In and out…

When my Kuching cousins were in town, I had them come over to my house for lunch, nothing special – just a simple get-together at home. I went to the market and got some fresh popiah skin…

*SK Hii’s photo on Facebook*

…so we could have some of my homemade popiah…

*SK Hii’s photo on Facebook*

…and I also got hold of some freshwater prawns and my missus fried them…

*SK Hii’s photo on Facebook*

…for them to enjoy as well.

Other than those, I also managed to buy some of our Sibu Foochow sio bee…

*SK Hii’s photo on Facebook*

…from this restaurant and for dessert, we had these delights…

*SK Hii’s photo on Facebook*

…from my ex-student, Stephanie and I brewed a pot of our Sibu Mui Hock coffee to go with those.

After lunch, we went over to a Melanau cousin’s place here as it so happened that he was holding his Hari Raya open house that very same day and they sure were so very happy to see one another again – it had been some time since they last got to meet…and they got to meet a lot of our other Melanau next-of-kin there too – it sure was like an episode from the TV show, Jejak Kasih. (literally translated as: tracing one’s lost love). We did stay there for quite a while to enjoy the food, take lots of photographs and chat, catching up with all that had transpired in one another’s lives all these years.

By evening, we were still very full so we opted for a very light dinner here. I didn’t think they were all that thrilled by what we had and I would say I was kind of disappointed somewhat too. The ayam panggang (barbecued chicken)…

…was good, thankfully! There had been instances before when it was way overdone and the meat was hard and dry…and of course, when I was placing the orders, I kept reminding the nice young boy that I would like a freshly-barbecued one and not one that would not be all that palatable.

The fish…

…was all right too but it did appear rather small, around the size of the palm of my hand…and fish here is more expensive than chicken, barbecued or fried.

And talking about fried chicken…

…firstly, that thigh was rather miserably small and secondly, the texture of the meat was something like the chicken we had here – and that is the very reason why I have never gone back to that place again.

Other than that, I thought they were not as generous as before with their sambals which somehow, did not come across as all that great anymore either.

One of my cousins loved the midin goreng (fried wild jungle fern)…

She said that she could not find any place in Kuching that could cook the fern well and she loved the sauce in this one too. I did not think it was all that nice and crunchy though and I do feel that there are quite a few Chinese restaurants around town that can do a much better job than this.

But of course, credit has to be given where credit is due and yes, the paku kerabu…

…was as nice as always and yes, they were not using those small ikan bilis with the beady eyes and I don’t know whether it was my imagination or what but I thought the serving was a little smaller than the many times when I had this same dish before.

All in all, I don’t know if they have some new chefs/cooks on the job or what but if this is what they have to offer now, quite unlike what we have had on our previous visits, I would say it was at best, a decently all right dinner – nothing impressive, nothing to shout about and not anything I would want to bring visitors to town to again – they probably would enjoy what they have at some other places around town like here or here, for instance, a whole lot more.