In a row…

I was lucky that morning to be able to find a parking space in that very congested part of town…

…so I decided to drop by this coffee shop to try the rojak thamby [SIC] that people have been praising to the skies but the stall was closed.

As a matter of fact, it was closed most of the time when I drove past. Maybe I did see it open once or twice but I was not in the mood for it especially when one might have to go round and round and round and end up going some place else after a futile search for a place to park the car…legally. Many will just leave their vehicles by the roadside, never mind if there is a yellow line or not – no, I do not do things like that.

I decided to try the vegetarian chap fan stall at another coffee shop a couple of doors away but the shop was closed – perhaps Thursday is their off day, I wouldn’t know. In the end, we decided to go this place next door – yes, it is a block of around 5-6 shops and 3 are coffee shops, one occupying 2 shop lots, all in that same row. That is Sibu for you! You throw a stone, chances are you will hit a coffee shop. LOL!!!

Guna, the very nice and friendly boss, was not around but the young guy there, equally nice and friendly, could remember me even though I had been to this outlet once only. I ordered their mutton curry (RM10.00)…

– they did not have that the  previous time we were here and also their fish curry (RM4.50)…

Other than these two curries, they also had chicken, curry and masak merah but we did not order those.

The mutton was nice – a little too much for me and my missus so perhaps we would ask for half of that should we feel like having it again…but it paled in comparison with the very much stronger and flavourful fish curry, Indian-style. This was different from the Malay-style fish curry – the taste was not the same and it took me back all the way to 1973 in Singapore and that Indian stall at a coffee shop at the end of Katong, Teluk Kurau Road. No, I did go looking for it on Google streetview but I don’t think it is there anymore.

I used to tapao food from the stall and I loved their fish curry…or their sotong (squids). They were much cheaper than the meat dishes at the time and I was trying to scrimp and save so that I could use most of my pocket money to go pub/music lounge hopping or dancing at the discos…and to buy the most trendy clothes – yes, I was young and slim then and real happening, believe it or not. LOL!!!

Anyway, back to what we had that day – sorry, I digressed – I thought the eggs (RM2.00)…

…looked interesting but no, it did not get me jumping with delight – I prefer the sambal eggs at the Malay stalls…or maybe, it was overshadowed by all the curries that we had.

They only had four vegetable dishes and none looked like anything I would like a lot but I certainly was wrong about my choice – the Indian-style brinjal (RM2.50)…

Wowwww!!! It was really good, very much nicer than the Malay version with sambal or the Chinese version with minced pork and salted egg. My girl loves the two varieties so I simply had to tapao some of this one back for  her to try when she came home for the weekend.

I asked for my selections to be served in separate bowls for my missus and I to share and when everything was served, seeing how substantial the amounts they gave were, I thought it would cost quite a lot but I was pleasantly surprised that the total was only RM19.00, RM21.00 if we include the two plates of rice…and less if I had asked for just half of the mutton curry.

If only parking here isn’t such a pain, I certainly would want to come back a lot more often.