A better place to be…

I did mention in a recent post that we dropped by here but we were told that the chu char (cook & fry) people at the back had moved to a new location and would only be open sometime around the middle of this month.

True enough, they resumed their business on the 15th and my good friend/ex-classmate, Robert, asked us to join him and his family and friends here…

…on their opening night…

They are still running their usual coffee shop setting downstairs (and I noticed that there was a kampua mee stall there) but they now have an air-conditioned section upstairs on the first floor…

I wouldn’t know if that is solely meant for groups of 10 or more but my guess is they would not mind on nights when they are not fully/heavily booked. It is not very big though – that night, I counted 8 tables altogether only but they may be able to fit in one or two more, perhaps.

Looking at the newspaper articles on display…

…it is pretty obvious that the owner is quite a celebrity around here and that night, we had his Four Seasons…

…and this was followed by the steamed empurau…

– the freshwater fish from upriver that is worth its weight in gold. You can read this article about it if you are thus inclined and I quote, “…the most expensive edible fish in Malaysia, with a reputation that reaches all the way around the world…” unquote.

I absolutely loved the roast duck with honey…

…and I had quite a lot of it, seeing that there were a few at my table who were not all that fond of the poultry, my missus included.

This was really good, absolutely out of this world and so very spicy – the sambal seafood (prawns & squid)…

…and there I was, wishing that they had added some petai (stink beans) to it but this being a Chinese restaurant, it may not go down too well with the general public or a section of it, at least, not with that stinky odour that would fill the whole place when it is served.

When I got there that evening, I saw one guy sitting by the side removing the anthers from the durian flowers…

…and there I went, keeping my fingers crossed that it would be served to us that night. Unfortunately, that was the first and the last I saw of it…and actually, they could have added a handful to the above sambal dish – I bet that would be really very nice!

They probably made their own mantao (steamed buns)…

…as they were really huge, so much bigger than the usual ones sold at the stalls and shops around town and the stewed pork belly…

…filling was truly heavenly! The fat simply melted in the mouth…and I had to resist the temptation of helping myself to another one.

There was a fruit platter at the end – yellow watermelon, I think…and complimentary ice cream, one of the local Malaysian brands, for those whose bill came up to RM200 or more.

My girl had always enjoyed what we had before at this restaurant when it was at its former location and since this was on a Friday night and she was home from her school in the jungle, she was delighted that she did not miss the chance to join all of us at this dinner. Thank you so much, Robert, for including us in the group.

We were not able to drop by as much as we wanted before as parking in that area was such a pain – I do think this is a much better place for the restaurant to be and we certainly look forward to dropping by a lot more often from now on.

THE NEW DRAGON SEAFOOD RESTAURANT (2.291430, 111.828736) is located along Hua Kiew Road in the first block of shops on your right behind the Sibu Central Police Station.