Blame it on the weather…

The weather has been so very hot lately and I remember it was the same last year. That was why I did not drop by the Ramadan Bazaars that much then.

Fortunately, there was a storm one night last week and the following day, it was kind of cloudy and we took advantage of the milder weather to drop by the main one at the Sibu Town Square. I think the last time I was there was way back in 2008 but I never went back again as it would be so very crowded and parking would be so very difficult. They have improved the whole area now – lots of parking spaces available.

However, it appeared to me that there were not that many stalls this time around unlike that time which, I guess, was a good thing. Only the strong would survive so there would not be any of those half-past-six ones trying to cash in on the occasion to make a few bucks. I remember I was quite disappointed with what I bought then and ended up throwing everything away. That was one reason why I was not keen on checking out the stalls there all these years.

Well, as they say, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Everyone would be selling more or less the same things and the thing is you will need to know which one would be better than the rest. That is also another reason why we would prefer to go to the Bandong stalls where the people are a lot more familiar than here and we would know who’s good and who’s not.

There were a few satay stalls…

…and some selling ikan bakar (grilled fish)…

…and sambal sotong…

…some with kangkong, some without and there were those selling pulut panggang…

…as well. This one seemed to be doing very well…

…The guy sure looked happy and you can see the wife at the back happily counting the money. LOL!!!

There were quite a few stalls selling all the lovely Malay and local delights…

…so many that I really would not know which one to choose if I were to buy that.

There were stalls selling cakes such as this one that had the different types of kek lapis (layer cake)…

…but at RM3.00 a slice, I think I would rather go for something more substantial.

This stall selling sugarcane juice…

…would be enjoying brisk business…

…considering the hot weather here on most days, as it is believed to be cooling.

Sibu is predominantly a Chinese town, Foochow specifically, and I noticed their influence on the Malay/Muslim population at the stall selling halal stuffed kompia…

…and there was this lady…

…selling halal kampua mee and pian sip (wanton/meat dumplings)…

…too.

This ayam penyet…

…looked good but no, we did not buy that.

My missus went to this stall…

…and bought the nasi kukus (steamed rice) and their ayam berempah…

…but I wanted the ayam masak merah instead…

…and yes, it was very nice. It did not quite taste like the usual masak merah that I have had before – I would say that this one had an edge over the rest and I really enjoyed it. On the other hand, the ayam berempah, though very fragrant, was somewhat disappointing as it was all breast meat.

There were a lot more stalls and I did not take photographs of everything. Well, there are still two weeks or so left, more or less, and maybe we were a little early that day – we went at around 3.00 p.m. and there were a number of stalls that were not open. However, I would not know if I would go back to this particular Ramadan Bazaar again or not or for that matter, whether I would go to any at all – I guess it will all depend on my mood and most of all, the weather.