On his third day here, Nick wanted to go to Mukah to visit his former university mates there but the bus was scheduled to leave at around noon which meant that I just had that morning to squeeze in whatever I could while he was here in Sibu, Sarawak.
I took him to Rejang Park here to see the making of the so-called Foochow bagel, our kompia…
*Archive photo*
…the traditional way and of course, we went to that one with the nice and friendly young boy, complete with his signature towel apron. Yes, I did get some and also a few of the softer and slightly sweet version, the chu nu miang, for Nick to try. Personally, I like the kompia here the best – crustier, not so chewy or rubbery, and more fragrant.
Next, I took him to the Sibu Central Market, reputed to be the biggest in the country, but no, we did not have that much time to go round the whole place. He just hopped out of the car to walk around quickly to see what he could see, take photographs the street art mural on the wall there…
*Archive photo*
…and the famed newspaper-wrapped chickens…
*Archive photo*
…and we were on our way.
After that, we stopped by here…
…for breakfast.
I picked this place as he wanted anything and everything Sibu – he did not want to go to any place that is Thai, Italian, Indian, Indonesian and all the rest that we have here, never mind how good they are as he can get those quite easily elsewhere, everywhere…and here, I could order a few of our local Foochow delights for him to try.
These were our drinks…
I had my usual kopi-o-peng kao and he had the teh-c special once again. Yes, you may notice that mug of hot boiling water at the back – Nick did manage to go here (located somewhere behind the hotel where he was staying) for the kampua mee and the pian sip on his own before he caught a bus to Sarikei that day and he sent me a photograph of the one he was given there asking me what that was for. I quickly replied to tell him that was not for drinking but for people to sterilise their chopsticks and forks and spoons – this is a requirement imposed by our municipal council on all eateries here.
I ordered the char bee lau too kha (fragrant root pork leg)…
…but no, Nick is not all that fond of those Chinese herbal soups so I could understand jolly well why he did not enjoy that very much.
He loved the mee sua in our traditonal Foochow red wine chicken soup…
…though. He said it…
…was a whole lot nicer than the blood-red red wine mee sua he had some place else, but he could not remember exactly where.
However, his favourite was the Foochow fried noodles…
…as this dish has a much stronger taste than the mee sua and he liked that. The place was packed, so full of people that it was difficult getting a table and obviously, the lady was so very busy with all that cooking to be done, dishing out plate after plate, non-stop so she did not have time to worry about the presentation. It tasted really very good though – in my personal opinion, I would rank it as the best…or at least, among the top 3 in town.
Another thing that amazed me immensely was how I could just tell her my orders and my table number and she could remember everything without having to write it down…plus we did not have to wait long even though there were so many people that early in the morning, around 8.00 a.m!
Having had our fill, I took Nick here to snap a shot of the rooster…
*Archive photo*
He was in luck! They were beginning to take down the decorations as the Chinese New Year festivities were over but before that, we did stop here as well – the Kutien Memorial Park…
He sure took a lot of photographs there…
…and he was particularly impressed by how Chinese the place was, like some place one would be most likely to find in China…
…right here in our good ol’ Sibu town.
Having done all that, I sent him back to the hotel so he could rest a bit and get ready for his bus ride to Mukah.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
A nice round up Sibu tour.
Yes, we did manage quite a bit in the little time we had.
I hope Nick can give us an account of his visit to Mukah and what he thought of the food.
From what he told me, his friends took good care of him. Will have to wait and see if he will blog about it in his own blog.
Though a short visit to Sibu, Nick still manage to visit quite a number of places of interest. I don’t think I have ever seen chickens wrapped in newspaper over here in our market.
I don’t know if it’s a Sibu thing but it’s quite a tourist attraction here, it seems.
Lovely photos, the food looks very good and I enjoyed this tour. 🙂
Glad you like what I have in this post. A bit more coming up on my friend’s visit, one more post.
The mee sua with traditonal Foochow red wine chicken soup is nice, if your homecook one, will be thumb up, toe up liao…
Not necessarily. There are very good ones outside – same ingredients – if they use good ginger, good chicken, good red wine…the end result will be the same, may be even nicer. Sometimes we also end up buying not very nice wine, can’t trust all the sellers – some will lie through their teeth.
I’d love to try the local version of the bagel!
I had bagels in New Zealand and there was a franchise outlet in Kuching once, tried it there too. Not really a fan of our local version but I would say that in comparison, I do like it better.
Newspaper-wrapped Chicken? Do they slaughter the chicken themselves?
Obviously some people do. Dunno if it is cheaper…or nicer than the machine-slaughtered and everything ones, just don’t count on me on doing that! Shudders!!!
newspaper wrapped chicken, now that’s cute.. won’t be too cute when we chop them up though.. 🙂
Off with their heads, shouted the Queen (Alice in Wonderland).
I am sure he is very impressed… with the food, sightseeing and all…
I most certainly hope he was…and feels that his trip here was most worthwhile.
I can go sight seeing too while reading your blog. The signature towel.. hehe. There is also a bedsheet with the same pattern right.
Dunno about the bed sheet but this towel is very common, you can see it everywhere. 😀 Very different now, Sibu, eh? A lot nicer than long ago.
Ooo yeah, looking at the last three photos, I’d have thought this was taken at a Chinese tourist attraction in some province! 😉
Come on over! You will be surprised that we even have the names in Chinese/Mandarin on all our road signs…and everything, very different from places over at your side.
Yes, I am impressed with the last few photographs. Such a lovely place, I would have thought they are pictures of somewhere in China.
I wish here in the Klang Valley will have such regulations too on eatery providing hot water to dip the fork and spoons inside. I have to always wipe with tissue before using them. I prefer hot water 😦
Yes, that is a very good regulation, very hygienic practice. Good that we have it here. They should do the same elsewhere.
Lovely park – there was some event sometime back, linking Sibu to some Foochow place in China, some heritage thing and that is why we have this park here.