What on earth…

This place…

…is VERY new. I was quite impressed by what I saw on their Facebook page but I was avoiding the kampung area here in Sibu as there was a cluster in the neighbourhood at the time. Eventually, when it looked like it was safe to venture into those parts of the woods, I made my way there.

This was originally a seaside eatery at the beach…

…in the small town of Belawai. I did hear of people driving all the way there to buy the fish, prawns and crabs and to enjoy the nice food available. I read somewhere that this is their 3rd branch but I have no idea where the 2nd one is.

I got there past 9.00 a.m. that morning and it looked like they had just opened for business for the day. I asked the boy and he could not even give me a specific time. He just said that they would open at around 9 to 9.30 like that. There was a couple sitting inside the airconditioned section so of course, I chose not to go in there and picked a seat in the non-airconditioned area. Another couple came a bit later and they sat outside in the pavement area. I was glad there were so few customers at the time so physical distancing was not a problem at all.

I took a look at the menu but the items are so limited – for breakfast, especially. They do not even have nasi lemak! Well, at least they got the spelling…

…correct – the one officially approved by the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka but should it be ONE word or TWO? Gee!!! This is such a nuisance – much ado about nothing, if you asked me!

I asked the boy what payak means and he said prawns so of course, I wanted that. I had to wait a very long time, half an hour, at least before this…

…was served! Now WHAT ON EARTH was that? Whoever cooked that obviously needs a crash course on presentation badly to make what he or she dishes out look reasonably presentable. Well, if anyone is wondering, THAT was some very overcooked kuetiau (flat rice noodles) drowning in the sauce, so much of it that it actually looked like a soup dish!

They could have taken the few, very very tiny prawns inside and piled them on top like this…

– I counted five, all very fresh, very succulent and firm and sweet…

…but all of them were very small and they could have garnished the dish with a sprinkling of chopped spring onion and/or daun sup (Chinese celery) and a few bits of sliced fresh, red chili for a bit of colour.

The sauce tasted like what we get at home when we cook udang galah/freshwater prawns…

…or crabs with ginger and soy sauce and egg so I would not say that it was not nice, just that they could be a little bit less generous with the msg but this is definitely one way of frying kuetiau that I have never ever seen before in my entire life! A friend says that this is the Malay-style that is gaining popularity at a number of places in the country – he has tried it himself and he likes it!

It was only RM7.00 and the very watered down kopi-o (coffee, black) I had was only RM1.00 but no, if they think they will see me back there again for this, they can think again. Maybe I shall drop by round lunchtime to try their rice dishes – they did mention that they have western dishes at night but somehow, it did not get me jumping with excitement, not at all.

IFTITAH SIBU (2.308379, 111.8209780) is located at No. 55-56, Jalan Kuda, off Jalan Kampung Nangka.