I finally went to check out the Ramadan Bazaar, the main one at the Sibu Town Square. Gosh!!! That one is really very big, so very many stalls, selling so many different kinds of food.
There are different kinds of barbecued chicken, the regular ones…
…and this one is a little special…
…but I can’t remember in what way now. There were so many things to see it was really mind-boggling!
There’s the ikan panggang (barbecued fish)…
and you have the usual ikan bakar (grilled fish on a hot plate)…
…and the sotong as well…
…and of course, there is the satay…
…and oh my goodness!!! I could not believe my eyes when I saw them basking the meat on skewers with cooking oil using paint brushes!!! No, they were not those special kitchen brushes for egg-washing our pastries – they were the ones one would use to paint the house! And wasn’t there a scandal not too long ago regarding the hair used to make those brushes? Tsk! Tsk! The traditional way of using sticks of serai (lemon grass), bruised at the ends would give added fragrance and flavour to the meat – I certainly would not settle for anything else, much less those paint brushes!!!
One thing I noticed when I was there was the integration of the cultures here with stalls selling kampua mee and shumai/sio bee (meat dumplings – chicken, of course) and I think I did see a stall selling kompia and chu nu miang, if I remember correctly and they even have this Hainanese chicken rice…
…and I did see somebody selling the traditional ethnic Dayak ayam pansoh (chicken cooked in bamboo) too!
It was a blistering hot evening even though it was already around 5 and somehow the heat and humidity gets to a person and one would not have the appetite or the craving to want to eat anything. That was what happened to me, I guess so I did not buy anything in the end except this kelupis…
…that I do enjoy with kaya (coconut jam)…
I have not seen this being sold elsewhere but for a while now, when I did get to see any, I noticed that the people had resorted to using nylon strings to tie the thing and since then, I have not been all that keen to buy any to eat.
Of course, there were all kinds of traditional kuehs, a lot of cucurs (deep fried fritters) and our renowned kek lapis (layer cake) Sarawak…
…and all the rest but other than the kelupis, none tickled my fancy.
I saw my friends from Sri Pelita there…
…and believe it or not, they had this HUGE cauldron of nasi biryani…
…and according to the guy, that would be the amount they would cook every day…and every day, it would be completely sold out!!!
He also told me they had ayam berempah and I thought I would come back later to buy for our dinner that night and I also thought these prawns…
…at another stall looked really good, RM2.50 each and one could buy some to go with rice but after walking through the whole bazaar, I was feeling hot and uncomfortable and the thought of going back all the way to the stalls did not seem all that appealling so we headed back to the car and went on our way to have a nice dinner in a cooler and more conducive environment.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 