Haircut…

I could not get my hair cut ever since the COVID-19 CMO was imposed around the middle of March and it was getting very long but of course, I could not be bothered. Many managed to get their spouses to cut for them, never mind that it did not look very nice. It did not matter what I looked like – I hardly went out anyway but eventually, it started to get rather hot and uncomfortable.

Finally, sometime in early June, the hair salons were allowed to reopen. “We will allow basic haircuts, hair washing, trimming and shaving of beards and moustaches, hair treatment, manicures, pedicures, facial washing and treatment,” the minister concerned said.

I did go and get my hair cut but it was only till quite recently when my missus finally went to this one…

…round the corner from our house and got them to cut hers real short. She has not gone through the trouble of dyeing her hair black so it is now quite white and grey. I’ve noticed a lot of people in the same boat walking around.

I don’t know why the hair salon, right next to the food and fruit shop in that next lane that I frequent regularly, is thus named. If I am not mistaken, it has some religious connotation – perhaps they belong to that church. I am quite sure there is a Christian denomination here by that same name as I’ve seen people sharing links to their online worship services on Facebook. Anyway, there is nothing in the shop that will indicate any connection of any kind whatsoever – it is just like any other hair salon.

I did go there once, before COVID-19, because I saw the guy standing outside and he seemed very free so I could get him to do it right away. It turned out that he was rather meticulous and careful and he took a mighty long time to cut my hair, the little that I had left. After that, his wife did the hair shampoo for me and yes, she was very good though she was very small/petite and did not look very strong. LOL!!!

My girl and the mum also said that the guy will take a long time- I guess that’s his style, the way he works.

Well, it has been over two months now since my haircut (elsewhere) and it was getting very long so I decided I would just go there as it was so very convenient, so near my house. When I got there, the boss was cutting somebody else’s hair so this young and handsome boy…

…did mine for me. By the time we were done, the boss was still at it!

I wanted to wash my hair but the people there could only speak Mandarin and I was not sure if it was allowed or not so I decided to give it a miss. They did rinse my hair a bit after it was done though.

Well, my hair is very short now. That cut cost me RM18.00. I suppose that should stretch till October at least before I shall have to go again.

BETHEL HAIR SALON is located beside SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store.

Nothing else…

I dropped by here…

…one afternoon as I wanted to check out the new place but it was not open. I was quite positive that I saw it open every day when I drove past on our way home after picking my girl at school before 1.00 p.m. Perhaps like most places here, they close at around 2.00 p.m. – some may reopen at around 6.00 p.m. to catch the evening and nighttime crowd. The hotpot place next door was but no, I would not be interested in that at any time of day, thank you very much.

I walked around that row of shops to see if there was anything else I could have for tea and I stopped by this coffee shop below the gym but there were just the kampua mee stall…

…manned by the very nice and friendly Iban lady and the chu-char (cook and fry) place at the back open, according to the equally nice Chinese lady running the coffee shop.

I did not want the kampua mee again so I decided to give her kolo mee (RM4.00) a try…

It tasted all right, more like kampua mee, I would say, right down to the chili sauce given. By right, we would get sliced chili soaked in vinegar with kolo mee.

The minced meat…

…looked like it had been reheated over and over again many times till it became rather salty, not something to my liking and the serving was really huge – in fact, I was quite shocked when I saw the lady taking the noodles to cook so of course, I did not finish all of it. All I wanted was something light for tea but there was nothing else.

While I was eating the noodles, I saw the coffee shop lady serving some sio bee (meat dumplings) to some guys at another table. Hey!!! I would want those instead of noodles! In the meantime, I saw a young guy walking past with a plastic bag filled with steamed paos (buns). Wait a minute! I want those too!!!

I walked over to the shop – I had not seen it open, not since COVID-19 so I bought a few to keep in the fridge and steam to reheat for my breakfast in the morning. Much to my surprise, the lady sold them to me at RM2.10 each…

Looking at the earlier blogpost, they were RM2.20 while years ago in 2013, they were only RM1.80 each.

These days, I have to send my girl to school extra early as she has to help take care of the kids and make sure they observe the SOP so most of the coffee shops would be closed and I do not quite fancy going to the same ol’ places and eating nothing else, just the same ol’ things and the photographs, taken in the dark, do not come out nice and I think I have had enough of instant noodles for the time being.

The bak paos (steamed meat buns) would be a welcome change for my breakfast at home and I also stopped by this bakery to buy their lovely swiss rolls…

…now RM7.00 each, it was RM6.80 before – I can enjoy them for breakfast as well, or for afternoon tea.

LIFESTYLE CAFE (2.289728, 111.835320) is located right below Lifestyle Gym, among the blocks of shops beside the Jalan Tong Sang/Lorong Langsat junction and HONG CHENG BREAD HOUSE (2.291838, 111.838213) is located among the block of shops to the right of the junction of Jalan Tong Sang and Lorong Langsat if you are coming via the latter from the roundabout at Jalan Pedada near Rejang Medical Centre and YAT BAKERY (2.293035, 111.835887) is located along Lorong Chew Siik Hiong 1A, directly opposite the since-closed-down Uncle Dom, at the other end of the block of shops where Sushi Tie is in the commercial centre behind the Rejang Medical Centre.

Some good…

I saw this tiramisu classique (RM9.90)…

…at this bakery once but when I wanted to buy it for dessert for our Father’s Day dinner in June, they were not available when I dropped by.

I was in the vicinity that morning and I went in to see if I could get anything nice for afternoon tea that day and yes, I spotted it in the glass display cabinet. I think there was only one left so I grabbed it right away. It was very very nice…

– I sure would want to buy it for dessert the next time we have dinner in the house again on some special occasion.

The mango Swiss roll (RM10.00)…

…however, was, at best, just all right – I’m afraid it did not sweep me off my feet. I did not quite like how the cake was so very fine and dense…

When it comes to Swiss rolls, I sure prefer the ones here plus they only cost RM6.80 each, so much cheaper.

I was quite sure I bought their Macau Portuguese egg tart (RM3.00)…

…before but I could not remember why I did not like it. My girl does not like egg tarts but she enjoys these Portuguese ones so I grabbed a few for her to try.

When I took one…

…to eat, the reason came back to me as clear as day. I did not like the pastry which was like some kind of bread, croissant perhaps. The pastry for Portuguese egg tarts should be different from that in the regular egg tarts – it should be thin and crispy and flaky puff pastry like the ones here but unfortunately, for reasons unknown, that place has closed down for some time now. The people there did not seem all that keen to talk about it.

But to give credit where credit is due, the lightly-torched custard egg filling was very nice, very rich and creamy and much nicer than the ones in all the egg tarts I have had here.

They labelled these as their crystal skin something, shui jing cai (RM1.25 each, RM2.50 for a pack of two)…

…in their cashier’s receipt. I don’t know what crystal skin is but like snow skin (mooncakes), I did not quite like what they had for these chai kueh – they felt jelly-like and I would much sooner go for our old school traditional chai kueh skin…

…as long as it is not hard and rubbery.

The filling inside…

…wasn’t anything to shout about either.

On the other hand, I sure enjoyed this pulut inti (RM1.20 each)…

…a lot! I like how they used half a toothpick to hold the banana leaf together…

…unlike those at the Malay kuih stalls where they would just use a stapler and if one is not careful, the staple might just fall in.

I sure would love to buy this…

…should I happen to stop by the bakery again.

C & C GALLERY is located at Lot 62 at the extreme end of the block of shops to the right of Delta Mall, back entrance.

Still new…

Of course I was thrilled when I heard that this celebrated beef noodles place in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, has opened an outlet in Sibu…

I loved it so much and would never miss the chance to go and enjoy it whenever I was there – some say there is one that is nicer – with thick steak-like slices of beef but no, I was not impressed by the meat and I did not think it tasted better.

They told me this new place is beside a bank in that area which, of course, puts me off somewhat as it would be virtually impossible to find a parking space even if you hope to find one far far away. Nonetheless, hoping against hope, I headed into town to have a look – it was where John’s Pie was and later, it was taken over by Galilee Eatery and after that, something else so now, it is Kah Hiong Ngiu Chap, Sibu.

I managed to find a parking space on the other side of the area, quite far away but somebody in the shop to the left wanted to reverse his car out so I left and round the corner, I saw a little white car reversing and driving away. Oh no!!! There wasn’t a parking space there right outside the gate of a building that was undergoing some renovation – the gate was locked and no one was working, it seemed so I simply left my old car there. I was not the first and definitely not the last and after all, I would not be very long.

It’s not a very big place, just one shoplot, half of which is not air-conditioned while the other half that was at one time, a boutique, is. I’m afraid I can’t say much about the decor…

…either but of course, personally, I feel that as long as the food is good, that is the most important thing.

I remember at the one in Kota Kinabalu, the moment one stepped out of the car, the strong whiff of the beef soup would sweep one off one’s feet…all the way in the parking lot! I did not detect any of that awesome fragrance at the one here but when I went to the washroom, I walked by the kitchen and yes, I could smell it and the memories came flooding back. Gee whiz! I sure am gonna love it here, I thought!!!

I asked for one bowl of ngiu chap soup (RM12.80) and one bowl of kolo mee kosong (RM1.50) but this was served – ngiu chap mee with yellow noodles (RM9.80)…

…and after a while, another bowl came – ngiu chap soup with kolo mee in it (RM14.30, promotional price RM12.80).

There was only me alone so how on earth could they expect me to finish TWO huge bowls of noodles with all that meat and soup! No common sense whatsoever…but no, I did not make a scene. I think I’ve mellowed over the years so I do not throw tantrums in public as I please anymore. After all, they are still new – their first day on the job, the day of their soft opening so I just told them to tapao the bowl with the kolo mee for me to take away and I quietly enjoyed the former with their signature killer cili padi dip…

I felt the ones I had in KK were nicer – the soup was much stronger and the dip was extra hot while this one here was rather mild in comparison. Still, I would say it was very good, can give our favourite here a good fight and much nicer than all the rest. I sent the takeaway to my sister’s place for her to try and she too shared the exact same sentiments.

Before I left, I ran through their menu once again, all in Mandarin – our discussion, a lot more carefully this time and thoroughly. It seems that you can order the beef soup with the noodles but if you want tripe or tendon or beef balls and everything else, you will have to add on and of course, each will come with a price tag.

I would want to drop by again soon and bring my girl and the mum to go and try if I can find a place to park my car, of course, and the next time around, I would want to order everything, the complete works…and hopefully, they would have got over their teething problems already by then!!! After all, at those prices, I sure would not be coming here every day…

KAH HIONG NGIU CHAP, SIBU (2.293094, 111.825429) is located across the lane to the left of AmBank, Jalan Tunku Osman branch in the same block as Ruby Restaurant, at the end on the far right. 

History repeats itself…

I guess it’s not a good day to go out for lunch, Sunday morning, as it is such a busy day. We stopped by here and saw a couple of vacant tables in the midst of the crowd and decided to try here instead and it was just as bad.

We drove past this place…

…our favourite Italian restaurant in town and much to our dismay, they had called it quits!

No, we did not intend to go there – we actually had this place here…

…in mind and even though the sign was still there on the wall, the stall was not open. In fact, it was way too empty and clean like it had been vacated so I had the feeling that it too had closed down. I don’t know if the main outlet/stall on the other side of town is still open or not and I sure would not want to go all the way to find out.

Well, since we were there already and the place was not crowded, we decided we would just have lunch there and be done with it.

My girl had the fried pek koi (white rice cakes) from the chu-char (cook & fry) stall at the back (RM4.00)…

…and I was so sure she had that the one and only time we were here but she insisted she had not had it before. Well, she liked it and I guess that was all that mattered.

The mum ordered the Foochow fried mee and was served this dry version (RM4.00)…

…which she said was good and coincidentally, that was what she had that last time we were here too!

Now, talking about history repeating itself, I had the roast duck kampua mee then and somehow or other, I ended up ordering it again (RM7.50)…

With the roast duck alone, it would be RM6.00 but I asked for the siew yoke (roast pork) as well.

Yes, it was very nice and I did enjoy it. I let my girl try the siew yoke and she liked it so much that she insisted on buying some home for dinner. The roast duck was good too…

…and I also bought some home. However, I told the nice guy not to pour the char siew sauce all over the meat like that and he said he would pack all the sauces separately which he did.

I saw a kueh chap stall and I wanted to give it a try so I ordered the special (RM10.00)…

…to share. It had a whole lot of ingredients, right down to the pig’s tail…

…in it but I did not think it was all that nice. I could not detect the fragrance and taste of any of the spices, so prominent in the very nice kueh chap here. At best I would say it was all right but no, it did not get me all excited. Nonetheless, I would give them my double thumbs up for using those stainless steel bowl unlike all the other places where they are still using those gaudily-coloured plastic ones.

After having enjoyed that decently nice lunch, we headed on home – all those places that we wanted to go to initially would have to wait till another day.

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

Stick together…

This award-winning café has called it a day but no, it wasn’t because of COVID-19. It was before the pandemic outbreak when the owner decided that she had had enough. I do not know what they have there now – I did drive past a couple of times and it looked something like a coffee shop with food stalls and what not.

In the meantime, some of the employees are jobless or maybe they are working elsewhere but at such trying times, it is good that there are people finding ways and means to make ends meet. I’ve seen a lot who have set up makeshift stalls at their gates but I’ve yet to stop by any to see what they are selling. One of the former employees is selling shallot oil…

– I think a bottle like this is RM7.00 or maybe, RM8.00. My sister bought that for me so I do not really know the price.

That is definitely very convenient when one wants to cook one’s own noodles. There is no need to peel and slice shallots to fry for the fragrant oil to use to toss the noodles. Of course, one will not have the nice fried shallots to garnish one’s noodles but I hear the enterprising lady is selling those as well.

And talking about noodles, I came across this Youtube video clip on cooking Foochow red wine mee sua and I was aghast at the sight of how they cooked the mee sua in the chicken soup (1:20). We do not do that here – instead, we cook the noodles, drain well and place it in a bowl and then, we pour the soup over the noodles and serve with a piece of chicken or two. I decided to watch a few more video clips and I saw that most, if not all, of them cooked it that way, in the soup! No wonder the soup of the celebrated mee sua I had at Jalan Alor in KL…

…was murky and starchy, not palatable at all, plus the wine was sweet, definitely not something to my liking and no, I did not finish it!

It so happened that I had a packet of mee sua due to expire at the end of the month…

…so I decided to cook it the other morning. I think I bought that during my panic buying when the COVID-19 MCO partial lockdown started in March. It certainly would be a good idea to look through the things you bought then and have not eaten – who knows, some may be due for expiry and should be consumed quickly.

When you boil mee sua, you will need a lot of water so it will not be so salty when served. When my mum cooked it in my younger days, she did it very quickly so that the noodles would not be too soft and because of this, she never added salt to the chicken soup she cooked. She said the salt in the mee sua would make it salty. I like my noodles soft so I would cook it a little bit longer and you can see how the water turns murky and starchy…

…in the process. That will remove the starch in the noodles and the salt as well so you can imagine cooking it in the soup and serving it like that. If you are eating it right away, you can just drain the noodles well and place it in a bowl. Then, you put the soup into the bowl and mix with the noodles thoroughly, loosening the strands so they will not stick together.

If you are not eating it right away, you will find that the noodles will all stick together in a clump and adding the soup to it does not really help. I would drain the noodles and rinse it well and then I would put it in water to get the strands loose and separate them…

Repeat till the water is clear and once I am happy enough, I would drain the noodles well and move on to the next step.

If I am serving the mee sua dry, I would put the noodles back into some hot/boiling water to heat it up – I am sure nobody enjoys cold noodles (though there are those served with ice in some cuisines). After that, I would toss the mee sua after draining it really well with all the ingredients like what I had that day when I cooked the aforementioned pack with Bovril garnished with thinly sliced omelette, chili and spring onion. See how the strands stand out singly, not sticky and all stuck together…

Of course you would not need to “reheat” the noodles if you are having it with piping hot traditional Foochow red wine chicken soup. It will do the job for you.

I sure enjoyed my Bovril mee sua…

…that morning – come to think of it, I have not had it for sometime and that bottle of shallot oil sure came in handy.

Something for myself…

Last Thursday was a public holiday so I told my girl we would go out for lunch and of course, this time around, unlike that place we went to that day, we chose a less crowded place where social distancing would not be a problem.

When we got there, I was kind of disappointed that they had not put out the tables and chairs on the covered pavement outside – it is rather dim inside, not ideal for great-looking photographs plus I am not all that fond of air conditioning and would prefer the fresh air outside.

My girl wasted no time at all in placing her order for the mutton biryani (RM21.00)…

In her own words, she would always order the biryani rice everytime we drop by her – she loves it so much and we could order whatever we want. Well, the last time we were here in February before COVID-19, she had it with their Indian butter chicken curry so this time around, she went back to what she used to order all the time before – the lamb curry.

I saw this (RM13.50)…

…in their menu and even though the very nice and friendly lady waiting at the table did not seem too enthusiastic about it – it’s just omelette with cheese and garam masala, she said – I insisted on ordering that to try. They also have omelette in their Indonesian menu and according to her, that one is just plain omelette, nothing more, nothing less. Well, I’m afraid the lady was right. It sure wasn’t anything to get excited about, nowhere near our very lovely Peranakan/nyonya cincaluk omelette.

I remember I had their beef rendang a long time ago (in October, 2018) and I felt like having it again so that was what I ordered for myself (RM17.50)…

…and yes, it was good and I enjoyed it very much except that it used to be dry (and was served more impressively in a cabbage leaf) and did not have this much gravy. In a way, I was quite happy it was so as the gravy went great with the rice which would have been kind of dry without it.

On our last visit, my missus declared that the servings here were too huge and on our next visit, she would want to share with one of us as without fail, whenever we dropped by here, she would not be able to finish her order and I would have to clean it all up for her. Unfortunately, she obviously did not remember that and ordered her regular – the kalio ayam (RM14.50)…

…for herself.

My girl could not finish her lamb so I had to help her with the last chunk but I just could not eat anymore (after all, I had to eat that omelette all by myself) so when the mum could not finish the last piece of chicken, I told her to just leave it there. In the end, she finished the chicken and left some of the rice behind. Actually, we could have ordered another plate of rice and shared the rendang – that would be just nice for two and don’t forget, we had the omelette too that day.

The bill came up to RM79.50 – I paid the boss two RM50 notes and he gave me, after a little discount, RM25.00 change. That sure was a delightful lunch and seeing how the place was not crowded, no problem keeping a safe distance from the other customers, we sure would love to drop by again.

The 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.

Make yourself…

I love lo mai kai (糯米雞) which to me, basically, is the Hokkien chang minus the bamboo leaf wrapping. For reasons unknown, it is not available here or at least, not in the way that I like it.

I managed to buy one at a bakery here in 2013…

…but in my own words in the blogpost on it, “I would not mind having them again though I would not go out of my way to buy them – they’re definitely not THAT good.“

They had this…

…at a popular restaurant in town though I am not sure if they still have their dim sum in the morning or not, especially during these troubled times. I guess it is pretty obvious from the photograph that what they had there was completely different from the ones that I would be more familiar with.

Likewise, the lotus leaf-wrapped ones…

…at this restaurant that has the best dim sum in town aren’t quite the same either.

I absolutely loved the nyonya lo mai kai…

…here but when I went again, I was informed that they had taken it off the menu as it was not selling well and since they had to make quite a lot at one time, they all had to be thrown away. Well, they closed down the place as well, eventually.

I don’t think I’ve seen it anywhere else, nice or otherwise so I guess should we feel like eating it, we would just have to make our own and that was exactly what my missus did.

She said that she browsed through some videos online to get a rough idea as to how to go about it but she was doing it her own way. Most would use chicken but she used pork instead and there was ginger in some but she decided to use shallots and garlic only. We had run out of lap cheong (Chinese sausage) in the house so she had to do without that. I mentioned to her in passing that it should be the same as how her mum used to make her Hokkien chang except that she would not need to wrap them in those bamboo leaves.

Well, this was how it turned out in the end…

I don’t know what recipe she followed but she only managed to make 6. It did seem like quite a lot of work and if I were her, I would double everything and make 12. We can always keep them in the fridge and steam to heat up and enjoy and eat them slowly one by one.

She layered the inside with a piece of the bamboo leaf…

…that is usually used to wrap those bak changs for the special fragrance and yes, I would say that it…

…was very nice. I guess this would have to do to appease the craving until the next time she decides to make them again.

That’s all right, mama…

The Mooncake Festival is on October 1st this year, still over a month away but my good friend has been busy making her own and showing off her beauties via photographs and videos on Facebook and on Youtube and some have already been blogging about it.

No, I’ve not gone out to buy and no, like in previous years, I will not bother as most, if not all, will be way too expensive. Over RM10.00 or a whole lot more each – imagine how many plates of kampua mee I can have with that kind of money and derive a whole lot more enjoyment from them! It is absolutely ridiculous the way some people will bank in on tradition to squeeze the people dry so much so that they will think twice about preserving the customary practice, their heritage. Of course if there are some kind and generous souls out there who would like to give this poor ol’ warga emas (senior citizen) some to nibble, he shall be most grateful. Hint! Hint! LOL!!!

Well, my sister dropped by my house the other morning to give me these…

…to try, homemade by somebody who calls herself The Bento Mama. I see she has included the Moon Rabbit in the packaging – if you do not know the significance of those bunnies, you can click this link and read all about it in my 2018 blogpost. I did mention something about it there.

It is not the traditional kind of skin nor the rich and buttery and crumbly Shanghai ones( 上海月饼), more like the skin in phong peah or heong peah…

…and inside, one had the red bean paste (or tao sar) and the other, pandan lotus filling and what was so special about these mooncakes was the fact that inside, you will find a layer of mochi and a layer of meat floss plus a layer of salted egg yolk…

I would say it was nice even though I am not a fan of the skin but I would much sooner go for this than the snow-skin ones or worse, agar-agar. Unheard of! We never had those in my growing up years.

I don’t know how one can place an order for these or whether there are others available. I suppose one can PM them via their Facebook page or call them using the number given but I would prefer to stick to the traditional ones that I grew up eating – the traditional skin with or tau sar (red bean paste) though I am more fond of pek tau sar (mung bean paste) or lotus paste these days with or without a salted egg yolk or two.

Take it or leave it…

If anyone is wondering what I was doing in the vicinity of this café that morning, actually, I went with the intention of dropping by this place there to buy their very nice beef pies that I had before there here and here and yes, I remember I did buy some before to enjoy at home too.

Yes, they…

…were still nice.

The pastry reminded me of my favourite Kai Joo Lane meat pastries in Kuching but the filling…

…this time around was kind of dry, not as moist and as nice as before – this is quite obvious if you compare with the ones in the photos in my earlier posts – but generally, I would say they were still good even for RM1 more. Yes, the price had gone up to RM10.00 since that last time I had it, only RM9.00 then.

The chicken is RM8.00 but no, if it is chicken that I want, I would much sooner go here for the very nice ones at half the price, only RM4.00 each…

Many years ago, we had this outlet of the Kuching pie franchise here but it closed down after a while and at one time, they were selling their pies at this place here but that too didn’t last too long. No, it wasn’t because the pies were not good – yes, I would say  that I like these present ones more but those were pretty decent. I know a guy here, formerly PR Australia but home for good – he would go time and time again to buy those pies to enjoy. I guess he missed those frozen ones that one could easily buy at any supermarket there – I’ve tried a few and yes, some of those were pretty good.

Too bad we can’t get those here now – there’s an outlet of that pie shop at the Kuching International Airport, that much I know and we used to buy frozen beef pies at one supermarket in Kuching though I have not heard of the folks there doing that anymore these days. Unfortunately, for us here in Sibu, we do not have much of a choice – when it comes to beef pies, we’ll just have to take it or leave it.

OUTRIGHT COFFEE (2.290978, 111.820996) is located at 24B , Jalan Lau King Howe, at the end of the first block of shops immediately behind the Lau King Howe Memorial Museum and AROMA BAKERY (2.311151, 111.831515) is located at No. 36 (G/F), Taman Damai along Jalan Dewan Suarah, the second shop in the block on your right as you enter from Jalan Melur, after the Maju Tyre shop.