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.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I am glad all of you ate well. The meal was good value. It truly was a nice spread.
I am familiar with Pandan Chicken. The Pandan in London are picked rather early and being tender leaves, the flavour is not all that. It can be grown in a greenhouse though.
What was in the blended iced coffee?
I heard your cry about overpriced speciality coffee.
When I stumbled upon cold brew coffee where I used to live in Turkey, I was overjoyed. But I was greatly disappointed with the first sip. I could do better. I then ordered the infamous Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica in a well known eatery where I lived in Turkey; sadly, it was merely a dark, flavoured water.
I miss the coffee from Saudi Arabia. It’s flavoured with cardamoms. It is strong stuff. Traditionally, it is served with dates (they grow hundreds of varieties. One variety is sought by a high end French bakery who uses it instead of sugar).
I know my coffee well!
Monmouth Coffee in Convent Garden, London has truly spoilt me rotten. I told them so. They taught me a lot about coffee; the roasting, the selection of beans etc. They gave me full espresso cups of samples from the espresso machine before I buy my weekly purchase of coffee grounds. Then, we had our chit chat even when there was a long queue. By the time I left the coffee shop, I had my fill of caffeine☺️.
Monmouth? My cousin in London gave me some once:
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/just-for-me/
It was very nice, but different.
Our local brew – this Mui Hock place – is very old school. They use the old cylindrical drum with a handle to turn to roast the coffee beans, with butter added, over a charcoal fire. The fragrance is different and to me, it is much nicer than machine roasted and especially if it is dry roasted. Unfortunately, they mix margarine these days as butter is too expensive so not as nice anymore. In fact, I find the quality going down over the years – still good but not like how it used to be.
They use their coffee powder at this restaurant – nothing in it, just iced black coffee and they use a blender to make all that froth which will rise up eventually and the glass of coffee will be all black with froth on top like Guiness stout:
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/nobody-does-it-better/
Dunno if it is the climatic changes or what but my pandan leaves aren’t all that fragrant either. Chilies here, the big ones, are not hot and spicy, good for colour only, the seller will tell you – they say it is because of the overuse of fertilisers but I do not use any on my pandan leaves. My spring onions aren’t all that fragrant either and bitter gourd is not bitter and so on and so forth. The times, they are a-changing.
I have not had coffee from Sibu? I hope it will be in the near future. What do you think of the coffee from the kopi tiam in Kuching?
At my community allotment (it has been since been sold to a property developer), my Vietnamese neighbour gave me tender leaves from the bitter gourd. I put it in my soup. It was so good.
I don’t recall any really good coffee in Kuching. There is this place, everyone seemed to be raving about the coffee – I did drop by but no, it was not what I was looking for:
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/cant-have-it-all/
Oops! The menu is in Chinese … You’re able to read? I’m unfortunately illiterate 😉
Oh? Looks like we’re birds of the same feather, both bananas. Hehehehehe!!!
The cake is beautiful and looks delicious! The food looks great, too!
Cake was all right, can’t say it took my breath away. We sure enjoyed the food, both lunch and dinner.
Great deal & worth every cent of it. Food looks so delicious. Indeed a nice dinner.
Yes, value for money. Always enjoy what they dish out here. These visitors from Kuching were grumbling about all that they ate in Sibu until they came here:
http://yienyien.com/travel/ruby-restaurant-sibu/
All nice food. It’s been awhile I didn’t eat Pandan Chicken. The cake looks so gorgeous.
Cake was ok, style orang putih empun kek, boleh lah! I wonder where I can get really good pandan chicken in Kuching.
Ha ha – same restaurant twice a day? I don’t think I’ll be doing that any time soon!
Yes, my brother-in-law called my missus and she just said yes. I would have told him we were there for lunch and suggested another venue.
Butter scotch prawns! I love this. I just had butter scotch chicken last Sunday. Beautiful cake bought by your niece.
Twice a day? I don’t think I ever do so. Twice or thrice in a week I did that before. 😉
They have butter scotch chicken in Kuching? Never tried chicken here. It’s always prawns but sometimes pork or fish fillet when we do not feel like prawns.
I wouldn’t have gone for lunch that day if I had known we would be going there for dinner.
I only recently learned of the word for pandan in English – screw pine. I think it’s unique to this region. I’ve never seen it used elsewhere.
Oh? I went and googled. It does seem like it’s only found around here. Elsewhere, they may be able to get the bottled essence.
I love the tofu…
Nice, everything’s nice here.