My cousins, who were in town over the weekend, had never been here before, not me. In fact, I’ve been here many times but it had been quite a while since I last dropped by, probably sometime in June, I think.
Of course I insisted that they should try the ngor bee th’ng…
*Archive photo*
– something that we enjoyed a lot at one stall here during our growing up years but it, and all the nice food stalls along the stream that flowed through the town centre, eventually gave way to the Sibu Central Market. I do think the one here is nicer though but then again, back in those days, life was so pure and simple and we found immense delight in all the simplest of things that the young ones today would scoff at and frown upon with a disgusted look of disdain.
I ordered our two favourite dishes here, the prawns with young coconut flesh served in a coconut…
…and the pork that came with a special cincaluk (fermented shrimps) dip…
…both of which everyone gave the nod of approval.
The fried midin (wild jungle fern), ching chao (fried plain)…
…was well received too but I think the Four Heavenly Kings…
…won the day – they sure liked it a lot!
The steamed fish…
…was such a disappointment though. I really enjoyed the lajong here the first and the second time but when we dropped by here again soon after, they were out of that type of fish and replaced it with the tapah – which, though a popular fish for steaming around here, is not as smooth and as fine and it has a stronger smell and I am not particularly fond of that. I also had the lajong here and also here and on both occasions, we enjoyed it so much.
When I dropped by a day earlier to make the reservation and place the orders, I insisted that I would only want the lajong and the guy told me that he was expecting a delivery that evening and he would reserve it for me. Unfortunately, the skin which under normal circumstances I would enjoy a lot, was as hard as leather, impossible to bite and chew. Thankfully, the flesh of the fish was all right but no, it certainly was not as smooth and nice as all the lajong I had had before. I was kind of mood spoilt by this and you can be sure that if I ever come and have dinner here again, that would be one dish that I would not order.
The three-cup wine chicken…
…was something most of them had not had before and they thought it was very nice.
My KK cousin picked up the tab for our dinner that night and the total came up to a whooping RM276.00 for eight persons, inclusive of rice and drinks for everybody. I thought that was on the high side…and not really worth it especially when the fish was not to our satisfaction.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 