Shangri La…

I knew of this place because I had seen friends sharing photographs of the food they ate there on Facebook but I did hear of the confusion some people had trying to locate it because they just assumed it was “Shangri La” instead of the Mandarin transcription, “Sianggelila“…

…which was in fact, a very popular Chinese song in the 50’s or earlier.

That day, we decided to check the place out and dropped by for lunch and that little sign above the entrance got me wondering why they did not have something bigger and a lot more impressive as it certainly was a very nice place…

…and it was only when we had left the restaurant and were driving away that I turned round the corner when I saw the main entrance – you come in through here…

…if you are entering through that side and it sure looked very grand. However, I did not bother to stop and take a photograph of that – another time, perhaps.

This was actually Furama, a restaurant in the next block of shops, but they have shifted here and renamed it, instead of sticking to the original. A friend who has a shop in that block kept telling me that the food was nice and I should go and try but I never did.

That day, we decided to go for the Marmite spare ribs…

It seems kinda popular these days, Marmite crabs, Marmite prawns, Marmite chicken, Marmite whatever and yes, it was very very nice…

…not too strong on the Marmite taste, lightly sweet, not really salty and we all loved it! We certainly would want to order it again should we come across any other place serving Marmite-anything.

The kiam sor (salty and crusty) fish fillet…

…that my girl wanted was all right – it was the frozen fish fillet (dory) that I am never fond of. I enjoyed the fish, tapah probably…

…in the chao chai (preserved vegetable) soup…

…a lot more except that I had to be very careful with the bones.

The photograph of the Four Heavenly Kings came out blur and incidentally, they only have three here – brinjal, long bean and baby corn and we asked for it to be fried with sambal belacan (dried prawn paste) and yes, that was very good.

They certainly were very generous with the freshly-cut sliced chilies…

…with soy sauce but unfortunately, they were not spicy/hot at all – the problem that we often encounter when we buy these peppers nowadays.

The peanuts…

…didn’t come free – that plate was RM4.00, I think. My girl used to enjoy it when going for Chinese sit-down dinners but she can’t eat that anymore, the coating is not gluten free. Well, if I am not wrong, I could have asked them to take it back and strike it off my bill but I did not bother.

We also had a 1.5 litre bottle of their own made lo han kuo (RM6.00) drink to share and I think the rice is a bit pricey here, RM2.00 a bowl. Having said that, the total for the food was only RM57.00…even though overall, it came up to RM75.00. All in all, we enjoyed the lunch – we liked the food though I would not mind a little less msg – I will have to tell them that the next time we come here…and perhaps, one meat dish, one vegetable and a soup would be enough for the three of us seeing how generally, the servings were kind of huge.

SIANGGELILIA XIQING RESTAURANT (2.306309, 111.848066) is located at No. 48, Lorong 7C, Jalan Pahlawan back to back with the wet market (and Baba & Siam) among the shops to the left of the Sibu Bus terminal. Somebody opened a big food court there a long time ago but it did not last very long and the place had been vacant since.

Presumptuous…

After the early morning church service last Sunday, we dropped by here for breakfast.

I spotted this (RM6.00)…

…on sale so I grabbed one to try – there was only one left at that point in time.

I thought it was all right…

– it tasted something like our sambal udang kering except that ikan bilis (dried anchovies) was used instead, great with rice, bread or crackers. My missus loved it though, for the simple reason that it was very spicy.

She had her favourite sambal fried kway teow here…

…with a special request for it to be extra spicy, of course and I ordered the same for my girl but I asked for it to be fried “white” or without soy sauce, that is…

She did not seem to enjoy it so much though and was struggling with it and in the end, I think she barely finished half of it. I did try a bit and I thought it was all right just that it was not quite the same – I guess we are more used to having soy sauce in our char kway teow and would prefer it that way. She had the bihun fried this way once and she did enjoy it then.

This local franchise…

…has taken over the roti canai stall – they serve burgers but instead of using buns, they use our Foochow chu nu miang, the sweet and soft version of the bagel-like kompia. I did not try that though as I had something else in mind – the mee sua…

…from the stall somewhere in the middle.

I had it once and I liked it a lot and there I went praising it to the skies and an ex-student suggested that I went and tried the one here – I thought that was very good too but the one here was better. Well, the sad news is that the one there (the kampua mee and the pian sip were very good too, rather popular among the locals) had closed down and the shop will be taken over by this Kuching Indian/mamak franchise, scheduled to open in December.

I ordered what I wanted and sat there waiting and I observed that the ladies were busy with other things and were not getting down to cook what I had wanted. They noticed that and asked me what I wanted – that sure pissed me off. I had already placed my order and after all this while, you asked me again what I wanted. Still, I did not see them getting down to it.

After some time, I saw a not-very-young lady with a bowl of hung ngang (the big bihun) in a tray trying to serve it to the people at the table behind me and of course, those folks insisted they did not order that. The ladies from the aforementioned stall came over and said that I had ordered that but with mee sua…and by then, a young guy had come over and he looked kind of physically disabled but not very seriously. Seeing that and since the lady serving was no spring chicken either, I said that I would have that bowl of hung ngang…

…if it wasn’t anybody else’s order.

I was already fuming by then and the coffee shop owner attracted by the confusion and commotion had come over and he told me that those ladies were no longer selling mee sua as they could not cope and they had ordered from another stall in the coffee shop – the one right beside the kampua mee stall.  He added that he had tried it before and though the taste was not quite the same, it was pretty good as well.

Now, that sure was grossly presumptuous of them, I must say. They should have told me that they were not selling that anymore (and they should have taken down that photograph at their stall) and suggested that I ordered from this other stall. Yes, it did not taste quite the same and yes, it tasted all right but I did not want hung ngang…

– I wanted mee sua and besides. it was RM7.00 a bowl! The one I had before was RM6.00 a bowl only and there were two chunks of chicken, a shitake mushroom and one hard-boiled egg while this one had one drumstick, one shitake mushroom and a poached egg, that was all.

No, I did not make a scene – my girl would not like that but I guessed she knew I was upset and apparently, that affected her somewhat – she is always kind of emotional – and I think that was the real reason why she could barely finish half her plate of kway teow. After this kind of experience, I don’t think we will be in a hurry to go back to that coffee shop again…not for a long, long time.

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.

Private party…

This used to be here but they have renovated and refurbished the place, rebranding it and giving it a new name…

…so last Saturday evening, we decided to hop over and check it out – it is located at the mall round the corner from our house. Unfortunately, they were having a private party that night – their annual dinner for their staff and it looked like there was some kind of opening ceremony going on as well so it was not open to the public.

We did not have any other choice but to go elsewhere and my girl wanted to go here for her favourite mutton biryani (RM21.00)…

…so of course, her wish was my command. Needless to say, as always, she enjoyed it to the max and was obviously very happy after that scrumptious dinner.

The mum had the kalio ayam (RM14.50) again – no, I did not bother to snap a photo of it as the place was kind of dim at night and besides, that was what she would have every other time we were here and I have had a lot of photos of it already in my previous blogposts…and of course, as always, she could only manage one of the two huge chunks of chicken in the set so I had to help her with the other one.

I had the opor ayam (RM14.50)…

…which was very good, something like our ayam masak kurma, and there were two huge chunks of chicken in the bowl as well as some potatoes and one hardboiled egg.

The total came up to RM60.50 so I paid RM61.00, cash but the generous boss gave me back a RM5.00 note as a discount for the iced water that we had – he was not going to charge us for it. I must say that was a very nice gesture compared to those places where they would insist on you digging out all your small change to pay for what is on the bill…or they will willingly give you back RM49.90 for your RM100.00 (because you do not have anything smaller) when the bill is RM50.10…and especially when it is some poker-faced boss himself or herself that one is dealing with, I certainly would think twice about going back again, that’s for sure, never mind how good the food is.

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.

Same on the inside…

No, not really. Actually it was the same on the outside but different inside.

I bought two packets of the puff pastry, over RM6.00 each with 10 sheets inside one packet so it works out to over 60 sen per sheet. Personally, I thought that was inexpensive and the best part, of course, was that the pastry was really very flaky and very nice after baking. I used a packet to make the sardine rolls so I had one left and I decided to make some tuna curry puffs with it.

I went and bought a can of the tuna curry…

…and prepared the ingredients – one Bombay onion chopped, curry leaves and chilies, sliced…

…and I also peeled some potatoes and cut them into tiny cubes…

…and once, that was done, I proceeded to fry the filling…

I also boiled some eggs and cut them into wedges…

…and once everything was ready, I started to make the puffs…

…with the filling and the egg inside. I used a fork to press down the edges and to poke some holes on top to let the air out whilst baking…

…and of course, I egg-washed each of them on top before putting them into the oven…

It turned out really well…

…but unfortunately, unlike the sardine rolls, because the triangles occupied more space, I could only bake 5 at a time in the tray.

With the remaining pastry, I made three rolls and two regular curry puffs with the twisted edges…

…just that I could not do that very well.

It turned out all right…

…though and the pastry was great…

…just that I wished I could stuff in a lot more filling. Maybe if I rolled the pastry, I could make the pieces bigger and thinner and then I would be able wrap more inside – I’ll try that the next time I buy another packet.

For Pete’s sake…

My good friend, Peter, the boss of Payung, mentioned to me before that he loved sardine rolls but they were not available anywhere in town so that day, I decided to make some to give to him.

I remember way back in the good ol’ days, the girl students were taught to make these in their Home or Domestic Science lessons, among a whole lot of other useful things but of course, they do not have that subject in school anymore and if I am not wrong, they would use shortcrust pastry to make the rolls.

I do not have a problem at all making shortcrust pastry but I do not want to buy a box or a bag of wheat flour and use about half and end up stuck with the rest – we would not be using that for anything these days as my girl is gluten intolerant. That was why I went to the supermarket and bought this frozen puff pastry…

My girl bought and used it before and we all agreed that it was very good but of course, we cannot buy that and use anymore these days.

It is so very easy to use – you just take it out of the freeze and let it thaw…

…and that does not take very long. In the meantime, you can work on the filling and that was exactly what I did.

I had these two small cans of mackerel…

…in the pantry so I decided to use those. I mashed the fish…

…keeping just a bit of the sauce in case if it was too wet, it might flow out of the rolls during the process of baking and make quite a mess.

These were the ingredients I prepared…

– one Bombay onion, chopped, sliced chilies and Thai Basil leaves and some spring onions (I just added these simply because I had a lot growing in my garden)…and after frying the onion in a bit of oil till softened and cooked, I added all the rest before adding the mackerel. Easy-peasy, done in no time at all…

Next came the process of wrapping the rolls. I egg-washed the sides and placed the filling in the middle of the pastry…

…and then I folded in one end like this…

…and rolled it over the other end. After that, I sealed the ends and pressed them down well using a fork and I cut slits on top…

…using a knife to let the air escape whilst baking.

Of course, I had to egg-wash all the rolls on top as well…

…so that once they were done, they would have the nice golden coating like this…

As soon as they were done…

…I quickly sent them over to the café for Peter and all the nice people there to enjoy. Of course I was delighted when everyone starting praising the rolls to the skies – they all loved them, it seemed.

Don’t be late, don’t come too soon…

I was early that morning, around 9.00 a.m. and I was thinking of having the sup tulang (beef bone soup) with noodles for breakfast but I guess that was way too soon and I was told that it was not available yet. It would be ready by around 11.00 a.m. but no, I did not want to go off some place and come back all the way again.

I could have the eat-all-you-can porridge (RM4.00)…

…but I did not feel like it plus the condiments did not look all that exciting.

They have a roti canai stall…

…in front now, run by the two ladies and I decided to order one (RM1.20)…

…to try.

It did not look all that great, something like those frozen homemade ones that we can buy and fry our own at home but I guess it was because they did not squeeze it from the sides like what I would see them doing at most, if not all, other stalls because it was perfectly all right…

…inside, exactly how a roti canai should be.

They gave this curry dip…

…with it, not the usual dhal one, and I just poured it all onto the roti…

…and ate. I guess that would be what my blogger friend, Merryn, would do – she calls it roti canai banjir (flooded).

I asked what I could order at that time of day and was told that they had the usual halal kampua or kolo mee and the fried stuff and no, they do not have nasi lemak here. In the end, I settled for a plate of fried mee (RM5.00)…

…which I thought was a bit pricey especially when it was not a very big plate and I did not think there was much in it, no sign of any chicken or beef…

…but yes, it was all right, just that it was not anything to get me rushing back for more.

However, the complimentary beef soup…

…was so so good, really thick and rich and bursting with flavours. I sure enjoyed that a lot!

No, the nasi campur was not ready yet – that is the thing about this place, it seems. Do not come too soon…and don’t come too late either. We came a bit later that day and the dishes for the eat-all-you-can buffet lunch were running out and it did not look like there was going to be any refill. Those who came even later than us had to make do with whatever there was left.

DAPUR AZRA (2.308398, 111.819744) is located at the shops at Simpang Tiga, along Lorong Kuda 2, back to back with Bisonte Grocer & Deli, facing Jalan Kampung Nangka and the road leading to the one-time ferry point. 

A little differently…

I cannot for the life of me understand the current craze here for nasi kak wok – it seems to have popped up in the menu of the Malay/Muslim shops here, there and everywhere. Unlike its Kelantanese counterpart, the nasi kerabu which I like a lot, I have tried it a few times here…and here again…and also here but it did not tickle my fancy – not something I would want to order again.

Another popular Kelantanese dish is the nasi ulam which I would love to try but it is not available here or not that I know of. I tried cooking my own once but I did not think it was all that great – maybe I did not get it right, I wouldn’t know so that day, when I saw a whole lot of rice left in the fridge, I decided to try again but this time around, I went about it a little differently.

Instead of serving it cold, tossed with all the herbs and leaves and what not, I fried it so perhaps we should call it nasi ulam goreng instead. I started off cooking the sambal udang kering (dried prawns) by frying the pounded ingredients – shallots, garlic, kunyit (turmeric), lengkuas (galangal) and chili with stalks of serai (lemon grass) added…followed eventually by the pounded udang kering with belacan (dried prawn paste). Once that was done, I added some curry leaves and then, the rice and eggs and mixed everything well together.  Finally, I added some salt, chopped spring onions (since I have a lot in my garden) and Thai basil leaves before dishing everything out. I could have added some of my daun kesum and sawtooth coriander as well but I did not, in case my girl would get put off by the strong fragrances.

It turned out really nice – everyone enjoyed it but there was so much so I heated up the left over…

…the next morning for breakfast.

I fried an omelette and wrapped the rice…

…in it…

…so it became what I would call nasi ulam goreng Pattaya…

…and served it with the leftover sambal udang petai…

…that I bought home the previous day and yes, it was indeed very nice.

I would still want to try the nasi ulam though, should I happen to come across any, so I would be able to know for sure as to how good it actually is…and whether it is nicer than my nasi ulam goreng…

…or not.

Almost but not quite…

We dropped by here for dinner again on Monday evening – my girl was still in town as Tuesday was a public holiday and the school took an extra day off which was why we did not have to send her back on Sunday.

The last time we were here, I wanted to order the claypot yam but the nice boy told me I had already ordered the fish maw soup and we might have a bit too much to finish. I remember I had it a long long time ago when this restaurant was at its previous location and it was thick and bubbling when it was served and that prompted me to remark that it reminded me of the mud pools in Rotorua, New Zealand. I can’t recall what it tasted like then so we decided to order it that night for a change.

We had it with tofu (RM15.00)…

…and bean curd sticks – the boy told me we could have it with those giant freshwater prawns at RM20.00 each which I thought was quite reasonable compared to a lot of other places or we could have it with fish. We just decided to have it with tofu and yes, it was nice, more watery than what I had once before…but I still have a soft spot for their very clear and refreshing fish maw soup.

We also had the kut chai, literally translated as slippery vegetable (RM8.00)…

…fried ching chao (plain) and it was good. The last time we had this, we had it fried with the three types of eggs and that was good too.

My girl loves their ngor hiang (RM7.80 for 6)…

…and wanted them again that night so of course, I ordered those and as always, I just couldn’t resist the stewed pork leg (RM17.00)…

…which my girl could not eat because of the soy sauce. Once again, I forgot to ask for the stewed egg and to my delight, when they served the dish, they had one…

…by the side. It did look really good with its extra-yellow yolk and it tasted great too, nicer than at some places where theirs may be over-stewed or reheated over and over again till the yolk is all grey on the outside while the white is kind of hard and rubbery, not so much to my liking.

So that was our dinner that night, almost the same as usual but not quite. The total, inclusive of rice and drinks, came up to only RM56.60 which I thought was reasonable all right which made me wonder why they do not seem to have a whole lot of customers unlike some places that are not even half as nice, nothing special nor great and not much cheaper either…and yet they are overflowing with people. For one thing, the crowd and the noise would drive me away, that’s for sure.

We do like the food here – they have a lot of nice dishes actually, just that we cannot order them as we will have to stick to those that are gluten free, and the price is always reasonable so we would definitely be coming back here again…and again…

A-PLUS FOOD CENTRE/RESTAURANT (2.293355, 111.823653) is located among the shops along Jalan Kampung Datu behind the block of shops (where Fair Price Supermarket is) near the traffic lights at its junction with Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg and Jalan Kampung Nyabor.

Like it here…

I’ve been to their branch in another part of town twice but I had not dropped by here for quite a while now.

Well, last Saturday afternoon, we went to watch the 3.00 p.m. show (the other show was at 9.15 p.m. and that would be past my bedtime) and despite the fact that the Malaysian censorship board had snipped off some 24 minutes of the absolutely phenomenal movie, it ended past 5.00 p.m. and we did not think we could make it to our usual novena and sunset service at 6.00 p.m. in time if we were to go home and bathe and change first. That was why we decided to just have our dinner before heading home and go for the early morning service the next day, Sunday.

After the service, my girl wanted the thosai…

…so of course, we headed straight to the shop for that. I also ordered the murtabak daging…

…with fresh beef filling as it did not occur to me at that point in time that my girl could not eat that – being made from wheat flour, it was not gluten free. I had to eat it by myself in the end and yes, it was really very good – the fresh beef and Bombay onion inside…

…made it come across like the fillings you find in those western beef pies…and it sure beat the ones with corned beef filling that one would find at most places here.

My missus had their mee mamak…

…and she loved it especially when it was very spicy, making it very much to her liking.

The boss, Guna, came over to our table and asked me to try their nasi lemak ayam berempah. Oh? They also have it here? I did see the photograph at the stall the other day at their branch and would have loved to try it but it was not open so of course, I agreed to have the one here…

No, the nasi was not lemak, only very slightly and I guess everyone knows by now that I am not fond of my egg fried using a ring like that – I should have reminded them when I placed the order – but the sambal was very good, very spicy…

…and the ayam berempah…

…was absolutely out of this world, bursting with all the flavours and fragrances of the rempah (spices) and I could detect the curry leaves in it  as well. I sure would not mind having the chicken again the next time I drop by here but perhaps, I would pair it with their nasi biryani instead.

As I was making my way to the counter to pay, I spotted their sambal udang petai…

…in the food display cabinet and of course, I simply had to tapao some to take home and enjoy.

For all that we had plus our drinks and the sambal petai, the ever so generous Guna just collected RM20.00 from me. That is why I like it better here – the people are nicer and friendlier, the food seems to be a cut above the other place too and of course, there are those special discounts through the kind courtesy of the boss himself.

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.

If I had a million…

There is a rather popular Hokkien song entitled “若是我有一百万“ or literally translated, If I had a million. Unfortunately, that is something I can only dream of…but looking at the volume of business the people here…

…seem to enjoy every day, they would have made their first million a long time ago already, I’m sure.

This is one of my niece’s favourite places in town, the one working in Singapore and every time she comes back to town, she would go and eat there and as far as I know, she loves the prawns…

…no, not those small seawater prawns but the huge freshwater udang galah (bamboo prawns) or what we call in Hokkien, tua thow hay (big-headed prawns) that cost a bomb if you go and buy them at the wet market, what more to say, if you go and eat them at a restaurant.

Well, we went there the other evening and ordered those for our dinner. Those were the medium-sized ones, just four of them, that I used to buy at RM45.00 a kilo but ever since it shot up to RM60.00, I had stopped buying. I guess if I had a million, I would not give buying these prawns a second thought, not at all.

We also had our usual, the Sibu Foochow-style tofu soup with canned oysters…

…and they do it really well here – exactly the way it should be, very authentic and I could detect the fragrance and taste of the oysters in it. They do not add so much at some other places here and some would even add other ingredients like thin strips of Chinese cabbage, carrot and what not and that would affect the taste, not quite like the real thing.

I did not know why the cangkuk manis fried with egg…

…took a long time to appear – I do not think it would be that difficult to cook but come to think of it, everything took quite a while and one would need to be quite patient to go and eat here. Yes, even before sundown, at 5 something in the evening, there will be a lot of people there already and from the bags and bags of stuff lined up on the counter, one would know that many had (probably called and) ordered all those dishes to take home for dinner.

We also had this fried pork marinated with tauju ( 豆腐乳/fermented bean curd)…

…and this much I would say, that it was probably the best I ever had around here. I could actually detect the taste of the fermented bean curd and we all loved it!

It certainly was a very nice dinner and another reason for its popularity would probably be because it is inexpensive to come and eat here – what we had that night, inclusive of rice and drinks came up to RM57.00 only and we had those giant prawns…plus parking is a breeze. We certainly wouldn’t mind dropping by here again.

MILLION CAFE (2.307090,111.840880) is located at the commercial area in  Rejang Park, Jalan Teruntum, facing the very big car park area at the back of the shops, beside the Sibu Volleyball Association Stadium and the surau.