Prepare…

Even before Christmas was over, we could see those red Chinese lanterns and other festive decorations going up here, there and everywhere and Payung was no exception with theirs…

…all the flowers…

…and everything else, the whole works.

Every year, without fail, they would get this very nice homemade kuih bangkit…

…from somebody in Mukah. While everything is shooting up in prices around here, this is still selling for RM22.00 a tub, that same price ever since they started selling it in 2016 and if you buy 10, you will get one free.

In previous years, I would order a few of their dishes to serve at home – that would save us/my missus a bit of work as she would not have to cook too much and besides, anything from Payung was always well-received by family and friends dropping by. If you are keen on ordering, you can find the information below…

I do not think I will be doing that this year as right now, I am thinking of a completely Chinese theme and the only Chinese dish in the list is the kacang ma chicken but I am pretty sure my missus would want to cook her own.

In the meantime, they have released this information – their opening hours during Chinese New Year…

Most places will close for three days, at least but they will close only for one day, the 1st Day of Chinese New Year which is, in fact, a very good thing as there will be people coming home from near or far and they will not have any difficulty looking for a nice place to go and eat.

Incidentally, a cousin of mine brought my attention to the fact that for reasons unknown, Payung has been categorised in Facebook as a vegetarian/vegan restaurant and a Malaysian/Asian fusion restaurant as well. Well, it is not entirely a vegetarian place but there are many dishes that are suitable for vegetarians, for instance their mushroom roll and all the salads and if anyone is into pasta, the mushroom carbonara spaghetti that I had in my previous post is completely meat free and now, since the new Indian chef arrived, they have added a few new dishes to their menu, among them, the vegetarian palak paneer (available only on Fridays or by special order) and his chappati.

Come lunchtime every Friday, they have lei cha (now RM7.00)…

…which is vegetarian too but I have yet to acquire the taste for that.

One Friday morning, I had not had breakfast when I dropped by and I ordered their tomato noodles (RM8.00)…

…with fresh sweet corn kernels added. This is also meat free, suitable for vegans/vegetarians. I think Peter used to add black fungus but he had stopped doing that after hearing all the horror stories about the stuff which I thought, all this while, would be great for health.

They have just re-introduced this dish…

…back on their menu and I must say that I really enjoyed it, very tasty, very flavourful. I sure wouldn’t mind going back for this again sometimes.

PAYUNG CAFÉ (2.284049, 111.833014) is located at No.20F, Lanang Road, Sibu, Malaysia, back to back with the multi-storey car park of the Kingwood Hotel which faces the majestic Rejang River.