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…