I’m in a hurry…

That day, my girl wanted to go to see a movie with a friend, the 2 o’ clock matinee, so around noon, we took her to buy the tickets and went for lunch here after that. For one thing, it is very close by, just round the corner so we thought we had ample time to grab a bite to eat.

Unfortunately, it seemed that they had a small catering job that day so they were very busy getting the orders ready for delivery and we were told that we might have to wait quite a bit.

We just had iced water, my missus and I, while my girl had their ginger tea (RM6.50)…

…her favourite drink here. It may take sometime before it is served as the drink is freshly made and in the meantime, one can literally smell the fragrance of the ginger being squeezed at the drinks counter. Yes, it is very strong on the ginger and the tea and it is served unsweetened but they will give you some sugar syrup to add if you so desire.

My girl and her mum ordered their ikan kembong sumbat, the fish deboned and stuffed (RM18.00 each)…

…which the latter seemed to enjoy a lot and kept singing its praises.

I had that on our previous visit and the fish did seem bigger this time around and though I quite enjoyed it then, I thought it was kind of dry and I had to resort to taking the gravy from my girl’s Indian butter chicken curry and the mum’s kalio ayam. That was why when this was served, I asked if they could have more of that lovely sauce on the grilled brinjal, skin removed but I was told that they would only cook that much everytime there was an order. I must remember to make a special request in advance the next time we drop by here and order that as that day, I thought it was really very nice and I was wishing I had more of it.

I did not really feel like having their Indian fish curry (RM18.00 with basmati rice)…

*Archive photo*

…but I ordered that with a special request for biryani rice to go with it as I was thinking that perhaps the ladies would like to help themselves to the gravy to go with their somewhat dry dish.

Time was running out and the ladies were almost done and there was no sign at all of my order so I stormed to the kitchen to get to the bottom of things. It seemed that they had not even started cooking yet, just about to get down to it so I told them to hurry and to just forget about the biryani rice – just plain rice would do.

Finally, this was served…

*There was a big slab of ikan tenggiri/mackerel under the ladies’ fingers*

The difference was obvious, wasn’t it? I guess the reason for it was that their authentic North Indian chef is presently on leave and has gone home to India – he will not be back till after Hari Raya Puasa in the middle of June. In the meantime, the Indonesian chef had to cope all by herself and I gathered that the guy did teach her how to go about cooking some of the Indian dishes but not those that would require the use of the traditional tandoori oven.

I tried it and I actually thought it was very nice, a little on the sourish side but it did taste good. I thought it was, in fact, a really nice change from the regular fish curry the way I had it before as generally, all the curry dishes are quite similar in taste – at the end of the day, they are all…curries.

I ate it all up quickly and went to pay my bill. The total came up to RM64.50 but the nice boss was all apologetic for the long wait and for the not-quite-the-same fish curry so he collected RM50.00 only from me. That was so nice of him, don’t you think? Well, I did not have much time left to linger so I just paid and rushed off quickly to send my girl to the trioplex…

*Archive photo*

…to watch her movie.

CAFE IND (2.290813, 111.829294) is located along Laichee Lane, right behind one block of shops facing the main road (Jalan Kampung Nyabor) where the Bank Simpanan Nasional, Sibu branch (2.290561, 111.829071), is located.