I’m on my way…

I heard that they were selling yong tofu laksa in a coffee shop located opposite this restaurant…

…behind that hotel on the left in the photograph at the junction of this lane with the main road. Well, as soon as I heard that, I was on my way to go and give it a try and it turned out that it was not the one immediately behind the hotel but a little further in…

…next to this place…

…formerly a bakery, where, for RM10.00, you can go fishing for prawns and this…

…is the name of the coffee shop but you would not be able to see it from the road.

There is a vegetarian stall…

…inside and I spotted an old friend of mine with his wife, eating something from there. According to him, there are quite a few of such places around town now but in his opinion, this one is the best.

All along the way, I was thinking of yong tofu and Sarawak laksa and I was expecting the latter topped with all those yong tofu delights…

…instead of the usual thinly-sliced omelette, strips of pulled chicken, breast and a few tiny prawns…but no, it was something like the Singapore nyonya curry laksa like the celebrated one available at the 328 Katong Laksa place here (Incidentally, it seemed that the outlet here has closed down – I noticed that it was closed all the time everytime I drove by but I guess the one at The Sarawak House here is still in business.)

The gravy was very lemak (rich with santan/coconut milk). something that true blue Sarawak laksa lovers in Kuching would frown upon – it would be like curry, they would say, not like Sarawak laksa…but I did hear people saying that Sibu folks like their laksa very lemak and not spicy and those would be two of the qualities of the yong tofu laksa (RM7.00)…

…that my missus had that morning.

According to a friend, now residing in Australia, it was supposed to be like that, like curry laksa, and not like Sarawak laksa. She used to live in KL a long time ago and she would go and eat this there and she loved it a lot. Oh? I didn’t know that. I only know of yong tofu in clear soup which they also sell at this stall…

…in this coffee shop along with a whole lot of other things. It turned out that the old guy was my brother’s classmate in school, one year my senior, but no, I could not, for the life of me, remember him.

Well, since my missus was having the laksa, I decided to try something else from the second stall…

…at that coffee shop.

I ordered the chao chai…

…hung ngang (preserved vegetable with big bihun), fried. As far as I know, they serve this in soup at all the other places around town, one of the local Foochow delights but this one was fried and thus, served try.

It did take a little bit of getting used to (RM5.00)…

– the fried hung ngang with the taste of the chao chai but after a mouthful or two, I thought it actually tasted great, something that I would not mind having again should I happen to drop by here another time.

RONG RONG SEAFOOD & CAFE (2.284978, 111.834573) is located along Jalan Chengal, off Lanang Road. You turn into that road at the junction where Kawan Hotel is located and go straight in, the first shop in the second block of shops on your right, a short distance after the Golden Happiness Restaurant which you would go past, on your left.