Honey honey…

We were here two years ago…

…and once before that when it was under another name and we had not been back since as we did not have anything that would get us running back for more.

For the uninitiated, it is along Jalan Pedada (2.308429, 111.846071) right across the road from this building where the recently-opened Starbucks outlet is located…

However, I heard a friend singing its praises saying how good the lamb chop was and how she loved the mushroom gravy, so much nicer than all the rest plus those people had been pretty active lately on Facebook sharing the photos of the lunch box takeaways at RM5.00 each. That was why I decided to drop by the other day to check it out. Who knows, they might have a new chef now and what they have on their menu could have improved by leaps and bounds.

They have this photo printer…

…that you can make use of – you can take a photograph using your smartphone and use it to scan and print and take home or stick it on the wall along with all the rest…

Why, they even had one of the local Mandarin singing sensation from Sarikei, Nick Chung, but the photograph I took of that snapshot turned out blur.

As far as the zakka part of this place is concerned, it isn’t very different from what it used to be – nothing much, maybe even less than before. I did see these owls…

…and this one…

…that may be of interest to my friends – the owl memorabilia collectors, Annie and Nick…and no, not Nick Chung – this Nick is more handsome. LOL!!!

My missus had this iced green apple 7-Up drink (RM4.90)…

…and she did not say anything about it so I guess it was all right. I am more familiar with Ribena 7-Up that is available at a number of places here, there and everywhere.

She had the teriyaki chicken rice (RM11.90)…

…and the chicken was pretty good but from my personal point of view, the fried egg…

…that came with it was an absolute disaster.

The girl who came to take our orders could only speak Mandarin and I had a hard time trying to understand what she was saying especially the somewhat “technical” part regarding the making of the ice blended black coffee (RM7.90)…

…but I could make out that bit about it not being black, nothing like the very nice blended kopi-o-peng here and I decided to order it anyway. So what did I think of it? Well, I would say it was all right even though I am never into coffee with milk but at that price, I would probably go for something else should I ever happen to drop by here again.

I decided to try their nasi lemak with chicken curry (RM14.90)…

…and considering the huge serving for just RM3.00 more, I would think this would be a better deal than what my missus had but perhaps they could try and work a little harder on the presentation to come out with something looking a bit more impressive. Maybe if they had lined the plate with banana leaf, that would help a bit.

Hmmm…a sausage by the side in a plate of nasi lemak? I guess that’s ok and it was one of those ordinary sausages from the supermarkets, nothing special. My main concern whenever I have nasi lemak would be the rice and no, the one here was not lemak – I could hardly detect any santan (coconut milk) nor any pandan (screwpine leaf) fragrance in it but thankfully, it was not hard and dry and there were all those things in the platter to save the day.

The sambal…

…was completely out. No, no…it tasted all right, just that it was nothing like any sambal one would usually get with one’s nasi lemak, not even remotely close and eyewww….I can see the ikan bilis (dried anchovies) head! Frankly, perhaps they should just go and buy the very nice sambal at the roadside stall in the early morning at Bandong, just RM5.00 for one big tub, and dish out a spoonful of it every time somebody orders that.

I love this cheap salted fish…

…RM2.00 for a bagful, but I would usually soak in water prior to frying and eating so it would not be so salty…and the chicken curry…

…was not too bad though that was the first time I had ever seen people garnishing their bowl of curry with fried shallots and chopped spring onions prior to serving. Hehehehehe!!!!

We did not get to try their lunch box takeaway – if I understood the girl correctly, those are not for eating in. You would have to call them to order and then come to collect to go and eat some place else. They are open from 10.00 a.m. in the morning right through till 10.30 p.m. at night and are closed on Mondays…and right now, they are giving a 15% discount in conjunction with the restaurant’s anniversary.

Well, we did not get to try the aforementioned lamb chop so who knows, we may just drop by again one of these days.

P.S.
Hey! It’s our National Day today so Happy National Day, folks! Keep the peace and spread the love and in conjunction with this special event. here’s a song by another of our local Sarawak’s own singers, Bob Yusof…

Take my word…

No, no, don’t take my word for it! I have said time and time again that one man’s meat is another man’s poison and what I say is nice, others may not think so…and vice versa, of course.

You see, I have heard people saying that this guy at this coffee shop here (2.294075, 111.826064)…

…dishes out very nice fried pek koi (white rice cakes) and that is the only thing that he dishes out which is good so I just had to go and give it a try.

Incidentally, it sure looks like this place right next door has called it a day…

…so right now, that shop is available for rent.

It turned out that the highly acclaimed fried pek koi (RM5.00)…

…was not nice at all, so very starchy and gooey, and at that price, it is a lot more expensive than other places where we have had this. In fact, while we were there, we saw the fried bihun (rice vermicelli) that he had cooked for some other customer there and contrary to what I heard, it actually looked very nice.

I had the so-called “kolo mee“ from another stall at this same coffee shop before and it sure did not sweep me off my feet…and that day, I saw that they had tofu stuffed with minced meat and I wanted that, the soup, that is (RM4.50)…

Obviously, I did not make myself clear and they just assumed that I wanted the sup campur (mixed soup) with anything and everything in it. Ah well…it did not matter much as when I looked at the tofu closely, there was so little meat inside that I thought they might as well don’t bother stuffing it.

The soup tasted all right, pretty much the same as what one can get most everywhere else and I enjoyed the strips of beef tripe and the pian sip (meat dumplings) in it. The tofu, despite the lack of meat in it, was fine too but I did not enjoy those frozen meatballs and fried fish balls, not at all – both had an unpleasant smell so I just left all of them behind.

Then, when my niece came home from Singapore for her mum’s birthday, she was telling us about how much she enjoyed the pek koi mani cai (RM4.00)…

…that she had at this coffee shop here among the Jalan Apollo shops opposite the Su Lai Primary School (2.319468, 111.847846) the instant she came down from the airport right after she had landed.

That was why I drove there one morning last week and in the midst of the shops, I saw this piece of street art…

The coffee here…

…was all right. I would say that it had an edge over the one here but no, I would not say it was really good. There are nicer ones at a few other places around town.

As for the pek koi mani cai, not only was it cheaper than the one I was talking about earlier but it was also nicer…

However, it came nowhere near the ones here (RM4.50) – be it the dry or the wet version, for just 50 sen more.

I ordered the pian sip soup (RM2.50)…

…which was as good as many of the rest here, there and everywhere but I would prefer the one I had here – I only had it that one time so perhaps I should go back there to have that again to confirm that it is really that good – I had the dry version when I went again and it was good too but I liked it better in soup.

I ordered the Foochow fried noodles, wet – the one that my missus always orders, with the sauce/gravy, but I got the dry version (RM3.50)…

…instead. I did not want to make a fuss so I just went ahead and ate it and to my delight, it was really very nice! I thought the one here was good but I think this one is nicer…and that one cost 30 sen more, RM3.80 a plate.

But of course, like I said right at the very start, all opinions are entirely my own – you are at liberty to feel differently. To each his own!

Here she is…

She…

…was here originally until the grandson came back and took over the business (he has since left town though to venture into the Sangkaya coconut ice cream business in KL) but not long after that, she started another stall of her own here and then, word went round that she was going to retire (again) and what I heard then was that the people who used to help her at the latter stall took over and I did drop by to try once. Unfortunately, we did not think they could do it quite as well as the old lady.

Then, not long after that, word went round on Facebook that she had decided to come out of retirement (again) and this time, she would be at this coffee shop…

…facing the Dewan Suarah (Civic Centre), Sibu…

We dropped by one morning last week and boy, there was quite a crowd there. Somebody commented that every kampua mee stall at that coffee shop did not last very long but it sure seemed that this one would be here to stay.

The coffee…

…wasn’t really great though, just all right but it was heaps better than the ones here or here. The kampua noodles, on the other hand, were really something else.

My missus had hers tossed in chili sauce (RM2.80)…

…while I had it without (RM2.80)…

I did not notice at the time that my missus got the meat with all that fat but she sure did not complain and ate it all up.

I got all the bits that looked like the edges of whatever that was left…

…and so very much of it and it was all lean meat.

Normally, when one goes for kampua mee in Sibu, one common remark would be on how thin the meat has been sliced, so thin that if you switch on the fan at full speed, the meat with go flying off your plate…and other than that, you would probably get around four miserable slices only. That, of course, is not applicable here, not at all.

While other places use boiled pork dyed red to look like char siew, which it isn’t, the old lady uses stewed pork which, of course, has an edge over the aforementioned. I don’t know if there is a bit of the sauce in the noodles or what but there have been people who are not all that fond of it insisting that it is not quite the same, not what they are looking for…and critics have complained that she uses a lot of msg. I don’t know how true that is but I did not leave the coffee shop with that unpleasant lingering taste in the mouth unlike the ones I have had elsewhere…and I did not even have to go and tell her to add less like what I would do at some places in town. Haters will hate, I guess.

Personally, I would rank hers among the top together with the other favourites of mine here but what I love most would be her meatball soup (RM5.00)…

Such a big bowl and so many meatballs…

– rolled fresh minced meat, not those horrible smelly frozen ones and not those with the springy fishball-like texture…but what I like the most about it is the soup – very very thick bone stock soup, so very very nice indeed! At other places, it is always so diluted and msg-enhanced, not the one here. The rich flavour of this one is so very strong that I actually thought I would not mind it if it had been diluted a little bit.

We were there at around 10 something in the morning and probably, they were  running out of everything and would be closing for the day because when I ordered the soup, the lady helping out had to go and check to see if there was enough for one last bowl…and that is why I said the meat in my plate of kampua mee looked like the edges left from all the meat that had been sliced all morning.

Never mind that there seems to be people who are not fans of this old lady’s kampua noodles, with all the people at the coffee shop every morning, I am pretty confident that she is here to stay…until she decides she is going to retire…again!

One and only…

Yes!!! I got one…

…and one only.

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) or the Zhōngqiū Jié, also known as the Mooncake Festival, falls on the 15th of Sepetember this year and already, the shops and supermarkets here are flooded with the much-coveted delights of different flavours and brands including the more popular and of course, more expensive ones.

I did take a look around and I saw some lotus paste ones going for around RM11-12.00 each and those with a single egg yolk, for around RM14-15.00. No, thank you! I can take that money and have a really good meal and derive a lot more pleasure from it.

Well, my niece in Singapore was home for her mum’s birthday that day and I think she bought a tin for the parents, probably from the airport in Johore as it would be a lot cheaper there especially after conversion into the currency that she earns in the republic…and I sure was delighted when they gave us one. I don’t know what brand that was as there was no indication on the wrapper but it was lotus paste, single yolk…

…and I am pretty sure this was one of the better known brands seeing how thin the pastry was and how fine the lotus paste was plus the good quality of the salted egg yolk used…

Both my girl and the mum do not like mooncakes with salted egg yolks so of course, I had the pleasure of feasting on it all by myself. Hehehehehe!!!!

Now, how do you cut your mooncakes usually? Normally, I would cut a cross and then cut smaller slices parallel to one of the lines but if there is an egg yolk in it, I would cut diagonally so that each slice would have a bit of the salted egg yolk…

Ok, now that I have had one already this year, I would not have to burn a hole in my pocket anymore to buy and eat in keeping with the tradition.

Two times…

We go back a very long way – this restaurant and I, so long that I can’t find the first time I blogged about it but one thing’s for sure, that would be way back during the time when I was still using my handphone camera to take photographs for my blog and since then, so many – friends and family here in Sibu or those who came to town, have walked through its doors. This one in 2008 was when we went there for my brother-in-law’s birthday.

Well, last Saturday, I felt like going back there for lunch as I was thinking of having their very nice pandan (screwpine leaf) chicken…

They do it really well here. For one thing, they are very generous with that huge chunk of chicken wrapped in the leaf and for another, they marinate it very nicely and they cook it really well so it is very juicy and so flavourful unlike some that I have had elsewhere, so very small and hard and dry.

It had been quite a while since we went there to eat – why, I can’t even remember the last time! My girl and the mum were keen on the suggestion so that was it!

We also had the Thai sauce fish fillet…

…because their Thai-style mango chicken was not available – they were out of mango.

For the vegetable dish, we had my girl’s favourite – their cangkuk manis fried with egg…

…and the bill for these three dishes came up to only RM23.00! I thought that was so very cheap.

I had their very nice kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee), blended…

…and if I am not wrong, it is only RM3.00 a glass…

…around a quarter of what one would need to fork out for the long black and all the rest at those very expensive coffee joints, branded or otherwise, and I remember the lady boss telling me that they use the coffee powder from Mui Hock no less.

Incidentally, if anyone is keen on dropping by for a quick lunch, they can call and book one of these sets or packages…

…so when the time comes, they can just drop by and eat and leave. You can call the restaurant at 084-323964 or on their mobile phone contact, 016-8905833. I’m afraid I don’t know what’s on the menu as I can’t read Mandarin and if you can’t either, you can just call them – the boss and his wife are conversant in English, Foochow, Hokkien, Mandarin and Malay too, I’m sure. Old folks are more multi-lingual unlike the younger lot these days.

After lunch, we dropped by here for the nice “dessert” and that was when my brother-in-law called to invite us out to dinner. Where? That’s right! Coincidentally, they had picked the same restaurant to go to for dinner – it was my sister-in-law’s birthday!

The daughter, my niece in Singapore, had flown back that morning taking the direct flight from JB and she brought along this birthday cake…

*Niece’s photo on Facebook*

…for her mum – the Earl Grey lavender…

…from this online home-based business…

*Niece’s photo on Facebook*

It was supposed to cost over SGD50.00 but my niece managed to get one of those Groupon deals and paid half that price only for it.

Of course, we had to have the fried mee sua…

…for longevity and we also had this egg drop soup…

…with the lightly fried “golden” eggs though the one I got wasn’t that well done and was not so golden like the rest. Usually people would drop the eggs into the hot boiling soup so what they would get in the end would be poached eggs. My missus would fry the eggs and add them to the soup and of course, hers is nicer – lots of ginger fried in sesame oil and lots and lots of our Traditional Foochow red wine. This one here was nice too, not bad at all considering that it actually was not on the menu and they were nice enough to cook it for us by special request. I wonder why they did not ask for the mee sua to be served in it though and had that fried separately – we usually have mee sua with this egg drop soup, a welcome change from the usual – chicken.

We ordered this specially for my brother-in-law, the fried omelette with lap cheong (Chinese sausage)…

…as he always complains that he does not get to eat that at home and when he does, it is not so nicely done.

This is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes…

– their own-made tofu. They have two types, the plain ones and this one has dried prawns (udang kering) in it and I do think that brings the taste to a whole new level. Very nice!

For the vegetable dish, we had midin (wild jungle fern)…

…a change from what we had for lunch that afternoon and they decided not to order the pandan chicken since we already had it earlier in the day.

We also had their claypot pork with salted fish and dried chilies…

…and yet another one of their signature dishes, their butter scotch prawns…

– the favourite of many, something that is not available elsewhere here, there or anywhere.

That sure was a delightful dinner that night, 7 dishes for only around RM110.00, inclusive of rice and drinks. While other places are jacking up their prices and what they dish out here is consistently good, I believe that is the reason why people are  flocking back. There was quite a crowd that night and there were several tables as well when we were there for lunch, a far cry from one time not too long ago when things seemed rather quiet and a bit slow.

Cool me down…

It had not been raining for a long time and it was terribly hot every day so the severe storm a week ago was a welcome relief, never mind that the rain was so heavy, the wind was so strong and the thunder and lightning was quite frightening to say the least. The river and the streams and drains must be bone dry seeing that despite the sudden increase in the volume of water, there was no flash flood. We do get that sometimes in the event of such really heavy rain.

Unfortunately, the happiness was short-lived as the very next day, it was hot again…and I thought it was a good time to stop by here (2.302397, 111.842982)…

…at Wisma Sri Minyak along Jalan Pedada for this (RM10.50, excluding GST)…

…their pure young coconut sorbet. We certainly enjoyed it tremendously – the gelato tasted exactly like young coconut flesh straight out of the shell and my girl and the mum loved the peanuts in the topping. They tasted something like Planter’s honey roasted – we can get that at a supermarket here but that, of course, does not come cheap, not at all!

I wanted to try their cheese tarts, all three flavours (RM4.80 each, excluding GST)…

…that have been around for quite sometime now, just that I never got round to stopping by to sample one of each.

The only one that I did not like was the matcha cheese…

Eyewwwww!!! I am no fan of green tea and the combination of that and cheese came across as very odd to me – I shall not elaborate further on that. That was the first and definitely the last time I would ever order it.

The chocolate…

…was all right, just that the chocolate was so overpowering that there was hardly any hint of the presence of cheese in the filling. Needless to say, chocolate lovers would love this one but for me, my pick of the lot would be the cheese…

My Kuching cousins, when they came to town, did buy me one to try but I did not get the chance till a few days later when I managed to heat up up in the oven and sit down to eat. I don’t know whether it was because I heated it up for too long or what but the filling was solid, not so wobbly or creamy – like chilled cheesecake that has set and I think I would prefer it like that. Actually, I am no fan of those cheesecakes but since the tart is not all that big, I would be able to enjoy it without getting put off by the cloyingly rich cheese filling.

I wonder if those very popular Japanese cheese tarts that people in KL and elsewhere queue up to buy are anything like this one here.

Still going strong…

We go back a long way to way back in 2009 when I was still using my cheap handphone camera to take photographs for my blog and they were just a makeshift stall by the roadside at Bandong here at the time. Now, the authorities have given the place a facelift and constructed proper stalls along what they call the Bandong Walk and they are occupying two of those, one for the foodstall…

…and the other for the son who barbecues stuff…

…for sale. We love the sardines, RM7.00 each…

…or perhaps that might depend on the size of the fish. The grilled chicken is very nice too.

Note how all the dishes are placed in covered containers, not all exposed like what I have seen elsewhere with all flies flying all over like war planes. You will have to open them one by one to see what is inside like this ayam berlada, for instance…

…and decide what your picks would be. Of course, sometimes, you will be drawn to so many that you just can’t decide which ones you want. Do take note also that they are using those environment-friendly cardboard boxes for their nasi campur takeaway, not the banned-in-Sibu polystyrene containers. I definitely would boycott the stall if I had seen them using those.

My missus had picked what we would have for dinner that evening but I went and opened a few of the containers just to have a look and lo and behold, I saw this!!! Liver…

…and of course, I just had to buy that, RM3.00…

…for that much, no need to over-indulge plus it was chicken liver. Personally, I prefer beef liver.

My missus bought the fish, RM2.50 each…

They always marinate their fish elaborately and I do enjoy eating them a lot more than those at the Chinese chap fan stalls where they would just rub with salt and deep fry.

She also bought the masak lemak…

– pumpkin and cangkuk manis, RM3.00…

…and we sure enjoyed our dinner that evening.

The food here is consistently good – choices are more or less the same every day though so that is why we do not frequent the stall that often anymore, unlike before especially when my missus was still working. Yes, we do drop by time and time again and there may be a few not-so-regular dishes that would make their appearance once in a while. Go ahead! Do drop by to check it out – a wide selection of very nice home-cooked Malay delights, you will surely come back for more!

Good again…

We were quite put off by the miserable portions of our orders and also the poor service at this very crowded place one Sunday but we did go back again once or twice since and things seemed to be pretty back to normal now.

Yes, there is a notice there now that states their opening days and hours…

…loud and clear. Their address and telephone contact number are also provided.

I don’t know if they read my blog or what but I was grumbling about how horrible the coffee was and on one of the later visits, the lady asked me if the coffee was all right. I just said yes even though it wasn’t really. This time around, I decided not to have coffee and asked for the teh-c special…

…aka the three-colour tea instead. Nope! It wasn’t any good – it was not rich enough probably because they did not add enough evaporated milk and the tea was not strong enough for my liking as well. At other places, there would be a layer of green – some say that is wheatgrass and others say it is pandan and there is a brown layer of gula Melaka as well but there is neither in the one here or none that I could taste or detect. I guess if you are looking for a place where they serve really nice drinks, this is not the one.

My missus stuck steadfastly to the fried kway teow (RM4.00)…

She would order that most of the time though she may switch to something else time and again. Yes, there was quite a lot in the plate and yes, there were three prawns…

…in it – the other two were smaller and buried somewhere under the kway teow.

The standard practice here is to give three prawns…

…no more, no less and so it was with the Sarawak laksa (RM5.00)…

…that I had. It was a Friday when we dropped by so I requested for the pulled chicken breast meat to be left out – I am never a fan of that, anyway – and asked for more of the thin strips of sliced omelette though what I got in the end did not seem all that much, not at all.

Yes, it was very nice and I sure enjoyed the bihun eaten together with the sambal belacan…

…provided.

All in all, I would say that everything here is good again, except for the drinks perhaps, so if you have been avoiding this place lately, I would say it is quite safe to drop by again to enjoy all the nice stuff that they serve here. For some reason, my girl loves the curry here so I tapaoed two chicken drumsticks, usually served with their nasi lemak (RM3.50 each)…

…for her to enjoy when she got home that afternoon.

Quality…

If one is in the food business, one very crucial thing that is of utmost importance is that one must be able to maintain the quality of what one sells, more or less, so customers would know exactly what to expect and get that much-coveted satisfaction without fail everytime.

I dropped by the Malay kueh stall here again last week and no, the elusive Kate pulut panggang was nowhere to be seen as always and I did not feel like settling for the ones that I would consider second best. I remember buying the fried or koi (yam cake) here not too long ago at only 3 for RM1.00 and it was so good. There were chunks of yam inside and bits of udang kering (dried prawns), so very cheap and so very nice. That was why I bought some more…

…that day for tea but unfortunately, it was so so very disappointing.

The quality was way below what I had bought and enjoyed so much before, no chunks of yam, no udang kering, nothing…

…mostly flour and it would not be so bad if it had not been so very salty. We just ate a few pieces and in the end, I threw all the rest away. Never mind that it is cheaper – I would much sooner fork out a little bit more to buy the ones here, 50 sen each but 5 for RM2.00 and derive a lot more satisfaction from those.

It was a hot day that day – well, it is getting hotter and hotter here, not a single drop of rain for a long time now – so I decided not to have my usual kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee) which, usually, they do not do well at the Malay shops and stalls, I dunno why. Once in Kuching, I asked for iced Nescafe, black, thinking that they couldn’t possibly go wrong with instant coffee…and they did. Tsk! Tsk! Instead, I asked for the ang-tao peng or ais kacang from one of the two drink stalls at the hawker centre in the vicinity…

…and never mind that they probably gave just a teaspoon of the red beans…

…it was so so so good, so cold and so refreshing. It was very rich, very lemak and if I am not wrong, they had santan (coconut milk) plus evaporated milk…and I had the feeling that they used our local gula apong (attap or nipah palm sugar) which does not taste quite the same as gula Melaka (coconut palm sugar) but it is very nice in its own way. I sure wouldn’t mind going for it again if this unbearably scorching weather persists, heaps better and a lot nicer than the disappointing one that I had here.

Ahhhh!!! The African’s back!…

…His stall was closed all throughout the fasting month of Ramadhan and even after Hari Raya, business did not resume till not too long ago. I was wondering if he had decided to pack his bags and go back to his continent or not but no, he’s still around!

My missus had his pili-pili (peri-peri) chicken rice (RM9.00)…

…complete with the peri-peri sauce and tomato salsa…

…while I had the Moroccan rice (RM9.00)…

My missus commented that the chicken was no longer grilled/barbecued and instead, it was fried…

…which made it nothing more than those slightly cheaper ayam penyet ones all around town with a few cosmetic differences.

Yes, it was still quite nice but if the chicken is going to be fried from now on, we would not be in such a hurry to come back here for more – somehow the quality is not quite the same anymore. I’ve heard comments from friends – they all came to try and they all liked what they had. That guy should think twice about rocking the boat when the sailing all this while has been smooth and good.

Wondering why…

They call him…

*Archive photo*

…Ang Kau, literally translated – Monkey, and if you are wondering why he is known by that nickname, you can click this link here for the story behind it.

Yes, I do know that he has a faithful following. Wherever he goes, people will go to eat his kampua mee which they would all insist is the best in town. I can’t remember if I ever tried his or not – that time when my friend came home from Adelaide, Australia and made a beeline for his stall to eat not one but TWO plates of the noodles, I did not bother trying.

Then, the other day, my Bintulu brother-in-law took my niece and nephew from Penang to go and eat and they posted a photograph of it on Facebook and praised it to the skies. My niece said that initially, she did not feel like going but luckily she changed her mind and did not miss to chance to enjoy it…and that got me wondering why everybody seems to be falling head over heels in love with this guy’s kampua mee. Is it really that good? That was why I decided to go and look for the guy, since moved from that coffee shop where I last saw him two years ago, 2014.

As always, people will never give you the specific information you may need. A lot of people have told me that he has moved to “Hock Chiew Kay” (Foochow Lane) but nobody ever specified exactly where. Fortunately, there are not that many blocks of shops there, just a few at the beginning of the lane adjoining the main road so I just drove around peering into each coffee shop to try and catch a glimpse of the guy and yes, I found him! He is here (2.289673, 111.831081)…

…now at this coffee shop…

…right beside/below the hotel/inn where my friend used to stay everytime he came to town from his jungle school upriver. and ever so often, I would go there to pick him up to go some place to eat or do whatever he wanted so I would say that I am quite familiar with that part of town.

I ordered his pian sip, soup…

…and yes, it was quite nice but it was mostly skin, not much meat…

…and if that one time when I had it here was anything to go by, I would say that that one wins hands down.

My missus had his kampua noodles, tossed in chili sauce…

…while I had it plain…

…and both of us were of the general consensus that it…

…was at best, just all right – not really exceptionally good, nothing to get excited about and there are others elsewhere that we do enjoy more but of course, like I always say, one man’s meat is another man’s poison…and some may not share the same opinion when it comes to the ones that what we like. To each his own!