My maternal uncle and his family from Kuching were here earlier in December and a paternal cousin from Sydney, Australia was in Sibu around Christmas and on Boxing Day, my maternal cousins and their mum came over from Kuching for two nights only.
That morning, we had an early lunch here and of course, the ladies had their nasi kerabu with ayam percik (RM6.50)…
…but I wanted to give their nasi ayam (RM5.50)…
…a try and yes, it was very good, another option I would not mind having when we drop by here again.
After that, I dropped my missus off at the house and my girl and I headed to the airport to pick our visitors flying in on the noontime flight – there wasn’t enough space in my little car for the 6 of us, 5 would fit in quite nicely.
They wanted kampua noodles the moment they landed and they did not want the very popular one here as they use the thinner curly noodles, not all that authentic and yes, I would agree that although theirs is really very nice and I do enjoy it a lot myself, like what some people say, it is more like a cross between Sibu kampua and Kuching kolo mee.
It was already past 1.00 p.m. so many places would have been closed by then but thankfully, the one here at Sungai Merah was open. My cousins had the “black” version…
…with dark soy sauce while the mum had the “white”…
…and they ordered this bowl of pian sip…
…too. Needless to say, they enjoyed their orders and of course, they had the coffee too, the favourite of many, locals and visitors alike.
They brought along with them a whole lot of things including these packs of bee pang, literally translated as fragrant rice…
…and this special homemade pumpkin dodol…
…and one of my cousins bought these gluten-free goodies for my girl…
…and the other cousin, who is into baking those artisan breads, brought along this…
…specially for us, her own homemade panettone…
I tried that once in New Zealand but I was not at all thrilled by it – I thought it was something like a cross between bread and cake and my friend, Annie, in KL sent me one one year and no, it did not get me jumping up and down with delight either, other than the fact that it was indeed a very much appreciated VERY expensive gift.
This one, however, was a different story altogether – looking at all her photos on Facebook of the tedious process she had to go through, it truly was a labour of love. The candied orange peel alone took one week but all that effort put into the making of this sure paid off. It was so very very nice…
…soft and fluffy with the most delightful fragrance and taste of the orange peel and whatever else that went into it. Now, THIS pannetone is definitely to die for, truly a class of its own, not the ones at the shops and supermarkets in the big cities, thank you very much.
Perhaps, my somewhat mediocre snapshots don’t do much justice to it but my cousin did give one to my uncle and his family too – the ones who were here in Sibu and one of his daughters shared this gorgeous collage of photographs of the one they got…
*Cousin’s collage on Facebook*
Thank you all so much for the gifts you brought and of course, that night, I took them out for dinner…
*Cousin’s collage on Facebook*
…and no prize for guessing where we went.
Even before they came, one of my cousins were already saying that she would want to drop by here for the jelly pisang and banana cake. Of course, we had a lot more than just the belimbing prawns and the green chicken curry but they were so excited by all the nice dishes that they dived in right away the moment they were served and did not take any photographs of the rest…and they even made bookings for their otak-otak and their Payung fish (ikan keli) to take home to Kuching.
More on their visit coming up in the next post. Stick around!
WARONG CAFE (2.318841, 111.831732), formerly Sri Tanjung Cafe, is located among the shops in between Jalan Tapang and Jalan Tapang Timur towards the end of Jalan Kampung Nangka on the left – RTM Sibu is located right across the road on the right while CHOON SENG COFFEE SHOP /春陞茶室 (2.324218, 111.838197) is located along along Lorong Wong Ting Hock 1, off Jalan Wong Ting Hock, off Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg at the Sungai Merah Bazaar here and PAYUNG CAFÉ (2.284049, 111.833014) is located at No.20F, Lanang Road, Sibu, Malaysia, back to back with the multi-storey car park of the Kingwood Hotel which faces the majestic Rejang River.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I bet this panettone is in trend now. Every now & then saw people posting it.
I think they sell it at Cold Storage, Kuching but don’t buy those. I’ve tried twice, those commercially-sold ones, not nice – might as well just go to the bakery and buy raisin bread, cheaper and nicer. I hear they would be made in June every year – I can imagine the amount of preservatives in those – and of course, they do not use the top-class ingredients – nothing beats fresh homemade…plus I think they are over RM100 for one. I can think of a lot of nicer things I can eat with that kind of money.
Will sure stick around…
Good! 😀
A homemade pannetone. That is worth to try. I am not a fan of pannetone myself.
Nasi kerabu. Now I am thinking of it. Lol.
RM6.50 only here, one panettone from the supermarket, can eat around 20 plates of that! 😀
Pumpkin dodol sounds interesting. I’d like to give that a try.
Personally, I prefer durian. Rather mild, pumpkin.
Pumpkin Dodol sounds interesting, we only have pandan, original and durian here
Pandan? Don’t recall trying that. What’s the original? Coconut? I like durian.
I have never had Panettone. Looks like a giant muffin.
Not really like cake, not so heavy, soft fluffy bread-like texture with the wonderful fragrance and taste of a very very nice fruit cake. That’s the best I can describe it – the test is in the eating. But don’t bother about those commercially-sold ones at the supermarts – you’ll be very disappointed. I was.
The homemade pannetone looks gorgeous! Love the texture.
That alone, so very soft and fluffy, puts it a class above those that I had before – hard and dry like stale bread.
RM5.50 for that plate of chicken rice is very reasonably priced. I’m sure we won’t get such a deal over here.
Cheaper at the Chinese stalls but this one gives a whole thigh with lots of extras by the side and the presentation wins hands down.
I’ve had dodol, but not pumpkin dodol. Have never seen that.
Homemade, probably somebody in Kuching coming out with her own original recipe.