Pick & choose…

When my sister-in-law was in town, I took her here…

…at a little past 10.00 a.m. but we were too early. There was nobody around, none of the dishes were out yet so we went some place else.

They’ve just started this mixed rice or what we call chap fan in Chinese or nasi campur in Malay…

…and of course, I could not wait to drop by and try the irresistible ethnic delights.

The following day, I went again around the same time and yes, most of the dishes were ready. There was the babi pansoh, pork cooked in bamboo…

…and they had chicken too but it was this that caught my attention  – their kacang ma chicken with their two-year-old tuak (the ethnic rice wine)…

As for the vegetable dishes, only the daun ubi/bandong, tapioca leaves…

…the mixed vegetables with midin (wild jungle fern) in it – I didn’t take a photograph of that – and this bottle gourd (I think that’s what it was) in sambal…

…were ready.

There were others choices such as what looked like fried chicken, salted eggs and so on but these were my picks…

The kacang ma chicken was so very good – I loved it to bits and the tapioca leaves were very good too. I also chose the fish – oops…somehow, I missed snapping a shot of that as well – but I think mine would be nicer – with or without the terung Dayak (Dayak brinjal), a little stronger with the kunyit (turmeric) and with serai (lemon grass) added. It seemed that their terung was not sour at all. That is often the case these days so usually, I would add a few pieces of asam keping (dried tamarind) for that coveted sourish taste.

I also asked for a bowl of the babi pansoh (RM2.50)…

…to share and it was so very good, nicer than when we had it freshly-cooked those times when we dropped by here in the evenings. Maybe it had been cooked longer so it was a lot more flavourful and the meat was very much more tender…and we absolutely enjoyed it!

While we were eating, I noticed a few more dishes coming out of the kitchen like this dabai (local black olives) fried rice…

…and long beans…

…and pork curry with pineapples…

This was on the house…

…for me to try, something I had never eaten before – the buah keluak (nuts from the Pangium edule or Kepayang tree) and rubber seeds with cincaluk (fermented shrimps). Ooooo…it was so very nice! I certainly would want to order that the next time we drop by here again.

Without doubt, it was the most satisfying and very delightful lunch and you can be pretty sure that we would be back again soon, very very soon!