Look who’s back…

Raphael, my ex-student residing in the US, was back in town for a few days after celebrating Chinese New Year with his mum and brothers in Kuching.

As always, that thoughtful and generous boy brought back some stuff all the way to give to me. I’m sure my girl would love these gluten-free cheese snacks…

…and I sure can’t wait to try these salad toppers…

I’ve seen sprinklings such as these on top of salads in blogs or elsewhere but I’ve never done that myself. Well, as they say, there’s always the first time!

We managed to go out for breakfast the other morning when he was here and we agreed on this place…

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…as another ex-student of mine, Eddie, Raphael’s classmate, said that he would love to join us if we were going some place in the vicinity of his office and this coffee shop is in the block of shops right next door.

Both of them tried the kampua mee (RM3.00)…

…that I had before and I thought it was pretty good. As far as I know, it has its following – people who think it is among the best in town but Raphael felt it could do with a little bit more of the lard fragrance in the shallot oil used to toss the noodles. Personally, I thought it looked very much nicer when I had it in October, 2016 – perhaps they were so busy trying to cope with the crowd that morning so the quality went out the window. Raphael also wanted their pian sip soup but it was not available – post-Chinese New Year blues, I guess.

I went and ordered what they call their nyonya laksa (RM5.50)…

…from the other stall in the shop…

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…and no, it was, at best, just all right. It seemed a little sweet, not quite like our Sarawak/Kuching laksa and I was wondering if it was meant to be their version of the Singapore-style curry laksa even though it was not quite like it either. I did try that version at the outlets of the Katong 328 laksa franchise laksa here before but they have since closed down and personally, between the two, I think I would prefer this one as it was not overly lemak (rich with santan/coconut milk).

I saw that they also had fried kway teow with cockles (kerang) so I ordered that as well, only to be served this (RM6.00)…

The guy said that they had run out of fresh cockles so they substituted those with the canned ones.  Of course, I was not too happy with that. They should at least have the decency to ask first if I would mind the switch.

To give credit where credit is due, I thought it tasted quite nice except that it was way too salty. I was very sure that it was due to the use of the canned cockles alongside the soy sauce – they would need to adjust the amount of the latter as the clams would be salty already but obviously, they did not.

It sure was nice seeing you again, Raphael and thanks for the things you brought. That was a great get-together, though a brief one, and it was good that Eddie was able to join us too that morning…and thank you both for picking up the tabs for our orders. Qong Xi Fa Cai to the two of you and your loved ones, God bless always in the Year of the Dog. Cheers!!!

KING CAFE (2.291589, 111.826200) is located right next to the RH Hotel, at the corner of the Jalan Kampung Nyabor and Jalan Sanyan/Causeway junction, across the road from the HSBC Building.