You speak my language…

The other day, I went in search of the very nice Penang har mee (prawn noodles) – they closed down their stall at that former place a long time already but I heard that they had opened a stall in this block of shops. I went through all the coffee shops there but it was all in vain – the stall was nowhere to be found.

In the end, I decided to stop by here…

…for a bite to eat.

The Chinese New Year lanterns were up…

…and thankfully, they were playing those boisterous Chinese New Year songs at a bearable volume.

My friend, Annie, likes the food here – in fact, on one of her trips home from KL, she came here twice for dinner. She said that the Foochow fried mee that she had was very nice so I ordered that, the “moon” version, and sat down to wait.

The kopi-o-peng…

…did not look like it would be anything to shout about but it turned out really nice though I can’t say I was all that impressed by the price – it was more expensive than at a lot of places, at RM2.00 a glass.

In the meantime, while I was waiting for my noodles to be served, this couple…

…came and sat at the table next to mine.

No, I was not eavesdropping but they were talking loud enough and everyone around would be able to hear what was said, no problem at all. It sure took me by surprise when the Caucasian guy spoke in very good Malay and placed the orders – I do know for a fact that many of the young ones here these days are mono-lingual and can hardly carry on a decent conversation in Malay nor English despite having studied the languages in school for so many years.

I don’t think his friend was local, looking very pretty in her leopard prints and carrying a Louis Vuitton purse. She spoke English and her friend was explaining to her about roti canai and roti telur and all that. He even went to ask the coffee shop people to confirm that it would be all right and he went to the Malay coffee shop next door to order one roti canai for the lady to try.

He had a bowl of Sarawak laksa – I don’t know if the one here is any good but this much I would say, I did not detect the fragrance at all. It seemed that he was concerned about the size of the serving but he had to struggle a bit with his command of the Malay language. In the end, I think the lady in red taking their orders spoke to him in English – she was smiling from ear to ear, probably somewhat amused by it all. The lady had their fried kway teow and I would say that it looked very good – I may want to come back here again some day to try that.

When my noodles came, I was kind of disappointed as it was not the “moon” version that I wanted but the regular Foochow fried noodles, wet (with sauce/gravy)…

…but when i tried it, I was delighted to find that it was indeed very very nice. I would say that if anyone comes to Sibu and is looking for good authentic Foochow fried noodles to enjoy, they can come here for this one. I can’t say they were very generous with the ingredients though…

…and price-wise, it was a bit more expensive than most, RM4.50 a plate compared to the usual RM4.00 at most places around here.

For one thing, despite the higher-than-usual prices, this place sure has its following. There were quite a lot of people when I was there and as I was leaving, I saw some more stopping by.

ak kia kopitiam (2.305073, 111.850618) is located in the right hand corner of the block of shops on the other side of the Sibu Bus Terminal, Jalan Pahlawan, a short distance to the right from the Li Hua Hotel there.