I don’t know for sure but I think if you want to register your business and somebody has taken the name of your choice, then you would have to pick something else. If that is the case, then how can it be that there are so many Wonderful this and Wonderful that all over town and there was this place named Delicious and this one here…
…too? Maybe that one was a “food stall” and this one’s a “café” so it is perfectly all right? Or perhaps that one is under the municipal council while this one is under the rural district council? Ah well!!! In the words of William Shakespeare, “A rose by another other name will smell as sweet.“
This one is in Jalan Ulu Sg Merah here (2.330641, 111.855959), right next door to this place. I was feeling kind of full from a somewhat heavy breakfast so I did not feel like having any dim sum and besides, I have been to their original shop many times and I did not think they would have anything that would be different and new. That was why we decided to check out the shop next door to see if they had anything good to offer or not…
They seemed to be selling a whole lot of sushi in all colours and shapes but we were not into those – my girl might want to give those a try but it was a weekday and there she was at her school in the jungle, no sushi, nothing.
I can’t say I was attracted to their Sarawak laksa…
…though – the prawns look good in the picture but minced meat balls? Unheard of! And just as it has to be hard-boiled egg for a standard plate of nasi lemak, it must be thinly-sliced omelette for Sarawak laksa. It seems that these days, anything and everything goes – whichever way they want.
The guy kept asking us to try their deep fries [SIC] taro dumpling (RM2.30)…
…and in the end, we did order one to see if it was any good.
It was kind of small but it was very nicely done, the fibrous yam on the outside and the char siew filling was very nice too…
If only it had been bigger and less pricey, I would have wanted to buy a few home for afternoon tea.
My missus had their wanton soup (RM2.70)…
…aka pian sip soup and she thought it was all right. The kampua mee here is also selling at that same price, RM2.70.
I decided to go for their kolo mee with meatball soup…
…even though I knew only too well that it would not be anything like the kolo mee in Kuching. That will be the day!
The kolo mee…
…was nice, nothing like kolo mee, as expected, and thankfully, it was not like kampua noodles either. I actually liked the taste of the minced meat mixed with the noodles but I could not help feeling that those three slices of char siew wannabe (boiled meat coloured red) looked kind of miserable.
I liked the meatballs…
They were more than just minced meat rolled into balls and boiled in the soup. If I am not wrong, they beat the meat till firm or springy, something like the texture of fish balls but not to that extent. I wish I could say the same about the soup though. It lacked the much coveted meat or bone stock flavour, and it was the same too with what my missus had, nowhere near what we had here and the fact that they added vinegar to it put me off even more. I wouldn’t mind as much if it had been our traditional Foochow red wine instead.
All in all, for RM6.90, I would say that the kolo mee and meatball soup set…
…was, at best, all right but with that kind of money, I think I would go for something else that would give me a lot more satisfaction – there would be a lot of other nicer options even within that area of shops alone like, for instance, what we had at this place or this one just a few doors away.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Wow all looks good la.
The test of the pudding is in the eating. 😉
What a neat name for an eatery! 🙂
Telling it as it is, eh?
Minced meat in laksa? That is unheard of.
I know what you mean. So many places with almost similar name. I guess everyone just like that name and couldnt think of better name. Haha.
I like more creative names like Ciak Pa Boi, Cing Ho Chiak…Tian Tian Lai…nicer than Wonderful or Delicious, so boring.
There is one with the name Chiak Pa Boi in Kuching.
One in Sibu too but I don’t think there is any connection.
The taro dumpling & meatball soup looks really nice. Yes, I have seen my late MIL making fishball, beat & bang the fish meat on the chopping board, till firm & springy. Can easily tell that the char siew is from colouring.
That’s what you get with kampua – boiled meat coloured red, not like wanton mee – they put real char siew. None here though – Kuching, I think you have the Hongkong Noodle House franchise. They may have wanton mee – I used to go and eat at their outlets in KL.
Yes, to make the fish ball khiew khiew, a lot of slamming is required. Not enough, not so springy…like the ones my missus makes. My girl doesn’t like, would rather go for some of the frozen ones even though our own-made ones taste a while lot nicer.
I never get sick of eating wanton, can eat quite often, hehe…
Our pian sip skin is different but on the whole, more or less, the same.
We have one extraordinary stall that sells super-delicious yum cake! Not a fan of Pork but whenever I pass by the stall, I could not resist but to buy some too 😦
Yam, you mean? The ones at the dim sum places are usually very good. We do not get much of these elsewhere here so this is one of the very very few. Very nice…but very small and besides, at 50 sen more than RM2.30, I can go for a plate of kampua mee, more filling.
I’ve had the kolo mee (not at Kitchen Inn, another Sarawak place – I’ve forgotten the name). Very nice.
Personally, I prefer Kuching kolo mee to our Sibu kampua mee – there is a difference and I like the good ones in Kuching – most of those that we have here will taste like our own kampua mee dressed up to look like kolo mee…and they will cost at least RM1.00 or RM1.50 more in which case, I might as well settle for the cheaper kampua mee, more or less the same.
The naming of food outlets seems to be some a complex issue – and the registering of them even more so. There are some great stories as to how names of restaurants came about – it might make a nice compilation.
As far as the Chinese names go, usually they will have some significance, names that will bring good luck and good fortune. They would even pick the specific date and time to put up the shop sign…and to commence business. Lots of beliefs and superstitions attached.
Ooooo the fried taro dumpling, I call it “woo-kok” here.. I love woo-kok, I can eat like 5-6 pieces! Like char siew pau, but fried, and it has yam in it, yummehhhh 😛
Ahh, pian-sip soup, long time no see you post about pian-sip..
These, you would probably need to eat at least 10-20, they were so very small. 😦
I do not go for pian sip soup, my missus is the one who will order that. I may have it dry or with kampua mee in place of the red-coloured boiled meat.
Yeah, they checked to see if the name was “available” when I registered my company too. You can’t have the exact same name as someone else and I don’t know if you can contest it if you feel that you should have the right to the name.
I know the Wonderful ones, they did it for branding, lots of similarly named places, owned by the same people. I’m not sure if the Delicious ones are the same though.
Yeah, I’ve never heard of minced meat in laksa. Not in Sarawak laksa, not in the other state laksas I’ve had too and I’ve had quite a few coz I did this stupid trip with the local tourism board (was a nightmare) to eat laksa of all the Malaysian states.
The deep fries (lol) taro dumpling looks like a popular fried dim sum. I think it’s the same thing, but the ones here aren’t that radioactive red. I still kinda miss the radioactive red/orange char siew from back home though, nothing says Sibu quite like it.
Yes, the same yam puffs and yes, it was rather red but not that red, turned out that way after I edited the photo. Pretty good the ones here but too small and too expensive – I can live without those.
A trip to try all the laksas? Wowwwww!!!! I sure wouldn’t mind that but yes, I guess at the end of it all, I would not mind if I’d never see a bowl of laksa again, just like when I was going round for one whole week eating…to write the book on Sibu food. That sure put me off food for a while but thankfully, it did not last too long. 😀
I think there is a Wonderful Curtain shop too among all the coffee shops, restaurant and supermarket…but so far, only two Delicious here that I know of. I wouldn’t want to name my shop after an existing one, like when people say something is nice at Wonderful…you will need to clarify which one. Unlike when people say Aloha or Rasa Sayang or Ruby, to name a few, there is no mistaking which one at all.
I like the look of the fried dumpling.. makes me crave for one crispy now! Yeah, I am sure you can get that kind of kolo mee somewhere else and cheaper too. 🙂
This yam puff was very nice, very crispy, very well done…just too small and too expensive. 😥
Nice board menu they have there. Perhaps they came up with their own version of kolok mee 😀
I like a nice taro dumpling aka wu kok. RM2.30/pc is kinda pricey. But nowadays everything also expensive.
Indeed, just add 50 sen can have a nice plate of kampua, more filling and more to enjoy too. This one, pop in the mouth, gone in seconds. RM2.30. 😦
Looks like the current trend, these nice display boards for their menu – seen these in a few places now. Nice change from the msiarbale looking photos stuck onto the front of the stalls.
The color of the char siew filling is rather unique, here, it’s black color totally.
I did say in the post, those were “char siew wannabes”, didn’t I? Boiled meat coloured red, not so bad if they use char siew sauce (can buy the “oil” from those making the real char siew – people making char siew pao do that to cook the meat for the filling). Sometimes I see the meat so strikingly red, probably colouring, and I would get put off right away.
I know the black char siew you mentioned, brownish black – I like those! Not commonly found though – most that I see everywhere would be the red ones, the black parts would be the burnt edges even at places like Hongkong Noodle House in KL or Kuching.
When it comes to meatballs, I do not like those springy ones at all. That would be more for fishballs.
Not those fish ball-like frozen ones from the supermarts with the horrendous smell – I cannot stand those, would spit it out right away, the ones with the smell. The beef ones too, smell bad. These were only slightly springy, not quite minced meat rolled into balls and I liked them. Don’t mind the ones with the minced meat texture either – one post with those coming right up…soon! Mine would be like that – not bothered to slam and pound to get that rubbery texture, so lazy.
Char siu and meatballs seem to be a speciality of this place … They’re ingredients in many of the dishes! 😉
Not really. It looked like sushi is their specialty but we did not want any, and also the taro dumplings – the guy kept asking us to try, probably their signature dish.