Walking in the sun…

I wonder how many visitors to Sibu will drop by the Tua Pek Kong Temple…

…here with its 7-storey pagoda. I know some people will do that so they can go up to the top floor of the pagoda for a bird’s eye view of the town. Well, that sunny day, before our Korean lunch at the restaurant close by, we dropped by and walked around the place…

…to pass the time.

I love the decor like these colourful borders that line the corners below the ceiling, the dragons…

…and the phoenixes…

…and there are lovely carvings all around on the walls and there is this fountain…

…there too and devotees go here to offer joss sticks to the tortoise…

…and also to the Kuan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) statue at the back.

There is a small park further to the back, the Chiang Chuan Garden (漳泉園) with nice swan statues…

– the iconic symbol of Sibu town but I did see a headless one. Hopefully, that was not the result of some act of vandalism – some people are really incorrigible.

There are a lot more beautiful carvings…

…though I do think some of them need a bit of washing…

…and cleaning…

…and there are some lovely plants here and there…

…like these pots of bonzai…

…for instance.

Ever so often, you will catch a glimpse of an express boat…

…sailing past along the majestic Rejang River, the longest in Malaysia, and you can go to the wharf to see these old motor launches…

…and these double-decker ones…

…that are now being used as floating grocery stores.

In the distance, you can see the Express Boat Wharf/Jetty with one of the leading hotels in Sibu in the background…

I must say that I enjoyed the walk a lot more than that time when I visited the massively huge temple complex which was somewhat dilapidated and run-down. I certainly hope they have done something by now to restore it and make it more worthwhile for visitors to go all the way to walk around the place.

THE SIBU TUA PEK KONG TAOIST TEMPLE (2.287257, 111.825988) is located along Jalan Temple at its t-junction with Jalan Chew Geok Lin.

Like it or not…

Seeing how my girl enjoyed the sambal bihun here that day, I took her to another place where we liked the fried sambal kway teow very much, but I do know for a fact that they have mee or bihun as well at this stall…

…at the back of the shop.

I ordered that (RM4.50)…

…for her and of course, I specifically requested that no soy sauce should be used in the cooking and yes, she liked it very much but when I asked which one was better, she would not commit herself as to which one she liked better and just said that both were good.

The mum went to this stall…

…and ordered the chao chai hung ngang (RM8.00)…

…which was very nice with all the own-made fish balls, bay ka (tenggiri/mackerel) no less except it did not have the sourish taste and fragrance of the chao chai (preserved vegetable). Nonetheless, my girl loved the soup very much, very tasty and very strong on the traditional Foochow red wine so she kept helping herself to it in her mum’s bowl.

I saw that the stall from which I ordered the sambal bihun has something new – the KL Hokkien mee (RM6.00/RM7.00 with an egg added)…

…and I decided I would like to give it a try.

It had the pork rinds…

…by the side of the plate and quite a number of prawns…

…except that I think they were those not-that-sweet frozen ones sold in packs at the supermarkets so I was not all that impressed.

I loved the fried egg…

…though, done exactly the way I would like it.

All in all, I did not think it was anything like the nice ones I had had in KL – it could do with a stronger lard and garlic taste and a bit more of the much coveted wok hei fragrance and it did not have those thin strips of cabbage in it. To give credit where credit is due, I would say it tasted fine…

…just that at that price, I would much sooner go for something else that is cheaper and probably much nicer from that same stall…like the sambal kway teow, for instance.

HAPPINESS CAFE, (2.306608, 111.827179) formerly KONG MA MA, is located along Lorong Delta 4, off Jalan Delta. The left turn into Lorong Delta 9 will lead you straight to the Delta Public Swimming Pool.

At least I tried…

This is Akok…

…or to be more precise, kuih akok, traditionally from the East Coast of Peninsula Malaysia – the states of Kelantan and Terengganu. I had never heard of it nor seen it before until quite recently when a friend managed to get hold of some at the Bandong Ramadan bazaar and shared her photograph on Facebook and somehow or other, I stumbled upon this one that looked very much nicer and that led me to the place…

…that day in search of this Akok!

Somebody did ask in one of the comments, “Pukul brapa ada?” and the reply was, “Pkl 4 dah ada.” That was why we went after 4 that day but when we got there, nothing was available, not till after 5, I was told.

The dishes for the nasi campur (mixed rice) were ready though, all laid out nicely…

…and there was such a wide selection…

…that it prompted me to ask the girl whether it was for a Ramadan buka puasa buffet but she said no, we would be charged accordingly, item by item depending on what we would choose to take. Well, since the guy said 5, we went and walked around the shops in the area and came back again later, after 5.

The umai (traditional Melanau raw fish delicacy)…

…looked great and the mango kerabu…

…too and I spotted my favourite, liver…

…but no, I was not that keen on having nasi campur, not when the dishes were all left uncovered like that since God knows what time, not even when I did not spot any flies fluttering around.

My missus went for it…

…and I was shocked when told the price, RM10.00 altogether, RM3 each for the beef and the sotong and the paku lemak and RM1 for the rice. At other places, vegetables would only be RM1.00 per serving and meat and seafood would be around RM2-3.00. She liked the paku lemak very much but she complained that the beef was very hard – nothing was said about the sotong.

I ordered their nasi kerabu special (RM15.00)…

…wondering what was so very special about it to merit that kind of price. It turned out to be pretty much the usual nasi kerabu with fried chicken…and one fried fish added and no, it did not taste all that great, nowhere near our favourite here and if we were to go and eat there, the one with ayam percik would only cost RM6.50 and a special request for its very much nicer fried fish to be added would probably be only RM2-3.00 more. For one thing, this place is more or less just another coffee shop, not one that is grand and classy in any way, so personally, I do feel that that kind of upscale price is really uncalled for.

My girl ordered their nasi khao mok (RM10.00)…

…and no, she was not impressed, not at all. She said the nasi kuning ayam berempah at the Bandong Ramadan Bazaar at RM5.00 only, half the price, would win hands down.

They also had the mee celup Thai and my girl said that would be what is popularly known as the boat noodles. Of course, that prompted me to order that too but the girl said they had not started boiling the chicken or whatever, yet to start cooking it, and she did not know when they would be ready so I just said we would wait and see. After we had finished and were about to leave, she came and said it was available but we were already very full so we told her we did not want it anymore. Looking at what we had, chances are it would be yet another disappointment.

Back to the kuih akok, it did not look like they were making any that day but I saw one of the guys taking out a few, probably the previous day’s leftovers, and heating them up…

…so I quickly went and ordered – 3 for RM2.00…

…so that I could see what all that excitement was all about even though that contraption that they used did not look all that clean.

It did not turn out to be anything so very nice – in fact, it wasn’t anything much at all and I thought it was so very expensive. We can easily buy our very much nicer local Malay kuihs at half the price, 3 for RM1.00 only and enjoy it a whole lot more. Later I saw that they were done and they pushed everything to one side. I asked the girl how come they were not making anymore and whether they would making them again later, she just replied curtly, “Tak tahu!“

Ah well! As we say here, “Jangan sik coba!” At least, I tried and now, I know…

SAMBAL LADO (2.295434, 111.895884) is located along Lorong Ulu Oya 11, off Jalan Oya among the “newer shops” in the Permai area across the road from the Sibu General Hospital, where Sugar Bun, Singapore Chicken Rice and 7 Eleven are situated.

Got my attention…

When we went to the restaurant two doors away for dinner that evening, this signboard…

…at the Korean place got our attention.

No, I don’t think we will want to order this…

…seeing that the egg noodles in it would render it non-gluten free. We are not too sure if there is anything in this one…

…but this one is definitely a no-no too…

…as there are noodles in it as well. We did not notice this…

…that day but when we were there for lunch that afternoon…

…the girl brought it to our attention. Well, we were not all than keen on the ice cream so we did not bother about it.

Probably we could ask them to leave out the noodles but in the end, we did not feel like having any of the above as the servings looked so huge – a lot more than what the three of us could handle and we were not all that keen on such a heavy lunch. Besides, my girl wanted the beef dolsot bibimbap…

…so of course, we had to order that when we dropped by that day.

These were complimentary…

…and I did like the fish cake while the peanuts and the seaweed did not quite tickle my fancy and of course, I did not touch the kim chi…

…which was also on the house.

My girl wanted their Korean spicy yangnyeom fried chicken and the seafood omelette but the girl said that they got the pre-mixed ingredients from Korea and they either have wheat in them or they were not so sure so she would not recommend ordering the two.

We ordered the grilled pork belly…

…which came with cabbage for wrapping the meat and the raw garlic and whatever that black thing was – it did taste a bit of tau cheo (fermented beans).

Since we were not having the barbecue (nor the steamboat), it was done for us in the kitchen…

…and yes, it was very good. I sure enjoyed that.

My girl enjoyed the beef dolsot bibimbap…

…very much and so did my missus. I thought it was all right and that’s saying a lot for someone not into anything and everything Korean.

Service was good and everybody was nice and friendly. The bill came up to over RM49.00 so I gave the girl a RM50 note and of course, I just asked her to keep the change. All in all, it was a delightful lunch and we sure would not mind dropping by again.

DAKSEMARI KOREAN BBQ (2.287332, 111.826574) is located at No. 8, Jalan Chew Geok Lin (formerly Old Street) that leads straight to the Tua Pek Kong 7-storey Pagoda Temple.

Somebody else…

My girl wanted the sambal bihun here…

…but I did not quite remember her eating that. However, she said that she did and it was nice. Ah well! Since that was what she wanted, we made our way there for lunch that day.

However, it looked like somebody else had taken over the stall…

My girl said that they were not the same people that used to be there. We walked around but we did not see any sambal bihun on the menu on each of the stalls in that food court and the adjoining one at the back.

I told her to go and ask – they should have it, I said, and true enough they did so she ordered a plate with specific instructions not to add any soy sauce and when it was served, we all thought it looked pretty decent (RM4.50)…

…and upon eating it, my girl said it was very nice.

Much to my surprise, she managed to finish the whole lot…

…even though the serving was quite substantial and she is not a very big eater, not like the father. Hehehehehe!!!

I wanted the nasi lemak from this stall…

…at the adjoining food court as I had it once or twice before and I did enjoy it, especially with their chicken rendang. Unfortunately, it was a Wednesday so it was closed and I made my way to what-used-to-be the Malay stall in front…

The lady came to talk to me and to my surprise, she spoke Mandarin. Initially, I thought she was multi-lingual but when I looked around a bit more carefully, it appeared to me that the Malay stall had either closed down or moved some place else and somebody else had taken over too.

I ordered the nasi lemak, regular (RM3.50)…

…and the sambal was good, not spicy but good and though the rice was not all that lemak, there was a hint of the santan (coconut milk) in it and thankfully, it was not hard and dry like some that I had had the displeasure of eating.

The egg…

…however, was a disaster…or to me, at least – I do know of some people who would like their fried egg like that but actually, for nasi lemak, the egg should be hard-boiled, be it whole or just half of it, and not fried.

I think they will give you one fried chicken wing if you go for the special (RM5.00) but I did not want that. Instead, I ordered their chicken wings, masak merah (RM4.00 for two)…

…and just like the sambal, it was very nice but was not spicy, not even a bit.

My missus went to order her favourite here, the Penang char kway teow and mee combo (RM5.00)…

…from the stall at the adjoining food court at the back. and needless to say, she enjoyed it…

…to the max.

Since the ladies did enjoy what they had, we certainly wouldn’t mind coming back here again whenever we feel like it.

JIALI CAFE (2.292140, 111.841524) is located among the shops behind Medan Mall, Jalan Wong King Huo, a few doors away to the right of Junction Cafe,  facing the road leading to the Medan Hotel there.

Not so usual…

It is not so usual for us to have meals at home without rice – most of the time, it would be rice with a few dishes to go with it and very rarely, we may have something different instead.

Well, my girl was thrilled to find this box of taco shells…

…at the supermarket here, the one that imports all kinds of stuff from countries overseas. If I am not wrong, the first time she had tacos was at the Taco Bill outlet in Singapore a long long time ago and it was love at first bite!

Well, this one was gluten-free…

…and despite being an imported product, it was not expensive – RM12.90 for a box of 12 so it works out to a little over a ringgit each only and all we had to do was to heat up the shells in the oven at 170°C for three minutes and they were ready to use…

There was some leftover grilled chicken that day so my girl shredded that…

…and she also prepared some kind of salsa with tomatoes, cucumber and whatever else…

…and there was this grated cheddar cheese…

…too.

We also had this bottle of mayonnaise…

…in the house , imported as well and gluten-free…

That was all we had to stuff the taco shells…

…to eat and yes, I thought it was very nice and we sure had a delightful lunch that day.

I do think this has a lot of potential though – one can add anything one likes to bring it to a whole new level. I thought prawns would be a nice addition or things like mussels and clams and thin strips of finely-sliced omelette would certainly add a bit of colour to it. Maybe we will try that next time but in the meantime, we will have to go back to the supermarket to grab more boxes of the taco shells, if there are any still available. The problem we have here is when they run out of something, they may not restock even though it sells really well and instead, they will have all kinds of other things though some of the bestsellers may reappear after a long while.

That night, my girl cooked this very lovely aglio-olio prawn spaghetti…

…for our dinner. Yes, we are very well-stocked indeed on gluten-free pasta that my girl could cook to enjoy as and when she feels like it.

It sure is nice to have her home for the holidays – we can get to enjoy these not-so-usual meals for a change.

Nothing changes around here…

I wanted to take my girl here…

…for dinner that night to give her a really special treat but we were too early, even after our stroll around the pasar malam (night market) round the corner but that did not deter us from our plan so we just loitered around outside and waited for it to open…

…and it finally did, for reasons unknown, a little bit after 6.00 p.m.

It is located along what used to be called Old Street (My father had his shop at No. 8)…

…now renamed Jalan Chew Geok Lin, and yes, the restaurant is as old as its sign – nothing much has changed since the last time I was here and I am glad to say that it is the same with the food they serve too. I do enjoy some of their dishes here and I would not mind the higher-than-most prices even but parking in the area is such a pain so I usually do not bother coming here and that is why I have not been here for some years now.

Yes, we were served the keropok (fish crackers) – that is their usual practice here and no, it is not complimentary. You will find it charged to your bill eventually…but no, we did not mind that one bit. We never did! But this time around, we asked them to take it back as we were unsure as to whether any wheat flour was used in the making, rendering it not gluten-free…and yes, they were willing to do that, no problem whatsoever at all.

We ordered their very nice paku (wild jungle fern) with santan (coconut milk)…

…and I dare say nobody does it better! It not only tastes good, it looks really good too, so much so that somebody saw it fitting to use the photograph from this old post of mine in her article here – without giving any credit whatsoever and it was only until I went and made noise that they linked my photos to my blog. Sadly, the story did not end there – others helped themselves to the photographs and they even cropped them to get rid of the credit given to my blog at the bottom to share on their Facebook pages. Sigh!!! Where is the decency and integrity, I wonder?

Anyway, back to the food, yes, this dish was very nice as always and we also ordered their midin (another variety of our local wild jungle fern) fried with belacan (dried prawn paste) as well but they had run out of it so we had it replaced with kangkong (water spinach)…

…instead. I would be quite reluctant to order anything with belacan elsewhere as I would not be sure that they would use the best quality ones from Bintulu and what they dish out in the end may have a not-so-pleasant smell and taste. Of course we did not encounter any problem here and yes, we really enjoyed the greens very much.

We also had the lokan (clams), one each…

…stuffed with meat filling…

…and deep fried and yes, they were good too.

However, the main reason why I wanted to bring my daughter here for dinner was because I wanted her to enjoy their roast rack of lamb served with mint sauce and some garlic and ginger dip…

…and my girl enjoyed it to the max. It sure looked like they had worked on improving their presentation…

…too but no, it did not come cheap – I had to fork out RM50.00 for the three thick slabs but one thing I must say is that I am pleased that that was exactly the same price I paid way back in 2014 for two much bigger slabs of the meat and after all these years, it was as good as it was then.

The total for the dinner did not come up to RM80.00 and I definitely would say it was well worth it. I sure would not mind coming back here again and perhaps next time, I could call a Grab car so I would not need to worry about looking for a place to park my car.

FISHERMAN RESTAURANT (2.287413, 111.826648), telephone no. 084-316888, is located at No 4, Jalan Chew Geok Lin, the road that leads straight to the Chinese temple in the Sibu town centre with the seven-storey pagoda.

Before the sun sets…

That day, after the not-very-fruitful visit to the Ramadan Bazaar, I had one restaurant in mind for our dinner and since it was a public holiday, it was not that difficult to find a parking space – normally, we would avoid the area as trying to park the car would be near impossible unless one is really very lucky.

However, it was just after 5.00 p.m. and the place would not be open till 6.00 p.m…

…so we decided to go to the pasar malam (night market)…

…close by to stroll around. They moved it back to the original place not long ago but they are back here again now, the place where they call the Butterfly Garden, for whatever reason, I wouldn’t know. Those as old as me would remember this place as the location of the old bus terminal way back in the 50’s and 60’s and maybe right through the 70’s.

They were saying that there would be some massive renovations done to make the site much nicer, with a roof and all, but I did not notice any difference from the way it was before. For one thing, with the shops/buildings all around, though not protected from the rain, this place is well-shaded so one would not need to endure the unbearable heat of the scorching sun – this was just before the sun had set so it was still very sunny at the time.

We were early so there were not that many people around…

…and many stalls were not even up yet.

A lot of them were food stalls – one can grab a pack of chap fan (mixed rice) from this one…

…and I saw that a number of these roast meat stalls…

…were all ready to roll.

I spotted this dumpling stall…

…that I did not see before on my previous trips – probably, it is new…

…like one lok lok stall but I did not take a photograph of that one and of course, there are those stuffed kompia and Sibu-style sio bee…

…but I wouldn’t know if they are any good or not as I have never tried any of those from here before.

For some, the booze…

…and the cigarettes…

…at the pasar malam are an attraction, with some unique brands not usually available at the shops.

There is a section with all the Malay/halal food stalls…

…and another section selling non-edibles…

…including this one where I was attracted to the ethnic native Dayak prints of the sarong.

This dog…

…sure got a lot of attention but no, it was the stall-owner’s pet, not for sale.

It was way past 5.30 p.m. already when we were making our way back to the restaurant when I spotted the handsome boy setting up their stall…

– they had just arrived and thankfully, they had some pre-fried at home…

…so we were able to grab all we wanted without having to wait for them to fry and buy them straight from the wok.

After that, it was dinner time but that will be in the next post. Stick around!

Too hot…

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.

Win some, lose some…

It’s the 1st of June today and a very Happy & Blessed Gawai to all those celebrating!

We have not been here for a while now and the other night, I asked my girl if she wanted pecel lele for dinner and she said yes so we dropped by the place and that was what she had (RM7.50)…

…but to our disappointment, the rice was not wrapped in banana leaf…

…and steamed. That is the main draw when it comes to the nasi ayam penyet here, the very thing that puts theirs a head above the rest. I don’t know if that was because it is the month of Ramadan and those leaves are in high demand for wrapping the kuihs and everything – I’ve seen cars stopping by the roadside and the people helping themselves to the leaves of those banana trees growing there. Thankfully, other than that, the rest of what my girl had was fine.

However, the mum had the lalapan ayam penyet (RM8.50)…

…and no, she did not get her rice wrapped in banana leaf either and other than that sprig of tapioca leaves, she got a different kind of sambal, probably belacan (dried prawn paste). She did not say a thing so obviously, she was not impressed and what was worse was she got a slab of chicken breast – she is not into that, I know.

At least, I got the whole thigh with my nasi goreng ayam penyet (RM9.00)…

– I thought I would try something different that night.

The fried rice was all right…

…nothing to get excited about – it was the very nice sambal cili…

…that saved the day.

Service was great, I had the teh tarek ais, kao and it was very good – I sure enjoyed that and when I went to pay the the bill, the total, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM32.10 and the friendly young guy just collected RM32.00 from me…unlike one classier joint here – they will wait for you to dig out the coin, regardless and if you do not have any, they are willing to give you the 90 sen change. Tsk1 Tsk!

All in all, it was an o.k. meal – we sure wouldn’t mind coming back here again if and when we feel like having stuff like this.

PENYET DELTA (2.307969, 111.825223) is located at No.14, Lorong Delta 10, off Jalan Delta, right behind the Delta Swimming Pool, right beside the Delta Seafood & Cafe.