The older I get…

…the lazier I become.

These days, I feel so lazy to cook something nice for breakfast. I will just have my mug of coffee, Nescafe, no sugar – I am not bothered to go and brew something nicer and maybe have a few biscuits and then, I would go out to water the plants and do the gardening till mid-morning when it gets a bit too hot for me to continue. In the past, I would cook some fried rice or noodles or fry some bihun but the mere thought of it makes me tired already. LOL!!!

The other day, however, there was a lot of leftover rice in the fridge and some sambal belacan and some sambal ikan bilis so I decided to get them out of the way. I fried a handful of ikan bilis (dried anchovies) in a bit of oil, browned one shallot, peeled and sliced, three cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped and then threw in three chilies, seeds removed and thinly sliced, followed by the two sambals and then the rice and mixed everything together well. Next, I added two eggs, sprinkled a little bit of salt and thinly sliced Thai basil and spring onions from my garden and it was done…

There was enough for the two of us for breakfast and dinner – we had lunch outside that day.

On other days, either my missus or I would go out and come home with some things we could have for breakfast. I would feel lazy to go out even these days so you would not see me venture all the way to the wet market (the Sibu Central Market) in the early morning.

Thankfully, there is this shop round the corner from my house…

*Photo from Google Streetview*

…in the next lane.

If I remember correctly, it started off as a fruit shop and it grew and grew. These days, in the early morning, it is a mini-market where one can get fresh meat and fish, fresh vegetables and even things like tofu and taugeh (bean sprouts) and they have a lot of things in their freezer too – as a matter of fact, I got the beef that day from there.

The boss would go to Sarikei every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and come back with a whole lot of things such as some very fresh sweet corn, pineapples and the juiciest and sweetest pomelo, the variety that they call mor-mor phow (hairy pomelo). I loved the Nestum-coated peanut butter mochi that he used to get from there but for reasons unknown, not anymore. There are also those lung ngor (egg cake) and bak koi (egg cake with minced meat and shallots) and the Foochow Mooncake Festival biscuits…and so on and so forth. A lot of the stuff that they sell are homemade – people make them at home and leave them there for sale.

I bought these yew char koi or yew tiao…

…there at 60 sen each but unfortunately, they were far from anything like what we used to enjoy before in my growing up years. They tasted all right with kaya (coconut jam)…

…but as you can see in the photograph, the texture was all wrong – they looked, to me, like some clogged artery.

The dough is supposed to be very small, finger size and they would use a piece of something like a cutter to make the dent in the middle, lengthwise. Once that is thrown into the hot oil, it will rise to the occasion and will be at least 12 inches long! Inside, there should be a lot of air spaces, crusty or crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. When we ate the thing, we would tear it along that aforementioned dent and it would come apart easily, not these ones that I bought the other day. Of course, I would not want to buy anymore the next time I see any at the shop.

On another day, my missus bought these chicken curry puffs…

…and the next morning, I heated them up for breakfast.

I was delighted to see the chicken inside…

…when I cut it but my happiness was short-lived. That was all the meat there was inside – the rest of the filling was all potatoes. Yes, it was quite nice, that much I would say, but at RM2.50 each, I think I would much sooner go for a plate of kampua mee with a lot more meat than those miserable bits in the puff.

These were good though – the ma ngee or horse’s hoof…

…that I bought from the shop, also selling for 60 sen each. I’ve tried others before – there were very small ones, others were hard or not quite the same or the texture was something like doughnut which should not be the case. They are two different things.

I certainly would keep going back to the shop as it is so very convenient and parking is easy and free and if I buy a lot of things, they will help carry all the stuff and put everything in the car…unlike when I go to the market in town and park my car far away and walk all the way there and back again with all my purchases, sweating from every pore.

SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket. Kim Tak Co. and Ah Kau Cafe are located in the other block on the left.

Not what I thought…

There is an open space in the vicinity of Sungai Antu where the Trans-Sarawak Bus Terminal was a long time ago – this coffee shop and this one are located there, in the block of shops facing it. At one time, they used it for the temporary stalls of the hawkers here while Taman Harmoni, the food court/hawker centre, was undergoing some massive renovations and eventually, they all moved back to where they came from.

Quite recently, I saw some construction going on and it looked like they were putting up some hawker stalls there. The work has been completed now and I saw a banner declaring, “For the Sibu Bidayuh Community, a project of DBNA” and that got me quite excited as I thought there would be stalls selling Bidayuh cuisine like the restaurant at the association’s premises in Kuching.

However, my happiness was short-lived as when I dropped by to check the place out, I did not see what I had expected – I don’t know how many of the people there were Bidayuhs as they were all speaking Foochow. There was a food stall where they were dishing out some dishes, getting them ready for anyone into chap fan/nasi campur (mixed/economy rice) and though they looked good, they were all Chinese, it seemed, not Bidayuh. Perhaps they did not intend it to be a place serving traditional ethnic Bidayuh delights and had rented out the stalls for the funds for the community and association’s activities here.

In the end, since we were already there, my missus and I went back here for our lunch and of course, she had the nasi kerabu with ayam percik (RM6.50)…

I ordered their nasi lemak special (RM6.00)…

…and asked for the ayam percik but the girl said they would serve that with chicken rendang…

…so I had that instead. Actually, I had that a long time ago when this place was under a different name (and probably somebody else was cooking it then) and thought it was very nice.

This time around, I thought it was good, the chicken rendang, but between the two, I felt the ayam percik was nicer. The rice was quite lemak (rich with santan/coconut milk) and not hard and dry like what I had at some places around here and some were so bad that they might as well just serve plain rice instead and on the whole, I did enjoy my order…

…that day.

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 – RTM Sibu is located right across the road on the right.

Many shades of black…

No, this post has got nothing to do with the infamous 50 shades of grey – it is all about our Sarawak’s own culinary delight – the daging masak hitam…

…literally translated as meat (beef) cooked black.

Here, we have the instant paste…

…which if I am not mistaken, is made in Miri, available at many shops and supermarkets at less than RM4.50 a tub.

I have noticed, however, that no matter what product it may be, the suggested cooking instructions and the list of ingredients…

…are all the same so one should be aware of that and not follow everything blindly.

To cook the dish, I had this imported Australian beef…

…sliced thinly and across the grain so it will not be tough and I marinated it with the instant paste.

In the meantime, I peeled and chopped one Bombay onion and bruised the ends of two serai (lemon grass) stalks…

These would be the two extra ingredients we would add whenever we use any instant paste in our cooking. That day, I also sliced some chili thinly to add to the dish for a little bit of heat. My missus is not really crazy about our daging masak hitam and my guess is it is because generally, the dish is not spicy.

I fried the onion in a bit of oil…

…before adding the lemon grass and the chili…

…after which, in went the beef…

Mix everything thoroughly and stir fry till the juices have come out of the meat so you will have a bit of sauce or gravy. You may add a bit of water if you would like more of it…and a bit of sugar if you would like it savoury sweet.

I simmered it for a while and when it was done, I dished it out…

…and served and needless to say, it was great…

…but no, it was not quite there, for want of a handful of raisins, blended and those spices that they sell in the shops for use in sup tulang (bone soup) would be an added bonus.

I did send this instant paste to Elin and also Phong Hong and I sent some to Lilian, Merryn’s mum too and Merryn said that she kept one tub for herself to try. I wonder if she has got down to it yet…

Dinner…

I usually have my dinner at around 6.00 p.m. every day. That may be considered a little early for some people but all this while, that is our usual time unless there are other arrangements.

Last Sunday, after we had come home from sending my girl back to her school in the jungle, I was having my dinner when my good friend/ex-classmate, Robert, called. He said he would like to meet me to discuss something but I was already halfway through. I told him I would go as we had not got together for quite a while now but I would not be eating much anymore.

I met him and his wife, Angela, here and they ordered a few dishes for the two of them but I did have a bit of what they were having. There was this Thai papaya salad dish, the som tam…

…and they had the white/clear tom yam soup…

They said that they had been having that lately, a welcome change from the spicy and creamy version…

*Archive photo*

…that my girl likes a lot.

There was also this omelette…

…which was nice but really, that was the first time I had seen an omelette that thick and it was a wonder that they did manage to get it perfectly cooked inside.

I could guess that Robert wanted to talk about the plans of our high school reunion in April next year. They have been discussing it full swing already on WhatsApp but of course, I am not in the group or any group, for that matter, as I do not have a smart phone. Some of the ladies did contact me regarding this even though it is still a year away.

They had had a few reunions before the one I attended in 2011 and then, we had one in 2013 followed by the grand reunion dinner organised by the alumnis of our schools and though those of us from around here have attended the ones in subsequent years here, here and here, we have not had our own, just those of us from the same year when we were in school since the aforementioned one in 2013 (though I heard the ladies had their own this year in Kuching) – I guess after five years, it will be good to get together again.

FLAVOURS THAI KITCHEN (2.292836, 111.828287) is located on the ground floor of the ORCHID HOTEL, along Brooke Drive at its junction with Jalan Tunku Osman. You can use its main entrance at the back of the hotel building (facing Brooke Drive) or go through the lobby past the reception desk if you are using its hotel entrance.

Vegetarian…

My girl bought two packets of chick peas and used one to cook some vegetarian curry – she said that she used to enjoy that at the Indian stall across the road from the teacher-training institute where she was at Kuala Ketil in Sg Petani, Kedah. She soaked the chick peas overnight and cooked the curry the following day and though I thought it was very nice, she was not too happy with it as she said the chick peas were hard, not like the ones she had before.

The remaining packet was lying there all this while so last Thursday, I decided I would cook it. I also soaked the chick peas overnight and I boiled them the next day…for hours until they became soft. Maybe they had been kept too long already, all dried up and shrivelled and that was why it took so long and besides, the skin never came off on its own and worse, they did not taste good at all, none of the nice kacang kuda (chick peas) taste. In the end, I decided to cook curry with them.

I pounded some shallots, garlic, ginger, chilies and kunyit (turmeric) and fried the paste in a bit of oil, together with two stalks of serai (lemon grass). I chopped some tomatoes, skin removed, till really very fine and threw it in and I added some water before adding the chick peas and potatoes, peeled and boiled till almost cooked/soft. Oh dear!!! It was then that I discovered that there wasn’t any curry powder in the house so I had no choice but to add a bit of serbuk kunyit (turmeric powder instead) for a nice yellow colour, a spoonful of garam masala (Indian spices) and a spoonful of paprika…and I added a bit of evaporated milk and threw in a sprig of curry leaves. Lastly, I added a bit of salt and sugar and when I tasted it…

…I thought it was very nice! Once cooled, I kept that in the fridge for my girl to enjoy for lunch the next day, Friday, once we got home from fetching her from her school in the jungle. It so happened that her housemate at the teachers’ quarters came along with us and of course we invited her to join us for lunch. She tasted the gravy and exclaimed spontaneously, “This is nice!!!” Of course, that pleased me immensely. Hehehehehe!!!!

We did not go to the sunset service on Saturday evening as we went out for dinner to celebrate my brother-in-law’s birthday. That was why we went to the early morning service on Sunday instead and after that, we dropped by here for brunch before making our way along the Pain-Borneo Highway to send my girl back to her school.

My girl had her favourite, the thosai…

…and that too is vegetarian, I guess but no, we did have the slices of beef with our kampua mee…

– my missus and I. I forgot to tell them I wanted it white so we were served the black version, the one with dark soy sauce but it did not really matter as it was good. My missus was having it for the first time here and she was pleasantly surprised and sang its praises, especially considering that it was halal, no lard was used in the making.

I was afraid that the mee would not be substantial enough and I would be feeling  hungry as we would not be home till mid-afternoon so I ordered one roti canai…

…for myself and yes, that’s vegetarian all right but of course, my girl can’t eat that, much as she would like to, as it is made from  wheat flour and is not gluten-free.

The nice boss, Guna, was not around that day and the bill came up to RM18.50 for all that we had, the three of us, plus the drinks. I saw the chef taking a break and enjoying his chappati at the next table – I didn’t know they had that! I sure would want to try it the next time we drop by here.

SRI PELITA CAFE (2.293579, 111.820700) is located along Lorong Kampung Datu 11, off Jalan Kampung Datu, the first shop in the block to the right of Paramount Hotel.

Not so nice…

It’s my brother-in-law’s birthday tomorrow, the 26th of April. I think he’s 65, a year younger than I am…and of course, his wonderful daughter, my niece – the one working in Singapore – came home last weekend to celebrate with her parents and she invited us too.

They wanted to go here but for reasons unknown, they were closed. Probably they had gone off somewhere on a holiday. That was why we ended up here and of course we had our favourites – their honey prawn balls…

…and their sour plum chicken…

My niece wanted the sea cucumber soup…

…which was nice, just that I did not think I could find any of the coveted stuff in it, not even a little bit.

We also ordered our local wild fern – the midin, ching chao (fried plain)…

…specially for the benefit of my niece as she would not be able to find those in the island republic. I hear they export it there from Kuching but I don’t know where people there can get to enjoy eating it and besides, I am pretty sure it will not come cheap, no way.

My brother-in-law ordered this salad sotong (squid)…

…and he also wanted his favourite sweet and sour fish fillet…

…and omelette, another one of his favourites – we had that with bitter gourd added…

…which we enjoyed a lot more than if they had just fried the egg with Bombay onions. Had I known they did not have lap cheong (Chinese sausage), I would have brought along my very nice own-made wine-infused ones from my friend, Annie, in KL.

My niece commented that they did not not use enough oil and the wok was not hot enough so it did not have that much-coveted golden fringe. In fact, she thought the food here was not so nice, kind of bland and lacking in the stronger flavours of what they have elsewhere. for instance, some of the delightful dishes that they have on their menu at the aforementioned place that was not open that day.

I would say she was right in a way – the food here is rather on the mild side, not salty and no msg overdose and not oily but personally, I do enjoy what they dish out in their own subtle ways, a welcome change that we may go for sometimes. For one thing, it does seem to go down really well with a lot of people as this place is always very crowded and that night was no exception – the place was full…and thankfully, the dishes came out fast and furious and we did not have to wait long to enjoy our orders.

If I remember correctly, my niece paid over RM140.00 for the dinner, inclusive of rice and drinks so I guess it worked out to around RM20.00 each for the 6 of us. As a matter of fact, my missus did request for servings for 4 persons which makes it even worse, around RM30 per person – not all that cheap, not at all.

NICE HOUSE RESTAURANT (2.29201,111.82739) is located in the vicinity of the Tunku Osman shops, opposite Rejang Bookstore.

Hard work…

This is what we call buah tupang in Melanau or buah pulo in Malay…

I did blog about eating the very nice mature seeds here and a long time ago, I had a post on how to cook it, masak sayur rebus (boiled vegetables)-style.

Last Friday, we had to drive all the way to my girl’s school in the jungle to fetch her and bring her home for the weekend and on the way, we stopped by the Selangau market. I saw a lot of the young fruit but my missus said that she did not want to buy – “Ching chay kang (a lot of work)!” she said. Knowing how my girl loves eating this, I simply had to grab one and believe it or not, it was just RM2.00 each, RM5 for 3 smaller ones.

Yes, it was quite a lot of hard work as I had to shave off the outer skin and get rid of the “thorns” and I had to put my hand, the one holding it, in a plastic bag to avoid any contact with the sap…

You may end up getting it on the knife and it would be hard to get it off but an easy way would be to use cooking oil…

…and you would be able to scrub it off quite easily after that.

The lady at the market swore it was very young but looking at the shades of brown in the seeds…

…I could tell it wasn’t really that young so the shell might be a bit hard. Of course, one could peel it off while eating but that would take away a bit of the enjoyment of the dish. That was why I took out all the seeds…

…and got rid of all the shell…

There may be a thin brown-coloured skin inside but like the ones in groundnuts, that need not be removed.

The rest of the skin…

…is edible too but not the core.

Once done, I got the ingredients ready…

– some shallots, garlic and ginger, chili, a bit of kunyit (turmeric) and lengkuas (galangal) and pounded them till really fine…

…along with two stalks of serai (lemon grass), bruised at the ends and I also pounded some udang kering (dried prawns) with a bit of belacan (dried prawn paste) added.

First, I fried the pounded ingredients and the serai in a bit of oil before adding the seeds and a bit of water and I let it boil for a while to cook the seeds. Next, the skin went in and finally, I added santan (coconut milk) and a bit of serbuk kunyit (turmeric powder) for a nicer yellow colour and salt according to taste…

…and it was done!

It was nice…

…but no, it was not like what my mum used to dish out – hers was very much nicer. I think I went a bit overboard with the ingredients – the kunyit, lengkuas and serai so it was a little too strong on the taste of those but yes, it was good enough…

…for my girl to want to bring some back to her school in the jungle to enjoy on one of the days in the week ahead…but she only wanted the seeds, not the skin. Still, that sure was a consolation for all my effort.

Sole survivor…

This one did not last very long – I did hear of people going to try the exquisite exotic ethnic Iban delights but they did not really like what they had. “Bay hak na lang ciak,” they said, literally translated as not suitable for us to eat. In other words, they were not quite accustomed to this kind of cuisine. Another one wrapped up its business for reasons unknown even though from what I could see, they were doing really well. I don’t know of any others in  town, except this one and it sure looks like it is still going strong, the only one left out of the three or the sole survivor, so to speak.

I was in the vicinity…

…that day because sometime ago, I saw a stall selling Teochew porridge. As far as I know, they only have meat porridge, pork usually, at all the other places here but this one had all those condiments – stewed pork, preserved/salted vegetables, salted egg that I sure would enjoy with a bowl of plain porridge. Unfortunately, the coffee shop was closed, probably because it was their day off in the week.

In the end, I decided to go back to the aforementioned Iban food stall at the coffee shop with the blue sign right below the inn…

Yes, the lady is still there but they have shifted her stall inside, somewhere in the middle of the coffee shop so it is no longer in front, right beside the pavement/five foot way.

This was what I had that day…

– the pansoh babi hutan…

…or wild boar cooked in bamboo tubes and the bandong/ubi (tapioca) leaves plus a bit of cincaluk (fermented shrimps)…

…and I also had the buah kepayang or buah keluak…

I did not think very much of the latter though – when I had it on my previous visit, they cooked it with kasam ensabi, preserved/fermented vegetables, and its fragrance and taste sure brought the dish a few notches higher than those seeds on their own.

My missus did not have the cincaluk but instead, she had the kasam babi (preserved/fermented pork, but it looks like that was wild boar too)…

It was very nice but it paled in comparison to the pansoh. In fact, I loved it so much that I simply had to buy some…

…home to enjoy.

What we had at the coffee shop that day totalled RM14.00 only, RM7.00 each and the kopi-o-peng (iced coffee, black) that I had was very good, definitely among the nicer ones in town.

RUAI AKU is located at the coffee shop below Eden Inn (2.285223, 111.831256) along Jalan Maju to the right of Hai Bing Coffee Shop/Seafood Restaurant, right across the road from the Rejang Esplanade.

Calling it quits…

The stall in the middle here…

…is wrapping up its business and will close down by the end of the month. I did order a few things from there on our previous visit and of course, there wasn’t anything that would get us rushing back for more – that was why we had not been there since.

Well, it so happened that we heard of a place in the middle of that same block of shops where the jiew hu eng chai (sotong kangkong) was very nice so we dropped by to check it out. Unfortunately, it was a Wednesday and that was their off day. In the end, we decided to just hop over to this food court a few doors away to see if there were any new stalls.

The Muslim stall was still around but we did not like what we had the first time we were here and this time around, I did not see the chap fan (mixed rice) stall in front anymore – maybe they had stopped doing it but there was a chu char stall  in the midst of some of the other stalls. The roast meat stall to the right of the kampua mee stall in the above photograph was not open either – I don’t know if they had called it quits as well or it was their off day that day.

I decided I would order the noodles…

…from the aforementioned stall just to give them a little bit of support since they were about to close down. The lady did try to explain what it was actually but I could not make head or tail of what she was saying – I did hear Szechuan being mentioned…and I could understand that it would be spicy.

It turned out to be something like those Korean noodles, very spicy and a little sourish with a whole lot of things inside – two fish balls, fish cake, bits of cauliflower and a few sprigs of kangkong, intestines, pickled radish/white carrot, seaweed, a couple of pieces of chicken or was it pork, I wasn’t entirely sure…and two small prawns…

The two in the photograph at the stall were at least four or five times the size…and I grumbled that if they did not have the big ones, they should at least give more of those small ones. After all, that bowl of noodles and all they had in it did not come cheap, a whooping RM18.00, mind you!

It wasn’t too bad that it was so very expensive and it did not taste that great but it took so very long that I was running out of patience by the time it was served. No, I did not say a thing – after all, they were going to close down for good, no point hitting someone who is already down but no love lost! Good riddance!

My missus went and ordered the chao chai hung ngang with fresh own-made fish balls, bay kar/ikan tengirri (mackerel) no less…

…from the stall from which I ordered the fish sio bee (dumplings) that last time we were here and though they were quite good, they were far from being overwhelming, nothing that I can’t do without.

My missus enjoyed her order – I could detect the fragrance of the chao chai (preserved vegetables) the moment it was served but I thought RM10.00 was a bit on the steep side. Perhaps they could reduce the number of fish balls and lower the price to say, RM8.00 to make it a little more affordable. I could think of a lot more things that I could enjoy a whole lot more for RM10.00…or even RM8.00, for that matter.

GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163) is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Pedada or Jalan Pahlawan, on your left just before the Petronas petrol station a short distance from Delta Mall. You can also go in via Lorong Pipit 4, turning left into the lane at the junction where Starbucks Sibu is located and go straight ahead from there.

Not so easy…

It’s so easy, they keep telling me – you just stick the stalks in the ground and they will grow. I see it growing everywhere, the cangkuk manis…

*Archive photo*

…and unfortunately, though that was exactly what I did, nothing ever came out of it.

This time around, I did get some leaves out of the many stalks that I planted – about half of them simply dried up eventually so I pulled them out and threw them away. The rest did sprout some leaves but a lot of them were eaten by pests…

…and this was all that I could harvest…

…from all my effort in planting my own.

After tearing them into bits…

…I think I only had a few spoons of the vegetable left.

Never mind! Something is better than nothing and I decided to cook the Melanau kampung-style sayur rebus with the little that I had. There was some pumpkin in the fridge so I decided to use a bit of that. Otherwise, sweet baby corn would be  a great combination as well. Of course, there are a whole lot of other possibilities – I did blog about some of them before – and one is as nice as the other.

The basic ingredients needed would be some belacan (dried prawn paste) and chili…

…and ikan bilis (dried anchovies) to make the stock for the soup but I did not need the latter that day as I would be adding a few of the freshwater prawns…

…that I bought and used around half of them to cook my udang masak kunyit, another ethnic Melanau kampung-style delight.

I boiled the belacan and chili and simmered until the fragrance and the flavour had come out before adding the prawns. Once they were cooked, I added the pumpkin and continued simmering till it had gone soft. Finally, I added the cangkuk manis and once blanched, it was ready to be served…

You would be able to taste the sweetness and flavours of all the ingredients that went into the dish – it had a light and refreshing taste but some who are more used to having salt and msg in their food may prefer to add some as they probably would find it a little bland.

The cangkuk manis was really very nice – so very soft and sweet unlike some that we may get when we buy those from the wet market, probably because they are a little old already.