Seafood…

I have not gone to the central market here in Sibu since the outbreak of the pandemic last year so it has been over a year now. They are very strict with the SOP’s when anyone wants to enter but I do not fancy how everyone is free to move around as it pleases them and physical distancing seems to be the last thing on their minds. Lately I have noticed a lot of pork shops opening here and there all over town and other than those, now stalls selling fish and other seafood are popping up everywhere too.

I do not have a problem buying these from the shops in my neighbourhood so I see no reason to go to the central market at all and lately, I’ve been buying seafood from one stall located by the side of the building where this shop, hotel and food court are located. It will only open when there is a fresh supply of fish, prawns and what not and I was delighted to see it was open when I went over very early the other morning on Good Friday at around 6.40 a.m.

The lady boss and the workers were very busy taking out all the fish and everything and arranging them nicely at the stall. There was only one other customer that early, a lady so there was physical distancing and everyone was wearing masks.

My girl loves sotong (squid) so I bought some and we had that…

…cooked with assam (tamarind) and kunyit (turmeric) for dinner that evening. We were fasting and abstaining from meat the whole day so this was indeed a lovely treat.

I bought 2 kilos of the bigger ones…

…selling for RM20.00 a kilo. There were small ones but my missus does not like like those as cleaning them would be such a chore and will take like forever, the same reason why I am not fond of buying those small pek hay (seawater prawns).

There was enough for two servings like this…

…and I did ask my missus to pack a few in small packets so we can drop them into our instant noodles or use to fry vegetables like how we use prawns for this same purpose.

I did not buy any prawns as we still have those in the freezer but I was thrilled to bits when I saw some ikan terubok – the lady said their season is starting at this point in time – and I wasted no time in grabbing two of them. She also had some phak thik poh, literally translated as the blacksmith’s wife (tripletail fish or patipok or kuku laut in Malay, 打铁婆，松鲷 in Chinese), but they were way too big. She said that I could buy half, RM20 a kilo for the top and RM25 for the bottom. Of course I wanted the bottom – for reasons unknown, my girl loves the tail when it comes to fish. I told her to cut it into slices so we would be able to just fry and serve.

Once I was done, I made my way home, feeling really pleased with my loot that morning.

The fish stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at the end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) 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.