…it was time for my maternal cousins and the mum to fly home – they were taking the noon flight that day, the same aircraft that they flew in when they came so technically, they were here for only two days.
I went out early that morning to go to the kueh stall in the kampung here to buy them some pulut panggang…
…to take home. It seems there are no good ones in Kuching and from the look of it, the people there are more into pulut inti, the ones with the sambal inside which would be as nice as the sambal inside is nice or otherwise. They would not be well-panggang-ed for that lovely fragrance and are not so lemak-y rich.
There were two choices that morning and I asked the guy which one was better and he suggested the other one which did not look all that burnt nor were they shiningly oily on the outside. I took one to smell and no, it did not smell good, no panggang fragrance and no hint of the lemak-ness either so I asked for the ones in the photograph above.
A friend asked me on Facebook how to choose a good panggang – well, either you do what I did which my missus finds rather disgusting and will grumble everytime she sees me doing that…or buy one of each to try on the spot and pick the best. I did buy the other one home to try and yes, I was right – they weren’t nice at all!
In the meantime, the ladies were up and about too – they went to the Sibu Central Market…
*Cousin’s photo on Facebook*
…to buy some dabai home…
*Cousin’s photo on Facebook*
They are in abundance now, durians too, so they are a whole lot cheaper than when they first appeared this season. I noticed in the photograph that they had some of those red ones too but my cousin said they did not bother to buy any. Usually, those are very good – some say the skin is thinner but they are more expensive. At the end of the day, give and take a little, it is only the colour that is different.
I don’t know what else they bought but I saw somewhere on Facebook that they were frying some long kiam hu (salted fish) as soon as they got home for dinner that evening and enjoyed it so much, together with the dabai, so they probably bought that here too.
I forgot to ask them what they had for breakfast that morning but from one of the photographs one of them shared on Facebook, it looked like they went for the celebrated Foochow delight, the dianpianngu…
*Cousin’s photo on Facebook*
…which personally, I am not all that fond of…and of course, they dropped by PAYUNG CAFÉ to pick up their orders – their otak-otak…
*Archive photo*
…and their ikan keli (catfish)…
*Archive photo*
…before going back to the hotel to pack everything they had bought in the short time they were here in boxes. I had to go to the shop round the corner from my house to get some for them and no, they did not have any checked-in baggage when they came but just look at the load they are going back with. Not bad, eh?
Their sister in Kuching who did not come with them was thrilled to get the goodies they brought back and gave some to her – the kompia and the chu nu miang and it seemed that they managed to buy some lung ngor…
*Cousin’s photo on Facebook*
…after all and of course, she loved the panggang…
*Cousin’s photo on Facebook*
…that I bought. In her caption she said that she missed it so much! Obviously, she had not had any brought over from Sibu for a while now.
To my cousins and aunt who came, thank you all for coming, it certainly was a pleasure having you all around and thanks for all the goodies that you all brought over for us…and to the one who didn’t come, when are you coming? Sibu is waiting – there’s more, lots more to enjoy here!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I prefer dianpianngu to zhao chai hung ngang. That is quite a lot of goodies they brought back. I like the lung ngor & panggang.
I only like dianpianngu if they use fresh own-made fish balls, bay ka no less. Most will use the supermarket frozen ones, no, thank you…and even so, it’s not really my favourite. Same thing with zhao chai hung ngang but my missus loves it, the more sour the better.
That’s the biggest otak-otak I’ve seen. Usually there’s only a tiny bit inside the leaves.
Yes, so big the packet but when open, just a finger-size strip inside, real disappointing.
I can’t see any of your photos today.
Oh? I wonder what is wrong. Ok at this end and so far, it looks fine where the rest are concerned too – one comment from KL, one Kuching and one from Perth.
Chicken will not come fresher as that!
Yes. It’s alive! 😀 😀 😀