There’s no place like home for the holidays…

Well, there’s no place like home, that goes without saying, and my girl, for one, is happy to be back now that the school holidays are here and she would not need to go back to her school in the jungle till next year.

I hear the Christmas decorations are up but I have not gone round much except to the mall near my house and there is this one solitary Christmas tree there…

…and these snowmen…

…for those keen on having their photographs taken. The economy is not in very good shape with all the rising prices of virtually everything and probably for that reason, the decorations are somewhat minimal. I hear these snowmen were from the year before last, recycled.

Other than the aforementioned, there were also these…

…and the gingerbread house…

Something is better than nothing, I guess – at times like this, it is good for us to try and be a bit prudent in our spending. After all, what is most important is the true meaning of Christmas, not the lavish spending and all that extravagant feasting and partying.

Well, our celebration is going to be very low key this year. Other than going to church, I do not foresee much cooking and celebrating now that we suspect my girl is gluten intolerant and would have to avoid wheat and so on…and who would have guessed there is wheat in soy sauce as well!!! This means that when we go out to eat, we would not be ordering any of those noodles and stuff made from wheat flour. Kway teow (flat rice noodles) and bihun (rice vermicelli) would be fine but not fried, as they always add soy sauce in the cooking.

That was why when we were out for brunch last Saturday morning, she opted for the Sarawak laksa…

…here, still our favourite in town. The current prices are the same as when we were here in April, RM5.50 for the small/regular but the consoling thing is that the serving is very big and small eaters may have a problem eating all of it.

The large (RM7.00)…

…is huge, so huge that even I had to struggle a bit to finish everything.

Of course, everytime I drop by here, I must have their ang tao peng, the red bean ice (RM3.50)…

They do it quite well, I feel, quite a lot of the beans underneath all that shaved ice, rich in santan (coconut milk) though I would not mind a bit more gula Melaka (palm sugar).

The following day, Sunday, after the morning church service, we went here for the tom yam bihun (RM6.00)…

that she also enjoys though she would prefer Sarawak laksa actually. The mum had the same but with hung ngang (the bigger version of the bihun) while I had the hung ngang too but with clear soup…

Looking back at my post way back in May, I am glad to note that the things here…

…are still priced the same despite the way things are going around here.

What about over where you are? Prices shooting up or are they pretty much the same as before?

Coming over…

There seems to be quite a number of West Malaysians coming over and setting up their businesses here like this yong tau foo place, for instance, and a number of stalls here and there which makes me wonder – is it better here? More money to make…or perhaps, there is less competition so there is no need to fight tooth and claw and struggle to survive?

This chee cheong fan stall here…

…is another one of them. The guy had a few immigrant workers running the whole show for him – I did not see him doing anything. In fact, I did not even notice he was there, sitting at a table by the side till one of the guys pointed him out to me. I wouldn’t mind that myself – just sit and watch everybody else so busy and see all the money rolling in. Hehehehehe!!!!

I ordered No. 3, the one with char siew (RM6.00)…

…and yes, the chee cheong fan itself was very nice, really fine and smooth, not chewy – I thought it was just perfect. I would prefer it if they had served the sauce separately though, for me to dip as and when I felt like it, and not drown everything in the plate like that…and the sambal was just so-so, didn’t get me all excited, I’m afraid. On the whole, however, I thought it was good enough and something I wouldn’t mind ordering and having should I happen to drop by this place again.

My missus went and ordered from this stall on the left…

– the one with the WELCOME sign, their sambal fried kway teow (RM5.00)…

…and yes, she thought it was good and enjoyed her pick. If I heard what my missus was saying correctly, you can add a ringgit more and have some prawns in it.

I also had something from this Muslim food stall…

…that seemed mighty popular – a lot of people were having things from that stall and the fried mee and the fried noodles that I saw them serving looked very good. Maybe I would try those another day.

I went for their nasi lemak special (RM6.00)…

…and for once, I could detect the nice santan richness in the rice. No, it was not as rich as I would have loved it to be but it was there, the taste and the fragrance and I quite liked that.

For the special, you have a choice between fried chicken or masak hitam beef…

…and I chose the latter…and I thought they were quite generous with it.

It wasn’t on a Saturday so the popiah stall was not open. In fact, I am not even sure if they are still around on Saturdays and Sundays. They have some new people at the fried noodle stall at the back, the one that we used to order from and my girl enjoyed their sambal bihun that looked like tang hoon or glass noodles to us…but never mind that they are no longer there, there are lots one can choose from the other stalls so needless to say, we would be back again should we happen to be in the vicinity.

Well, for the uninitiated, these stalls are located at Jiali Cafe (2.291776, 111.841426)…

*Archive photo*

…among the shops behind Medan Mall along Jalan Wong King Huo.

Wishing you well…

Congratulations and wishing you all the very best, Rosaline, on the recent grand opening of your business venture…

…at this shop…

…in Bintulu.

Rosaline was my student in Kanowit way back in the late 70’s or early 80’s when I was teaching at a secondary school there, 1978 – 1982. You can see her in this photograph (in dark blue)…

…and it looks like they are stuffing the bamboo tubes to cook the very nice pansoh meat or fish.

For the uninitiated, the ruai is the common room or corridor inside a longhouse…

*Archive photo*

…outside the biliks where each individual family stays. This would be where the longhouse folks would hold their celebration during festivals like the Gawai Dayak when there will be a lot of feasting, drinking and dancing…

*Archive photo: from my Singapore friend, Alfred’s album on Facebook*

Of course, with a name like that, you can expect to enjoy all the Dayak ethnic delights at Rosaline’s shop such this paku (wild jungle fern)…

…and this one – I’m not sure what that is, probably ensabi…

…that some call sawi Dayak.

I managed to get some photographs from Rosaline’s Facebook page to share here and this looks like kacang ma chicken…

…and this meat dish…

…sure looks good!

You can click this link to visit their Facebook page…for more photographs and there is even a video clip of somebody at the shop playing the sape, their traditional “guitar”…

I, for one, enjoy such ethnic native cuisine a lot and I sure would love to drop by and try, if only I were in Bintulu.

Far and wide…

Yesterday, I blogged about a place in Singapore where those in the island republic could drop by for the much coveted Sarawak Sibu kampua noodles, especially the ones from here who are currently residing there.

Well, an ex-student of mine from Kanowit where I was teaching, 1978 – 1982, who is now working in Kuala Lumpur shared this photograph of what he had…

…on Facebook. Now that looked really good, the bowl of kampua mee and the pian sip on top.

Oh my!!! It certainly is spreading far and wide these days, as far as Australia, don’t play-play! You do not even have to fly all the way to Sibu to eat this anymore, it seems. Gone are the days when you could not even get it in Kuching and my friends in college in the mid-70’s used to moan and groan and complain about the Kuching kolo mee, craving for our own Sibu kampua mee all the time.

I asked my ex-student where he had that but he did not know the details. He did forward to me this photograph of the stall…

…though. I guess these were his own photographs. He did share with me some snapshots of the very nice kolo mee he had at Pantai Indah but I googled and found out that he got those from somebody’s blog so I would not include them in mine.

I am not sure but it looked like he went back the very next day and this was what he had…

…the second time around and he got me the address:
Restoran Pertama
Jalan Pandan 2/3, Pandan Jaya

I went and googled and got this…

…street view pic of the place (3.134424, 101.740939).

So if there is anybody from here craving for this hometown delight, he or she can drop by this shop to give it a shot…or if anyone who is keen on sampling, this probably would be a good place to head to – I hear that man is from Sibu, unlike the Foochow-speaking Miri guy in yesterday’s post.

Addicted to you…

Kampua (noodles) and kompia are synonymous with Sibu. As a matter of fact, I have heard stories of people who had been away for a while even if it was just for a week-long tour and the moment they touched down, they would head straight to the coffee shop for their kampua fix before heading home.

Needless to say, those who live and work elsewhere, when they come home, for instance, when they come back for Chinese New Year, they would go and eat like there is no tomorrow. I’ve seen some stopping by so many places and sharing the photographs on Facebook of the kampua noodles that they had eaten…all in one morning, believe it or not!

Well, my friend in Singapore, the one originally from Sibu who was here briefly over one weekend not too long ago, contacted me via Facebook, all excited about this kampua mee stall…

*Friend’s photograph*

…that she came across in Singapore.

She said that the guy…

*Friend’s photograph*

…is from Miri and speaks Foochow and makes his own noodles. She gave his kampua mee an 8 out of 10 but she did not like the pian sip though as she found the skin rather thick. According to the guy, she said, he used those factory-made ones so of course, those would not meet the standard of discerning pian sip lovers.

I shared their link on Facebook and tagged those friends of mine in Singapore and in no time at all, one went to try and sent me this photograph that he took of the stall…

*Friend’s photograph on Facebook*

…and the  things he ate…

*Friend’s photograph on Facebook*

The kampua mee…

*Friend’s photograph on Facebook*

…got his nod of approval, very authentic, he said, just like any of the original ones that one would get to enjoy in Sibu but he too was not so thrilled by the pian sip as he found the skin too thick for his liking. We also buy the skin here from the stalls at the wet market and they are also sold at most/supermarkets in town. I don’t know if it would help but I’ve seen at a lot of stalls here people sitting down by the side rolling the pian sip skin sheet by sheet to make them thinner so it would be nice and translucent when cooked…like the ones that I enjoy very much here.

It seems that they have a lot of variations, deviating far and wide from the original, and of course, the die-hard true blue kampua mee lovers would frown on those. Perhaps it is to cater to the taste of Singaporeans and others who may not be so attached to what is authentic and would not mind trying the rest which may be more to their liking. Well, if anybody is interested in dropping by to give it a try, this is the location:
115 BUKIT MERAH VIEW #01-30
151115 Singapore
…and you can click this link to view their Facebook page to see what’s in store…and incidentally, I hear that you can put in a special request for the “Sibu chili sauce” to go with your kampua mee, otherwise you will get the regular ones.

Go, go ahead and try and let me know how you find it, whether it is to your liking or not.

Anything else…

We dropped by here again for brunch last Saturday – I was told that there would be new dishes regularly, not the same things day in and day out so I wanted to see if there was anything that I had not tried yet that I might like.

Unfortunately, it was closed. I was puzzled – their regular off day would be Sunday, lunch and dinner, but that was Saturday. I asked the people at the coffee shop and they said they would not be open for lunch but it would be business as usual that night…and they did not know what the reason was. There wasn’t even a notice of some sort pasted at the stall to inform customers and to apologise for the inconvenience caused. I PM-ed them via Facebook, “Not open today?” and I got a reply very much later, a simple, “No.” Period.

Anyway, since I was there, I decided to check out the other food stalls at that same shop. I was told that the kueh chap guy moved from here and yes, I did have that a few times when he was there and I would say his would rank among the better ones in town. Word had it too that the kampua mee guy was at some small alleyway beside the Hock Hua Bank in the town centre in the evenings a long time ago – I did go there for the bak chang (rice meat dumplings – I think they are at the Sibu Central Market hawker centre now) but I do not recall having the kampua noodles there.

For one thing, I would say that the kopi-o-peng kao kao (iced black coffee extra strong) here…

…is consistently good. I’ve had it every time I come here and it has never failed to satisfy.

There are other stalls as well including the chu char (cook and fry) place at the back but I picked the one in front located at the section on the left…

…if you are facing the coffee shop from the front.

My missus had the chao chai hung ngang (RM4.50)…

…which did not look all that good with all the fish cake slices, no fish, no prawns but she did not say a thing so I guess it was edible.

I ordered the black vinegar pork leg rice (RM6.00)…

…and I loved it! It was very nice, nicer than some other places where I had had the same and I was glad they did not give me the trotters…

…with nothing other then the skin and bone and  the cartilage, no meat though I did wish they had served it in a separate bowl instead of in a plate together with the rice like that.

It so happened that the sister-in-law of Annie, my friend in KL, dropped by this same shop with her son, Anson. The boy had the kueh chap while she had the pek ting eyok too kha from this very same stall and she said it was nice. I ordered the fried kompia to try and liked it as well. It sure looks like this is a pretty good place to drop by for breakfast, brunch or lunch – so far, all that we have tried are pretty good.

Different way…

Kompia is the Foochow unleavened bread…

*Archive photo*

…baked in the traditional stone oven…

*Archive photo*

It is chewy, softer than the ones in Sitiawan, Perak, I hear, but not as soft as the cushiony soft sweet version, the chu nu miang. Some call the kompia the Foochow bagel but I would not say they are quite the same.

There are those who love eating it on its own, my missus for one, while others love it this way –

– soaked in sauce and stuffed with meat except that these days, they do not bother to cut the kompia and would resort to just putting the slices of meat on top.

You can find kompia at a lot of places here, oven-toasted or deep fried and stuffed with minced meat but I do prefer the ones with pork belly…

*Archive photo*

…like those that we can get here.

There have been other ways of eating kompia but usually, they would stuff it with something and eat…and this is the first time I’ve had it…fried!!!

This is available at one of the stalls at this coffee shop here (2.293072, 111.836789) right behind the Rejang Medical Centre……

*Archive photo*

…where they cut the kompia into slices and fry it char kway teow (fried flat rice noodles) style and for that reason, it has a similar taste to that of those noodles…

…except that it has the texture and taste of kompia which, of course, is very different from kway teow or for that matter, pek koi (white rice cakes).

However, at RM4.50 a plate…

…it is relatively much more expensive than the regular fried noodles that we have around here, usually ranging from RM3.50 to RM4.00, so it probably would be a while before I would drop by and order this again.

Who dunnit…

I was mighty pleased when I spotted some buds…

…appearing on my ulam raja plant. Gee!!! So far, I only knew that the leaves were edible and eating them would bring a whole lot of health benefits but little did I know at that point in time that it would flower.

I thought it would look like a mini-version of the chrysanthemum, yellow in colour, but my blogger-friend commented on my photograph on Facebook and said that it would be pink. So I went and googled and saw this – it was a nice shade of pinkish purple, very pretty!

However, when it bloomed, it was indeed yellow…

…and never mind the difference, it was very pretty too. It seems there are two varieties actually and the one with yellow flowers has longer leaves or something.

It looked like there were a lot of seeds…

…and some people started asking me for them. I would not know how to go about collecting those but somebody said that I would have to wait till the flower had dried up and withered and then I could take the seeds.

It was very lasting, the flower – I think it was in full bloom for at least three days and on the morning of the fourth day, I was aghast when I woke up and saw this…

Drats!!! Now, who could have done that? The petals were almost all gone and the seeds as well!!! Was it the wind? Or was it those birds in my garden? When I first planted the two seedlings that I got from Peter – he just pulled two out from one of the pots at his café to give to me, those feathered creatures got to them, leaving behind a tiny little sprig. I managed to salvage that and kept it under cover for a long while till the plant was big enough – let them come and eat, there would be enough leaves to spare.

It is now over a meter high and that is why when somebody suggested cutting away the flowers so more branches would grow, I said no way would I do something like that! Why on earth would I want more branches when we have more than enough for us to enjoy…and for the birds too! Let the flowers bloom and I can find pleasure in looking at them in all their glory.

There is another one now…

…though I don’t know if I can get any seeds from it this time around and yet another bud has appeared too – obviously, there will be another flower soon.

Fingers crossed!!!

Number Three…

I was here once before a long time ago…

…for the gelato…

*Archive photo*

…but it does not look like they are selling that now. Well, I can’t say there was any love lost as I did not think it was anything to get excited about, nice though it might be plus it was mighty expensive – like the nice ones here…

*Archive photo*

…which, for me, would not be something I would go for all that often.

I noticed that now their main attraction would be the coconut ice cream served in a coconut with the toppings of your choice but I did not bother to give it nor their coconut milk shake a try. However, I saw that they had gula apong (nipah palm sugar) ice cream…

…so of course, I wanted to see if it was any good. I asked how much it was and was duly informed that it would be over RM7.00 a cup and RM4.00 if served in a cone. The cup did not look all that big, like the ones used for the gelato in the 2nd photograph above, so I requested for one in a cone (RM4.00)…

As you can see, it was not as smooth nor as creamy as my favourite in town (RM3.00)…

*Archive photo*

…and I do love that swirl of fresh gula apong on top but it was heaps nicer than the one I had in Kuching (RM2.00)…

*Archive photo*

…sometime ago.

It was very light on the gula apong taste or perhaps it was gula Melaka (coconut palm sugar), I could not really tell but I did see the word Melaka on the sign on top of the ice cream making and vending machine. Despite the fact that they used vanilla ice cream here (RM3.80)…

…I thought it was quite nice so I would rank that one as 2nd and this one here…

…would be Number Three…

Time of day…

I first met this very nice and friendly lady at the Ramadhan bazaar in 2015 and I loved her nasi kuning ayam berempah so much that I went back for more at least once or maybe twice in that one month. She is now permanently located at one of the Bandong shops here but she only opens in the evening, around 6.00 p.m.

I did not go out much during the fasting month this year but I did hear that she did have a stall this time around like the year before. Not too long ago, I did drop by the shop to tapao her rice and I was pleasantly surprised that she could remember me – she asked me why she did not see me at her stall at this year’s bazaar! Wowwww!!!! I thought that was amazing considering that she has so many customers day in and day out. The problem is she only opens late in the evening when usually, we would be having our dinner already so for me, the time is not quite right.

Anyway, I saw this sign…

…at the nasi kak wok stall at Bandong the other day so I decided to stop by and buy it to try. The dark and big Kelantanese guy whom I met before had gone back to his state, I was told…and from what I understood from my exchanges with the nice and friendly people there, the sister is running the stall now.

The freshly-fried ayam berempah…

…looked good and yes, it tasted great and I was glad they were using that brown paper…

…to wrap it all up. Despite the ban here in Sibu, I still see some people using those polystyrene containers, unfortunately. I guess most do not give two hoots about it but when I see anything of the sort, I would definitely cancel my order and not buy from the party concerned.

No, it was not as nice as the aforementioned lady’s – for one thing, they used plain white rice (RM6.00)…

…instead of the nasi kuning and they did not have those add-ons like the very nice tempeh, for instance. However, they were very generous with the chicken, three huge chunks including a wing, and the curry gravy that came with it was pretty good plus the chili dip was very spicy hot and very much to our liking.

I also bought this gulai ikan tongkol (RM2 a piece)…

…from them and yes, it was very nice – I sure would not mind buying from it again should I happen to stop by. For one thing, it is very conveniently located along my usual route home from visiting my parents at their house plus it is open early in the morning so the timing is just right for us to tapao and bring home to enjoy for brunch.