Make no mistake…

I blogged about the laksam that I bought that day and much to my surprise, many said they had not heard of it before and some even thought it was a typing error and I had actually intended to type laksa instead.

No, I did not make a mistake – it is called laksam and according to Wiki, it is called laksei in Kelantan and laksang in Terengganu. However, all this while, I thought it was Kelantanese in origin but it is mentioned in that same website that this very nice Malaysian delight is actually from Terengganu.

I also mentioned in my blogpost the other day that my girl loved it so much and wanted to save the remaining pack for lunch/dinner so the mum did not get to enjoy her own pack and only managed to try a little bit of it. That was why I went back to the stall last Saturday morning to buy a whole lot to keep in the fridge and heat up to enjoy as and when we feel like it.

To do so, I would bring the thick and rich fish gravy…

…to a boil first before I put in the chee-cheong-fun-like rolled rice noodles…

…and lastly, I placed the raw vegetables…

…on top to heat them up a bit before pouring everything into a bowl and adding the chili…

…to serve it piping hot.

If you look carefully at the raw vegetables, you can see the very thinly sliced cabbage, onion, long beans and cucumber plus a bit of torch ginger flower (bunga kantan) which gives it that very delightful fragrance and traces of cili padi. The gravy is made using mashed fish so you may detect bits of it while you are enjoying the laksam…

Inicidentally, it seems that the stall is only open on weekends – Saturday and Sunday from 7.00 a.m. onwards.

NASI KERABU ASLI KELATE (2.311303, 111.820699) is located to the extreme left of the stalls at Pelangi Food Kiosks in front of Wisma Azra, Jalan Kampung Nangka.

I’m not there anymore…

Yes, I think the son, my ex-student, did mention to me that they were not here anymore and they have moved to a new location…

I first tried the father’s kampua mee when he was here but I found it kind of sticky and not to my liking. The second time I got to try it was at their restaurant and I liked it very much. However, for no particular reason, I never got to go back there for more but the other morning, I decided I would drop by to check their current place out.

It certainly is not as elaborate and lavish as the previous place but I like it this way – simple and nice. They had the SOP “counter”

– initially, I did not see the temperature thing on a stand by the side so I went to take my seat. A guy came running instantly with the record book for me to write down my details and I went to get my temperature checked for the record. There are places around town that are not bothered to have all this or there are some that will have everything there but they do not care whether or not you observe the SOP or not.

I was going to a grocery store that day and I noticed that the coffee shop next door was packed with people. When I was done, as I was walking back to the car, I saw everyone scrambling for their lives!!! In the distance, I saw two police officers, one male and one female, walking this way. I don’t know if the coffee shop people bothered to provide all those things for the SOP or not and if they did, probably, none of those people bothered to observe it.

I was early and there was this young man…

..manning the stall. I never saw him before so I wouldn’t know whether he was one of the sons or anyone related to the family in any way but he was very pleasant, very nice and so was everybody at the coffee shop.

I ordered the kampua mee, white (RM3.50)…

…which was all right, very old school, very authentic, very original. I thought it was a little on the dry side so probably a bit more oil would be good.

I also asked for the soup (RM6.00)…

…which was all right too except that I was not all that fond of their pian sip – the texture of the skin was kind of chewy and it was not all that thin plus the filling did not excite me either. The soup, however, had a light hint of the traditional Foochow red wine, not overpowering, not too strong and they gave this lovely chili dip…

…to go with it.

No, I wouldn’t say it’s anything to get excited about, not anything that would get me running back for more…but yes, it may be considered if you happen to be in the vicinity, alongside this one and this one and a few more in that area of shops.

SIONG KEE RESTAURANT (2.293794, 111.823864) is located at the far end of the Kampung Datu shops, right behind the Sibu High Court, facing the Land & Survey Department building. It may be more easily accessible if you come in via Archer Road.

It’s quite alright…

I dropped by this coffee shop in town because my girl’s ex-colleague who was in town over the weekend shared a photograph on WhatsApp of a very nice plate of rice and I wanted to check it out.

I had not been to this coffee shop for a long time and it seemed a lot nicer with all the sparkling new stainless steel stalls and all. The one I was looking for was on the extreme left of the place at the very end/furthest inside. Unfortunately, they only had nasi campur (mixed rice) and I was not interested in that even though I did see a lot of people, probably from the offices in the area, dropping by and queueing up to buy their packed lunch from there. I saw a photograph of their ayam penyet rice – that probably was what my girl’s ex-colleague was eating and showing off on social media but unfortunately, it was only available on weekends, Saturdays and Sundays.

In the end, I decided to order the rojak mamak aka as rojak thamby (Indian rojak) from this stall…

…to see if it was any good.

I had this…

…here before but I don’t think they were the same people. This one is run by a young girl – there were a few not-that-young ladies previously.

Even the cucur…

…looked very different from all the rest that we have here and there in town.

When it was served…

…I was wondering why the peanut sauce was served separately. Normally, they would just drown everything in the plate with it. They will only give it to you separately if you are tapaoing it to take home so the cucur would not be soaked in it till soft and soggy.  The girl certainly was a lot more generous with the potatoes and egg – I don’t quite remember if there was any in the one here, my favourite in town.

The peanut sauce…

…was very nice but for reasons unknown, the blanched taugeh (bean sprouts) were all underneath everything else, hidden out of sight. Somebody also ordered that and I saw the taugeh on top – it sure did look much nicer that way.

All in all, I would say it was all right even though the cucur wasn’t the way it should be and it was not all that nice, actually. I may go for it should I happen to be around there but no, I’m afraid you will not see me going out of my way to eat this.

YUMMY’s KAFE (2.293333, 111.827763) is located along Jalan Bako, right beside the Alliance Bank.

Wire…

I did say the other day when I dropped by this food court that I would go back there to try the mee dawai, literally translated as wire mee, from this stall there…

Gosh!!! Can’t they find a more flattering name for it? This is the Kuching-style fried mee – they call it crispy mee or tomato mee or crispy tomato mee there. It is called crispy mee because they fry the mee first till nice and crispy and it is known as tomato mee because of the tomato sauce-based gravy that they pour all over the mee prior to serving it. The last time I had it was when I was in Kuching for my niece’s wedding at the end of last year and I also had it earlier when I went over to attend my Kanowit ex-student’s daughter’s wedding.

When I was in college in the mid-70’s, my Foochow college mates from Sibu and the towns around here hated it and they hated the Kuching kolo mee too – they could not understand how anyone could eat those things, so hard – and needless to say, they missed our Sibu kampua mee and Foochow fried noodles so much in the two years they were there.

In 1986 in KL, or PJ Old Town to be exact, there was this restaurant/coffee shop near the cinema where I used to go and watch reruns of old movies that I could not go to see in my school days. After the movie, I would surely tapao a packet of the Cantonese fried mee to take back to the hostel and enjoy…secretly, of course – no non-halal stuff allowed in the college campus. They also fried the noodles till nice and crispy and then they poured the egg sauce (like what you get in wat tan hor) over it. Of course, by the time I ate it, it would have gone all soft, no longer crispy but yes, it was still very nice.

After I had placed my order that morning, I went snooping around to look at all the other stalls. Yes, the same people are running the Sarawak laksa stall, the father and the son – the ladies are in charge of another stall at another coffee shop in the town centre and yes, the same guy is still there at another stall selling the mantao with stewed pork (RM5.00) set…

…and I simply could not resist ordering that to enjoy. He must have mistaken me for somebody else as he insisted that I was his long lost neighbour in Sg Merah who had left town to go some place and have finally come home! Gee! I’m The Prodigal Son or what? LOL!!!

The stewed pork…

…was nice but not as nice as how my missus cooks hers – hers is not so diluted, the sauce is a bit more concentrated and sticky and has a stronger garlic and whatever taste.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it very much and considering that steamed bak paos are between RM2.00 to RM3.00 each, this (around RM1.60 each with 3 mantaos) can be considered really cheap…and especially with all that meat! I shall go back for the one with the stewed pork with mui choy (preserved vegetables) soon.

When the mee dawai (RM6.00)…

…was served, I must say I was a bit disappointed. It was a bit too watery, the noodles were drowning in the sauce which was a bit too diluted. It tasted all right but I sure would not mind a little less sauce and one that is a little thicker, a bit more concentrated – perhaps a pinch of corn starch will do the trick.

I did not like all those frozen stuff as well, the fish balls, the fish cake, the imitation crab sticks and what not. In Kuching, you would get some char siew slices, maybe a prawn/shrimp, two pieces of sotong (squid) and fresh fish slices but I do not mind not getting all those – just a bit more minced meat and green vegetables will do.

Well, beggars can’t be choosers. I don’t know of any place here in Sibu selling fried mee like this, like the ones in Kuching and thankfully, it was good enough…should one be craving for that but no, it was not so good that you would see me rushing back for more anytime soon.

23 FOOD COURT (2.297349, 111.824644) is located among the shops opposite Kin Orient Plaza (where the “old’ Sing Kwong Supermarket is) along Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg, in the vicinity of Gabriel’s Recipe – both The Coffee Code and Kampung Grandma there have closed down.

Take advantage…

The other day, the people at the fruit and food shop near my house asked me to buy these mooncakes from Sarikei…

Yes, I am quite familiar with this bakery. I would buy their lung ngor (Foochow egg cake)…

…sometimes. I wouldn’t say they’re the best but they’re good enough for me.

Their pek guek tong chiew pia (eighth month autumn festival biscuit), the Foochow Mooncake Festival biscuits…

…are not to my liking though (I prefer another brand, also from Sarikei) as theirs do not contain lard but as far as I know they’re very well-marketed, available even in Kuching. I guess most people are not that fussy about what they eat – as long as it is nice, that is good enough for them.

Inside the paper wrapping, the mooncakes are wrapped in plastic…

Now, that was not what we had in my younger days. In the past, they would be wrapped with white paper – which, of course, is a whole lot more environment-friendly than using plastic. Personally, I feel kite paper is a good substitute.

This is the pek tau sar (mung bean paste)…

I don’t know if this was available when I was small – probably not. Every year, my dad would buy home the or tau sar (the black red bean paste) ones for us to enjoy…and those Foochow Mooncake Festival biscuits, of course. There was another variety, the mixed nuts with bits of pork fat and whatever inside. Nobody liked that so my dad never bought any home. These days, there are all kinds available, most of which have strayed so far from what would be traditionally acceptable. I would go for the lotus paste ones, with or without salted egg yolk – we never had that either in the past.

There are four inside so at RM14.00 a tube, that works out to RM3.50 each. That, of course, is a whole lot cheaper than those ridiculously astronomical prices that we have to fork out for those renowned names brought over from the peninsular but still, that got me thinking.

If one tau sar peah is 80 sen a piece and if we stack two, one on top of the other, that will be RM1.60 altogether. Since the filling is the same, both pek tau sar, what is it in the skin or the process of making these mooncakes that justifies the price? Are they jumping on the bandwagon, taking advantage of the festival and cashing in on the special occasion to make more than they should? If that is what they are doing, may God forgive them!!!

This is my favourite Sibu homemade one…

…which is even more expensive, RM6.00 each but one can feel the difference in the quality, how fine the filling and skin are. I enjoyed them last year and I liked them so much that when I went over to Kuching, I even bought some for my uncle and cousins and their families there. They were not available earlier and even when they just made their appearance the other morning, there weren’t many to choose from when I dropped by – hopefully, the one making will come out with my favourite, the hēi zhīma (黑芝麻) – black sesame, soon.

Surprisingly, my girl is not that enthusiastic about these nicer ones from Sibu – she likes the cheap(er) Sarikei ones even though she is not really a fan of the Bintangor tau sar peah. I guess those are the ones that I shall be buying from now on for the festival.

These mooncakes are available at SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to the Bethel Hair Salon at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket.

Too blue…

On Sunday morning at around 7.30 a.m., I drove to the lovely rainbow stalls at Kampung Nangka…

…because I saw on Facebook a whole lot of promotion going on showcasing the nasi kerabu here…

I wish they had not put up those ghastly-looking canopy and banners as they kind of spoiled the pleasant appearance and the uniformity of the place as a whole. I can imagine everyone eventually putting up everything of their own and in the end, the whole place would become one terrible mess, overshadowing all the beautiful stalls and their vibrant colours. What a waste!

From what I saw on Facebook, they would open at 7.00 a.m. but when I got there, it looked like they had just arrived and were very busy unloading everything from the car.

I saw these tofu sumbat (stuffed tofu)…

…and these green sandwiches, egg and sardine…

I wonder where they got the pandan bread or at least that was what I thought it was, judging from the green colour. I don’t think I’ve seen any around or maybe I wasn’t looking.

I spotted the laksam (RM5.00 a pack)…

…and wasted no time in grabbing three to take home.

I waited for them to unload everything and it was already around 8.00 a.m. when they were ready to roll. There were two or three others who were there before me so they started doing their orders first…

I wouldn’t say they were all that fast so I had to carry on waiting for quite a while.

In the meantime, I went snooping around and I was aghast when I saw the rice…

It was way too blue, clearly not the nice and pleasant hue of blue when one uses the butterfly pea flower (bunga telang), horror of horrors! The artificial colouring even stained the side of the plastic container! I will never forget that one time when I ate something like that and for three days, what came out was that same colour. Tsk! Tsk! I never went back to that shop ever again!

Of course, I quickly cancelled my order for 3 packs – don’t expect to go home with that horrendously blue thing but yes, I did buy the laksam that I had requested for earlier. Thankfully, it was really very very nice, definitely the best that I have ever tasted…

…not that I have had many.

The chee cheong fun-like white rice rolls were simply perfect, not hard, not chewy, very nice and though the gravy was a bit diluted, it had enough mashed fish in it to give the desired taste. In my opinion, too much fish may put off some people who are not so into the fishy taste and smell, this one was just right! I could also detect the fragrance of the torch ginger added and all in all, I would give it a 5 out of 5.

When my girl got up, she had a pack for brunch and she loved it so so much that she said she would reserve the remaining pack for dinner. In the end, the mum only got to try a bit of what she had and yes, she too said it was good! I certainly would want to go back and buy some more and it sure looks like I shall have to buy extra next time.

NASI KERABU ASLI KELATE (2.311303, 111.820699) is located to the extreme left of the stalls at Pelangi Food Kiosks in front of Wisma Azra, Jalan Kampung Nangka.

Teach me…

In the good old days, nobody went to schools or colleges to learn the culinary arts.

If it was a family business, they helped out at the shop or stall and picked up the skills from their parents or elders, the ones who would teach them everything. If they were working for somebody, they would start from the bottom with the menial tasks like peeling and slicing onions, cutting the vegetables and what not and with the teaching and guidance from their peers and seniors, they eventually graduated into the actual cooking.

No, there were no qualified or certified chefs then, no Michelin stars, nothing – just real hard work, sweat and toil and true grit but were they able to dish out really awesome dishes? That, of course, goes without saying and some of the dishes were so good that none today, even with their list of credentials, could replicate.

All this came to mind when we went out for dinner here…

…last Friday night to celebrate my girl’s birthday.

This is the sparkling new branch of this old place…

…that has been around for such a long time but nothing has changed there since Day 1, this dark, unimpressive place with no decor whatsoever to shout about but what it lacked in appearance, it more than made up for it with the awesome dishes they serve here, notably its crabs – second to none. Why, as a matter or fact, my West Malaysian blogger-friends loved it so much and chose it to be, in their opinion, the best in town!

The new place is very nice, very spacious – I love its simplicity, not horrendously over-decorated like some places and it is so white, so clinically clean. They do not have a lot of tables, those marble top ones with simple but beautifully-designed chairs, which I feel is a good thing at this point in time. Even if they had a full house, there would still be a lot of spaces in between the tables to swing a cat! There were at least 10 tables that night but it did not feel like there were so many people – otherwise, I would have left and gone some place else.

Of course we HAD to have the crabs and for a change, I ordered the Singapore chili crab (RM120.00)…

…instead of their usual style that everyone here is very familiar with. I asked what their going price for crabs was and the young man said RM120.00. Gosh!!! And I thought what I bought that day at RM80.00 a kg was expensive – and those were huge ones. What we had that night were rather small, nothing much to eat and it certainly did not taste anything like those very nice ones I had way back in 1973 at Bedok or Changi with French baquette to dip into the wonderful gravy to enjoy.

No, we did not have any of those loaves, just golden-fried mantao (RM4.00 for a set of 4)…

Well, there were 6 of us so I had to request for 2 sets so there would be enough to go round.

According to the guy, this is the chef’s signature dish, his golden beancurd (RM15.00)…

…and yes, we all thought it was nice. The tofu was yellowish, not white, inside so my guess was that it was their own-made egg tofu or what people call Japanese tofu. I would say that it was like something you can expect at a classy Chinese restaurant, most likely in a hotel or some Hong Kong franchise – not that great but not entirely all that shabby either.

Their Thai-style Mango three-layer pork (RM20.00)…

…was all right but nowhere near the Thai-style mango chicken here – that one there is definitely a class above this one. Why, this one did not even look half as nice. As a matter of fact, for a place like this, I would expect more effort in their presentation, not the dump-in-the-plate-and-serve impression that I got.

My girl said the salty crusty prawns (RM58.00)…

…were nice but the rest felt there are a lot of places around town that can do it a whole lot better than this and a whole lot more cheaply too even when they use those huge udang galah (freshwater prawns) like this place here.

We had two vegetable dishes, the baby kai lan, ching chao/fried plain (RM15.00)…

…and the sambal kangkong (RM15.00)…

…both of which I did not get to try as there were so many things to eat but the ladies said they were o.k.

They also loved the zao cai fresh fish soup (RM25.00)…

…but good grief!!! It was so so so very sour that I had a sip and left the rest in the bowl. My brother-in-law shared the exact same sentiments. I guess guys do not like sour things all that much but honestly, if it was dependent on the preserved vegetables for its sour taste, it would not be so sour, no way! I don’t know what was added to it and personally, I did not think it tasted anything like our traditional Foochow zao cai soup, far from it!

While we were eating, I saw the chef stepping out of the kitchen to have a look at the customers enjoying what he had dished out. He was dressed in his white chef uniform, complete with his tall chef hat. I am quite sure he has all the formal qualifications of a chef to show but I’m afraid I did not think what we had that night, on the whole, was anything to shout about, nothing to get us rushing back for more.

The aforementioned guy, who took our orders, happened to be that same guy at the very nice chicken rice place (they’re all inter-related, one way or another) and he did ask me how the food was and I was very straightforward and honest in my reply, “Much nicer at the old place!” Indeed, what we can get there or at any cheap restaurant or chu char (cook & fry) stall in a coffee shop from the cooks doing all the cooking, not professional qualified chefs, would be a whole lot nicer.

It did not matter that the bill, inclusive of rice and drinks, came up to RM290.00 but I had my hopes up high, hoping that it would be so good as I wanted something really very special to celebrate my girl’s birthday. Unfortunately, what we had kind of dampened our happy mood over those two days but at least we tried and now we know. Maybe we did not know what to order as looking at the photographs on their Facebook page, some of the dishes look really good. Would we take the chance to go back there again to try? Probably not. Once bitten, twice shy!

HAI BING SEAFOOD since 1980 (2.290414, 111.820900) is located at No. 5, Lorong Lau King Howe 1. Tel. No.: 084-311975.

The day after today…

Last Thursday, the 17th of September, was my girl’s actual birthday. I am quite sure I’ve mentioned it before that as a result of a blunder on the part of the registration people, when we got the birth certificate, it was stated in it that the following day, the 18th, was the date of birth. We just left it like that and did not bother to get it rectified.

For reasons unknown, my missus went and ordered a cake from Marcus…

…to be collected on Friday afternoon and because of that, we did not plan any kind of celebration for Thursday. After all, it was a working day and so was the day after.

Actually, a few of her colleagues invited her out for dinner on Tuesday night (Wednesday was a public holiday) and there was cake and they gave her a present too – that was really sweet, so very nice of them. That is one thing that I am not accustomed to these days. In my time, if it was my birthday, I would throw a party and invite my friends to come and celebrate. It seems that they do not do that anymore. They would just wait for somebody to arrange a celebration and invite the birthday celebrant…so if nobody does that, then the special day will just go by unnoticed. So sad and so strange!

Come Thursday, the actual day, in keeping with our tradition and to preserve our cultural heritage, I went and bought a “phua chai kay” (mixed breed chicken) which, I feel, tastes a whole lot nicer than the regular ones. My missus cooked it in the traditional Foochow red wine and ginger soup and we had mee sua (string or thread longevity noodles) for lunch that day, with hard boiled eggs, of course. We couldn’t have it first thing in the morning as she would have to be in school by 6.00 a.m. to help with the SOP and what not.

The day after that day, Friday, after my missus had collected the cake – my girl wanted the blueberry – we had the cake-cutting at home and had it for tea. Needless to say, it was very very nice, simply the best, second to none. I would say that his cakes can easily put all those from the new and trendy bakeries to shame.

My brother-in-law, her uncle, and his wife sent the curry puffs from Farley, our favourite in town…

…oven-baked, with the lovely shortcrust pastry and the very nice butter cake that can give the celebrated Mita ones from Kuching…

…a run for the money except that theirs is smaller but they are only RM6.00 a loaf and my sister, her aunt and godmother, also sent presents to the house. Of course, we asked them to join us when we went out for dinner that night.

At the dinner, we brought along the cake that her good friend gave her…

…from this bakery and we had another round of cake-cutting there.

I sure am glad to say that my girl’s birthday did not go by unnoticed – that would be very sad, wouldn’t it?. Do stick around – I shall be blogging about the dinner in tomorrow’s post.

You can order a special homemade MARCUS’ CAKE via telephone at 084-311333 and collect it on the day at the time agreed upon from his house at No. 6B. Lorong Delta 3, Delta Estate (2.305015, 111.826185).

Best in the west…

That morning, when I had the fried kway teow with prawns and cockles here, I saw some nice colourful boxes placed on a table by the side. When I was done, I walked over to have a look.

They turned out to be products from this place in the west of the country, Penang, to be exact. It is listed among the 5 recommended places in this website to get your Penang local products. I saw they had the celebrated tambun biscuits and something else, I can’t quite remember now, either tau sar peah or heong peah. I don’t think it’s the latter as those would usually come in big foil packs, not small dainty boxes.

However, it was this box that caught my attention, the only one left…

– their box of mooncakes…

It seems you can buy direct online from them…

…or via those online shopping websites like Lazada and Shopee. The thing is I got that box for only RM20.00 but it costs more online and if I am not wrong, the prices stated do not include shopping/postal charges.

The lady rattled through all the six different flavours of the mooncakes and I only managed to catch three – the one in the middle on the left was lotus paste…

…and on the right, there was or tao sar (red bean paste) at the top and durian…

…at the bottom.

That was why I shared the photograph of the mooncakes on Facebook to seek the help of all and sundry. The response was swift and I got all the information I wanted in no time at all. At the top on the left was the coconut and at the bottom, pandan/jade. The one in the middle on the right was white coffee.

Thankfully, they were inexpensive, quite affordable unlike the others that we get from the peninsula but generally, we were not impressed as most were rather hard and dry except for the pandan/jade. Surprisingly, the one that I thought I would like the least – the coconut and left till last turned out to be the nicest of the lot. The pandan-flavoured (green colour) grated coconut inside was not hard, not dry and tasted very nice.

The lady said this box was the last one but if anyone is interested in the other products from this renowned bakery in Penang, there were some still available at the time, dunno now.

BAN HEANG (M) Sdn. Bhd. (萬香餅家) is located at No. 200, Macalister Road in Penang and you may get some of their products here at GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163) which is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your left just before the Petronas petrol station a short distance from Delta Mall. You can also go in via Lorong Pipit 4, turning left into the lane at the junction where Starbucks Sibu is located and go straight ahead from there.

It’s so good…

I went to this bakery in the centre of town that day because I wanted to buy the mee sua.

Sure we have a lot at the shops round the corner from my house, factory packed in plastic with all kind of brands or those nameless ones sold in plastic bags. I usually buy one of those, some are good, some are all right and some may chao hoon – they have that stale smell of flour that has gone a bit off and of course, I would avoid those.

I never bought any from this bakery though and I did not know how it got into my pantry and I only saw it when it was about to expire at the end of the month. We probably got it from my sister for somebody’s birthday – they would give us the chicken soup plus the noodles and the eggs, uncooked and we probably had our own mee sua at the time so we just cooked our own.

I bought two big packs, expiring at the end of March next year – that should last for quite a while and at the same time, I grabbed two packs of these honey puffs…

…that my girl enjoys a lot. Oh? No butter in those? Never mind! They taste really great and are soft and cushiony…

They should be a bit careful when placing them on the racks after baking though as those lines look rather unsightly…

– they never had those before, always nice and smooth and round, absolutely perfect.

I also bought this flavour…

…and it was good too. They have durian as well but I don’t think anybody in the house would enjoy that.

I bought their bak pao (steamed meat bun) with egg (RM2.30)…

…once at their branch in Ulu Sg Merah, RM2.00 each only at the time and the filling sure looked a whole lot nicer. It was all right, still, a little peppery but nice – the egg was definitely a lot bigger than what you can find in paos all around town but no, I did not think it was anything to get me going back for more.

The char siew pao (RM2.00)…

… was nicer but smaller and did not have any egg inside. Wowww!!! That was only RM1.40 ten years ago in 2010. Personally, if I were to pay the same, RM2.00 each, I would much sooner go for the dim sum-like char siew paos from here – same price and so much nicer!

I saw these packs of chai kueh (RM4.50 for a pack of 5, 90 sen each)…

…on the counter beside the cash register and I asked the old lady manning the counter if they made those themselves but she said no – they were homemade and left there for sale. I asked her if they were good and she unconvincingly replied that they were quite all right.

My girl loves these but we do not get very good ones here – the skin especially is not quite there and they are never generous with the filling. Anyway, I decided to buy and try and there were two packs left so I took both.

I tried one when I got home and was VERY impressed. My missus tried TWO and started praising them to the skies. My girl was going out with some friends for dinner and did not want to try so I put them in the fridge and steamed them…

…for breakfast the next morning. The skin was so soft and smooth, so translucent that one can see the filling inside so clearly and there was hay bee (udang kering/dried prawns) in the filling too, not too much and too over-powering like the ones my cousin brought for me me once from Kuching – more like those Lulu Nyonya Kueh ones in KL that I enjoyed very much too, definitely a whole lot nicer than these more expensive ones that I bought from another bakery here – those aren’t worth a try even, I assure you.

I had another one that morning and I dunno how many the mum had but when my girl woke up and was through with it, there was none left. In her own words, “Now we know where to go and buy very nice chai kueh!”

BIG THUMB BAKERY (2.293889, 111.826492) is located at No.71-73, Jalan Tuanku Osman.