At the junction…

When my girl’s coursemate and his wife visited us during Chinese New Year, they were telling us that the nasi lemak here…

…was very nice.

I had the Sarawak laksa here before but no, I did not like it at all. The only attraction was the prawns that came with it…

*Archive photo*

…and when we were working on the book on food in Sibu, I actually insisted that we went here just to take a photograph of it as it looked pretty impressive.

Well, the following day, Sunday, was the 2nd Day of Chinese New Year so all the shops in town were closed, the Chinese ones in particular, but some Malay ones were open including a number of stalls at this SEDC Hawker Centre at Simpang Tiga here in Sibu. That was why we chose to go there for breakfast after the morning service at the church up the road.

My girl wanted the Penang laksa but it was not available so she went for the Sarawak laksa (RM4.00)…

…instead – without the prawns. That probably would be the special, I wouldn’t know. I tried a little and I thought it was all right – no, I did not say it was good, just all right which was more than what I would say about what I had from this stall on those previous occasions. My guess is perhaps they are using a different brand of the sambal laksa, one that is a bit nicer than the one before.

My missus and I both had their nasi lemak special (RM5.00 each)…

…but no, we did not think it was anything to shout about.

The rice was not really lemak, for want of a lot more santan and the sambal did not quite taste like the usual sambal that we would get with nasi lemak…

…and the only saving grace was that the egg was fried the traditional way – in a wok, the way I like it.

As a matter of fact, I do not recall any nasi lemak at any Malay stall or shop in town that I would pinpoint and say, “Yes! This is the one!!!” So far, my favourite in town would be the one here but I do not think it will go down well with certain quarters even though it is a pork-free place and they do have a couple of Malay/Muslim employees working there as well, taking the orders, doing the serving and what not…and the Sarawak laksa here is a whole lot nicer than many elsewhere as well.

We were in the vicinity again the following day, Monday – the day before the last day of the Chinese New Year holidays when I would have to send my girl back to her school in the jungle and she wanted to go for the peri-peri grilled chicken rice at the stall…

…there.

I ordered the banana smoothie (RM4.50)…

…which was like blended bananas – so thick and so much of the fruit in it!

My girl and the mum had the peri-peri grilled chicken rice (RM9.00)…

Somehow or other, both of them prefer it to the Moroccan (RM9.00)…

…which I personally like a lot more. Whichever one’s choice of rice may be, one would get the own-made peri-peri sauce and the salsa and a chicken thigh grilled to perfection…

What matters most, of course, would be the fact that we do enjoy what the African guy dishes out at his stall here and rest assured we would be coming back for more again…and again.