What they said…

My friend/ex-student/ex-colleague runs a souvenir shop in the vicinity and when I dropped by the other day, he asked if I had tried the beef noodles at the shop a stone’s throw away. He thinks it is really good and yes, I did hear some people telling me that same thing too sometime ago just that I do not usually frequent that part of town so I never got down to giving it a try.

I was there once, way back in 2014, when I went for the Sabah-inspired pork soup and noodles and yes, it was really very good and when I was there early the other morning, I noticed on the display on the wall…

…that they only had that with a choice of having the noodles in the soup and served separately like what I had then and other than the two options, they also had the beef noodles, RM7.00 or RM10.00.

The coffee (RM1.50)…

…was nice and of course, I wanted the beef noodles, the RM10.00 one – my guess was that would be the special. The girl who took my orders said that I would have to wait a while as they were still working on the broth for the soup and I told her that I would wait. There was quite a crowd there already that morning even though I was so early, past 7.00 a.m. and all of them were having the noodles and the pork soup – it sure looked like that was the preferred choice, not the other option with the noodles in the soup.

It did not take all that long actually and when it was served…

…the first thought that ran through my mind was where the daun sup (Chinese celery) was and no, I did not like those curly vegetables in it – it would affect the taste so I quickly fished them out and ate them first.

They certainly were very generous with the meat and the noodles…

…and there was tripe too, no tendon and yes, it tasted nice enough but I still prefer the ones here though I am not all that keen on going back there anymore after some not-so-nice experiences once there and again on a later occasion, the last time we went, when the young Indonesian guy doing the serving spilled the whole bowl of hot beef noodles, soup, onto our table. Luckily, we were not scalded by the hot soup.

I guess if I happen to be around this part of town again and should I decide to drop by this place, I would just stick to their very nice pork soup with the kampua mee kosong served separately. I think I would enjoy that more.

WAN LI SHENG ROU MEE is located in the vicinity of the Medan Mall, off Jalan Wong King Huo, two or three doors away to the right of 101 Food Court (2.291330, 111.841751).

I don’t care…

I had those garden shears from Mr DIY that I found very handy for trimming the grass when I do the weeding…

…in my garden. Unlike those huge ones whereby I would need both arms to use and end up with muscle aches all over my shoulders, I could conveniently use the ones from there single-handedly.

Unfortunately, the last one that I had was no longer sharp and I think I got the blades all crooked when I tried to cut a little bit more than I should so I had to throw it away. Much to my disappointment, when I went back to all the outlets here in town, I found that they no longer sell those. Finally, I tried the hardware shop near my house and I found this brand…

…for a whopping RM50.00 plus! The ones from Mr DIY were only a little over RM10.00 each. I have the garden scissors, this brand too, from a shop here and they were over RM30.00 each. It sure looks like everything from them does not come cheap but I must say that the quality is really good and long lasting.

Talking about prices, do you go around here and there making comparisons before buying something? I don’t…and I don’t care if what I buy is a little bit more expensive than what others have paid for it. If it is something that I want, I would just grab, pay and leave like these cans of luncheon meat…

…that I got from the supermarket near my house. My friend, Annie, in KL was in town at the time and she got those for around RM6.00 a tin only but that was on offer in conjunction with the opening of a new supermarket in town but I sure would not want to join the crowd – the cars were all queued up along the road to go inside that big place so I could imagine the long lines at the counters, no, thank you. I paid over RM8.00 for mine.

These…

…cost more than my favourite brand, over RM11.00 a can, but by around RM1-2 only. I did not see the latter at places where I went to – not that I actually went round in search of it so I settled for this instead. I think I did try it before and it was good as well. Well, I was at the grocery store here the other day and I saw a whole lot on the shelves. Maybe the current stock has arrived so they are easily available now. Of course I did not buy any as I still have my two cans in the pantry, yet to cook and eat it.

While I was there, I asked them about those canned clams in soy sauce but they told me they are no longer available. They suggested this…

…instead and insisted that it is the same. I remember a friend sharing on Facebook a photograph of the bihun she fried and when I asked her, she showed me the photograph of what she used – it was this same brand. We use their satay sauce to cook our satay beef dish and it is very good, as good as the brand we used before but is no longer available. I decided to grab a tin to try but I have not got round to doing it yet. When I do so, if it’s any good, I certainly would blog about it.

Home cooked…

Sometimes, when we get back into town after picking up my girl from her school in the jungle on Fridays, we would stop by some place for a very late lunch like what we did here or here or here. The problem is that it will be around 2-3.00 p.m. then and most places would be closed (they will reopen around 6 for dinner) and especially considering that we abstain from meat on Fridays, there are not many places we can go to or things that we can eat.

The other option would be to cook our own food and once we get home, we will heat everything up and eat. That would mean that we would have to cook a day earlier – my missus likes cooking the dishes the night before or at times, I would cook in the morning – I always get up very early on most days, anyway.

These days, we can get frozen fish paste from that fruit & vegetable (and everything else) shop near my house to make fish balls and cook the soup…

That sure saves a whole lot of trouble and the fish balls made from the paste…

…are as good as any. The people at the shop will say that it is made from bay ka (ikan tenggiri/mackerel), no less – as far as we are concerned, as long as it is nice, it is fine by us.

Well, other than the soup, the other day, my missus also cooked this claypot fish…

…except that she cooked it in  a casserole using the filleted fish that she bought from the fishmonger sometime ago and of course, it was very nice. We’re not keen on buying those cheap frozen fish fillet (dory) which isn’t too bad if it is just bland but at times, the texture may be jelly-like or worse, it may have an unpleasant smell. There were tofu puffs, leek, quail eggs, brinjal, mushroom in the dish and that alone may be considered a complete dish on its own.

That sure was a nice change from eating out…and even when we stop some place to eat outside, though it may be less of a hassle, at times, we really do not know what to eat and at other times, we may not really enjoy what we end up having in the end. All that trouble that we will have to go through to have our own home-cooked lunch for our girl when she comes home at the end of the week can be really rewarding and worthwhile when we see her enjoying herself to the max.

Changing colours…

I do not drop by here…

…as frequently as before anymore – I think the last time was in November last year, not that it is not nice anymore but most mornings, we will be at home and we will cook our own food for lunch and dinner so there is no need to go out and tapao (pack and take away) anything anymore.

Well, the other day, I decided to drop by to see what I could buy and freeze for my girl to bring to her school in the jungle and enjoy eating them there for her meals in the course of the week.

The guy, usually in a cowboy hat, and his wife are no longer around but they have some employees there to run the show. I noticed that the containers are not green anymore, they’re purple…

…but the food is still the same, just as nice as before.

The curry looked good…

…but I noticed that the meat was falling apart probably due to it being cooked a bit too long so I did not want to buy that. I went for the rendang…

…instead and also the masak merah…

Their kurma…

…is one of our all-time favourites so of course, I asked for that as well and also their ayam masak kicap – chicken in soy sauce but the Malay ones are different because of the spices added so theirs would be a lot more fragrant than what some are probably more used to.

So far, their only beef dish is their daging masak hitam but my girl is not a fan of that and there may be a couple of fish dishes depending on what they can get their hands on. I do think all these are very nice and very cheap too – RM2.00 a chunk, and I asked for all drumsticks but I’d pass on their vegetable dishes.

They open on weekdays from as early as around 10 something in the morning and by 1 in the afternoon, most of the things would be sold out already so do go early if, like me especially, you would like to grab the drumsticks.

GERAI MADU “SELERA KAMEK” (2.314158, 111.825546) is located at Bandong Walk, somewhere in the middle of the stalls on the right (if you are coming from Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg) along Jalan Bandong.

Blow out the candles…

It’s my brother-in-law’s birthday today…

…so of course, the daughter, my niece working in Singapore, came home over the long Easter weekend to celebrate the auspicious occasion.

This time around, we all gathered for dinner here and we had the fried mee sua (Foochow longevity noodles) with the golden eggs…

…and we also ordered the vegetables that my niece would not be able to find that easily over in the island republic, the midin (wild jungle fern)…

…and the cangkok manis…

Well, everyone who drops by here would surely want to have their signature dish, the curry fish head…

…and yes, we had that too. We thought it was a little too sweet but we did enjoy it nonetheless.

My brother-in-law pre-booked the roast duck…

…wrapped in the paper-thin egg wrapper with everything else…

…and yes, it was good too…

There is a general consensus that the food here is not quite as good as before and can burn a hole in one’s pocket. The total for our dinner that night, 7 of us altogether, inclusive of rice and drinks, came up to RM276.00 but of course, since my niece was hosting, that was less than SGD100.00 so it was not too bad after all.

It’s my brother-in-law’s 66th birthday and he insisted on having 66 candles on the cake. I do not know what he wished for before blowing out the candles but 6622 came out first prize that very night…and he did win something even though he bought his birthdate, 2626 but he did “box” or whatever they call it. Lucky guy! That sure was a great start to the year ahead and once again, a very Happy Birthday to him, all good wishes and God bless.

SHERATON RESTAURANT (2.298521, 111.830619) is located along Brooke Drive, on your left soon after Telekom Malaysia, if you are coming from town.

Let’s go celebrate…

That was what I had in mind when I wanted to go for the nice dim sum here for breakfast after the Easter Sunday church service the other day but it looked like there was quite a crowd there and we went some place else instead. What we had in the end did not turn out to be something out of the ordinary, hardly anything one would go for to celebrate anything for that matter.

Feeling kind of disappointed, I told my girl we would go out for dinner that night and I would let her choose where she wanted to go and what she would like to eat. In the end, she picked one of our favourite places in town…

…and of course, she wanted their authentic Indian mutton masala biryani rice (RM21.00)…

She sure enjoyed that and she managed to finish all the rice! She could not finish all the meat in the curry though so I had to help her with a chunk or two.

I also had something from their Indian menu, the tandoori chicken with biryani rice (RM18.00)…

…and it was good. The gravy that came with it went well with the rice and I enjoyed the chicken on its own, not mixed with the gravy or the rice. That way, I could enjoy the subtle flavours of the marinades used to cook the chicken to perfection, nice and tender. I am never a fan of raita though so I just gave what I got by the side to my girl – she loves it a lot and finished all of it in no time at all.

I am quite sure everybody can guess what my missus had – the Indonesian kalio ayam (RM14.50)…

…and as usual, she could only manage one chunk of the chicken. I tried to help her finish the other chunk but she had asked for it to be super extra spicy and it was way too spicy for me. I felt that the over-spiciness drowned out the niceness of the curry so in the end, I just left what was left of the chicken by the side of the plate.

All in all, that was a pleasant dinner, the bill came up to RM67.50 altogether inclusive of drinks, and I was glad that we did get to celebrate Easter, after all,  in a small way.

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.

Seven…

This place…

…isn’t exactly new – it has been around for quite a while now and I did ask somebody who had been here what was nice but he did not seem all that impressed. That was why we were in no hurry to come and try.

However, last Sunday, we went to the early morning Easter service at the church that we usually go to and we brought some eggs…

…that my girl and the mum spent the whole night decorating to be distributed to the congregation. There were many others who donated eggs for this purpose and there were a whole lot of eggs to be given away though not all went through the trouble to get theirs nicely decorated.

Actually, after the service, I wanted to go for the dim sum here but there seemed to be a huge crowd there that morning and the parking spaces available all around the building were occupied. In the end, we decided to come back another day and went to the aforementioned place instead as there is a dim sum stall there as well.

Like all eating places around here especially on Sunday mornings, the place was packed but luckily, we managed to get a table. The char siew pao…

…were all right – they were good enough, as good as the better ones that we can get around here unlike what the lady at the stall said were the original sio bee…

I did not think they were all that great, not quite like our local Sibu Foochow sio bee nor were they anything like the authentic dim sum ones. The texture was springy, like fish ball.

These dumplings…

…were quite nice and these…

…were not too bad either but I guess the filling would be more or less the same just that the latter was wrapped in bean curd skin. The total came up to RM22.00 which, of course, came as no surprise. I always find it rather pricey going for dim sum – you ask for this and that and in the end, it will add up to quite a substantial total.

The ladies went and ordered from the chu char (cook & fry) stall at the back – my girl had the fried pek koi (white rice cake)…

…while the mum had the fried noodles…

…and I guess both were o.k. as I did not hear them complain but I did not see them all excited either.

I ordered the duck kampua with one stewed egg (RM7.00)…

…from another stall there and yes, I would say it was nice as well just that the noodles was not exactly kampua mee, very thin and more yellowish and it did not taste like it either. Whatever it is in that somewhat small bowl, for that kind of money, I don’t think I will be in a hurry to come back again for more.

7七夜cafe (2.307862, 111.848497) is located off Jalan Sena in the blocks of shops opposite Jalan Deshon on the right, the same side as Wikitea and the Italian restaurant, Bistecca & Bistro.

That’s my name…

Unlike the place in my previous post, this one is true to its name – the food is nice and it’s affordable too!

This is the favourite of my cousin in Sydney, Australia – he would not fail to drop by every year when he comes back in December around Christmas. He particularly likes how the dishes here are mild, not quite the stuff you will get at the regular chu char (cook & fry) places around town where the food would be pretty much the same – generally, it is more or less a case of you’ve tried one, you’ve tried them all.

Well, we were fasting all day Friday last week, Good Friday and after the mid-afternoon service at the church that we frequent here, when evening fell, we dropped by here for dinner, the breaking of fast, so to speak. It was a day of abstinence (from meat) too so we did not order any meat dishes but seafood is all right.

I did not want their salad sotong which is actually deep-fried batter-coated squid served with mayonnaise, nothing more than that so when the nice lady taking our orders suggested kung pao sotong, I jumped at it right away and yes, it…

…was very nice. I loved the sauce especially! So far I only came across chicken being cooked this way.

She also suggested their signature own-made tofu dish but I could recall it had meat in it. She said that they could leave that out and add mushrooms instead so we agreed to have that…

…and of course, it was very nice. It certainly was not one of their signature dishes for nothing.

We had their butter baby kai lan…

…on our previous visit and since we liked it, we decided we would want it again for a change from the usual fried midin (wild jungle fern) or cangkok manis. That night, I saw some of the employees sitting at a table by the side preparing the midin and my goodness! There was a mountain of it and if all that was for one night alone, their business must be really very good.

I also ordered their sweet and sour black pomfret (or chio/ikan bawal hitam)…

…and the moment it was served, I know that would cost quite a bit – it was big! Of course, it did not matter at all as it was very nice and we sure enjoyed it very much.

When I went to pay our bill, RM76.00 altogether inclusive of rice and drinks, I asked the lady boss how much the fish was and she said RM31.00 and she apologised that they had run out of smaller ones – normally, it would be around RM25.00 only like the last time when we had the fish.

That certainly was a delightful dinner and for sure, we would be coming back again for the simple reason that the food here is, as its name suggests, nice.

NICE HOUSE RESTAURANT (2.29201,111.82739) is located in the vicinity of the Tunku Osman shops, opposite Rejang Bookstore.

More than you think I am…

Good Friday is a public holiday here in Sarawak so last Thursday, we went to fetch my girl from her school in the jungle and bring her home for the long weekend. Her school or most, if not all, of the schools in the state have taken Easter Monday off as well.

We dropped off her housemate/colleague at the airport for her flight back to Kuching and headed to the bank to settle some business and it was already 4.00 p.m. when we dropped by here for a very late lunch/early dinner.

They have added a caption to their name…

…which I would say is most appropriate as there are very few noodle dishes here and a whole lot of other things. We had not been here for a while, not since October last year as I am not all that fond of the boisterous crowd – it can get so noisy that my head will start spinning and I would not enjoy what I would be having, never mind how nice it is. It sure looked like 4 to 5.00 p.m. would be a good time to drop by as there were not so many people and ample (free) parking spaces all around the building – that is another problem here. You may have to park quite a distance away and walk there.

My girl had their sparkling mixed fruit soda (RM7.20)…

…and she loved it while I had the red bean smoothie (RM6.50)…

…blended red bean with a scoop of ice cream on top with a few red beans for presentation…and yes, I enjoyed that as well.

My missus had a glass of fresh lemon tea (RM4.20) and this bowl of stewed pork rice (RM7.90)…

…that I would not mind ordering sometimes as they do it pretty well here plus the complimentary soup…

…with tiny cubes of tofu and sweet corn that comes with some of their dishes is very nice as well.

My girl wanted one of their burgers but they would only be available at night so she had their nasi biryani with chicken satay (RM16.90)…

…which she said was nice and she did manage to finish most of it, leaving a bit of the rice behind, even though there was quite a lot on that plate.

I decided to try their Cantonese sticky rice with stewed pork dumpling (RM12.50)…

…and it was huge with a lot of meat…

…inside! I loved the layers of fat that melted in the mouth but I wished the glutinous rice had been softer and a lot more sticky so it would not come across like ordinary rice – this was most disappointing, I must say. Other than that, at that price, I would not mind one salted egg yolk, a couple of kau lak (chestnuts) and shitake mushroom and a few thin slices of lap cheong (Chinese sausage) as well but there were none so personally, for that kind of money (or less), I would choose rather go for something else on their menu that I would enjoy a lot more.

I also ordered their XL Hickory BBQ pork ribs…

…for a whooping RM46.20 to try. It was very nice but pretty much the same as their barbecued honey spare ribs (RM25.20 only, the last time we had that here) but this one had two of the rack of ribs. Of course we could not finish all of that since we already had our own individual orders so we just had the smaller slab and asked for the other one to be packed for us to take home.

There is no service charge (10%) here, just the 6% SST so the total came up to RM107.50 and I just paid RM110.00 and asked the cashier to keep the change.

NOODLE HOUSE (2.291406,111.829162) is located somewhere in the area immediately behind the Sibu Central Police Station at No. 2B, Ground Floor, Lorong Laichee 1, accessible either from Hua Kiew Road or Laichee Lane.

Shades of blue…

My missus can’t make chang (meat dumpling). Ummm…let me rephrase that! She can’t tie chang very well – her previous attempts did not turn out too badly but the dumplings came out in all shapes and sizes. I guess she did not have much practice because my late mother-in-law would do it all by herself and my missus would taste those commercially-made and sold ones and would, without fail, declare outright that her mum’s were the best!

However, they only made the Chinese Hokkien chang unlike my late mum and others in my family – they would make the nyonya variety with ketumbar (coriander seeds). We can’t get those here in Sibu but I would get them every year from my good friend/ex-colleague, Richard or from my uncle’s wife in Kuching or buy those available there. My brother used to buy the ones from Katong in Singapore too when in transit everytime he came home.

Well, it so happened that the other day, I saw my missus busy making chang in the kitchen and much to my surprise, she was making those nyonya ones and they turned out really well…

…perfect cones, all of them…

I tried one…

…and I noticed that it was half white and the other half was a light shade of blue. Obviously, she had made use of the butterfly pea flowers now growing abundantly along the back fence of my garden and we would harvest the flowers every morning (and some of my mint leaves too) to brew a pot of the delightful tea to drink.

I did ask her why she made them like that and she said that she saw people doing it that way in some instructional video. So far, I’ve seen those not dyed at all or dyed completely blue or just stained lightly here and there. Of course, it did not matter one bit as it was just the colour and did not affect the taste in any way, unlike the little piece of pandan that she put inside – the fragrance of the leaf sure brought the taste to a whole new level.

Yes, the meat filling…

…was great, a little sweet with the addition of the dried winter melon (冬瓜糖) and yes, I must say that I sure did enjoy eating those changs that my missus made a lot! Yum yummm!!!

Of course it was a whole lot of work and those of us who do not know how to tie those dumplings would take the easy way out and cook it in a baking tray, the glutinous rice with a layer of the filling in between. I told her that she could cook the glutinous rice and the filling the way her mum would do it for her Hokkien chang (yes, my missus does not have a problem with that, just the tying) and cook it in aluminum foil cups like Lo Mai Gai (糯米鸡). That way, she would not have to go through the tedious task of tying the dumplings.