Everybody does…

Last year, we flew home from Miri on Friday, the 29th of November and early the very next morning, I did the first thing everybody does the instant they come back home after they have been away, even if it is only for a few days – eat kampua!

I went here, my favourite in town and I saw in their menu that they had what they called their kampua special so I asked one of them what that was. She said that I would get a plate of kampua kosong (no meat)…

…and this special soup…

…with liver, pig’s blood, fish cake slices and tofu and of course, I wanted to try that.

It was very nice – the bone stock soup was very rich and thick and I sure wouldn’t mind ordering that (RM4.20)…

…again sometime.

It so happened that my ex-student residing in Kuching came home with his family and being an ardent follower of my blog, he had seen me singing praises of the kampua mee here and of course, he had to bring his family here.

This photo of his son…

*Photo Credit: W T Kiong’s photo*

…that he shared on Facebook most certainly says it all! Who was it who told me the other day that the best kampua mee can be found right here in Sibu, not in Kuching, not in Miri, not anywhere else?

In fact, a cousin of mine working and residing in KL was here some years back and we went to one coffee shop where the kampua mee was relatively somewhat inconspicuous in town. I told her that I could take her to some place nice if that was what she wanted but she insisted. One bite of it and she remarked, “We can eat kampua mee anywhere in Sibu and it will be nicer than any in Kuching!”  That, of course, is a broad generalisation – we do have the not-so-good ones here too, best avoided.

In case anyone is wondering, no, I did not go for our good ol’ Sibu kampua mee when we got back from Kuching that day on the 16th of December. However, when I was out early one morning, I did drop by this coffee shop to try the not-so-new-now stall…

…there. I’ve been wanting to drop by to do that but it was closed here and here again. Thankfully, it was open that day and since I did not get to enjoy the tomato kway teow in Kuching, the one here (RM4.00)…

…will just have to do. I forgot to snap a photograph of it using my camera so I am using this one that I took using my cheap antique handphone.

Yes, the colour was different from what one would get in Kuching and the taste would not be the same too. Nonetheless, I would say it was nice even though it did not look quite the same as the one in the photograph at the stall…

– I think there was egg in the gravy but not in the one that I had.

I sure would not mind going for it again should I be passing by this way but I may want to try the other stuff that they dish out – we’ll see!

HOCK SING CAFE (2.290070, 111.827620) is located along Jalan Wong Nai Siong, facing the Sibu Taxi Station and the Sarawak Hotel and KIONG CHUONG CAFE (2.291062, 111.827381) is located along Jalan Kampung Nyabor at the bend where one turns left or right when coming from Brooke Drive, a stone’s throw from Malaysia Hotel in the next block.