luck party, all the aunties and cousins in Kuching bringing something and all those of us from out of town were invited. Hello, everybody!!!

There was this kaki babi pansuh (pork leg cooked in bamboo)…

…and this attempt by my cousin at cooking Foochow fried noodles…

…which was not quite there but very nice, much nicer than the real thing at some of the shops in town here, I would say…and I think she made this salad too…

…and somebody brought this roast chicken and duck combo…

…and there was suckling piglet, babi masak hitam, chang (dumplings) and so on and so forth but unfortunately, most of the photographs came out blur.

Gosh!!! There was so much food, all over the tables all over the house that I was wishing I had starved and saved all my tummy space while waiting for my flight at Sibu Airport. Thank you so very much, everybody. It sure was nice to see everyone again and what can be better than a happy get-together with so many of one’s much loved and dear ones all at once. We really should do this a lot more often…