The other day, my girl had something on in school so I dropped her off and headed to the town centre just to look around. Gosh!!! It was so very busy and there were so many people, so many cars like nothing had happened. It sure did not look like there had been a pandemic, not at all.
Well, just like before, it was quite impossible to find a parking space but after driving round a couple of times, I managed to squeeze in between two huge vehicles into one that happened to be vacant at the time, right in front of this coffee shop…
I decided to check out that stall selling ethnic cuisine there…
…to see what might tickle my fancy.
No, she did not have any babi hutan (wild boar). As far as I know, she used to get her supply from Kapit but now that the inter-town road has been completed, I am not sure whether those express boats…
…are still running or not as those used to be the main form of transportation, don’t know now.
She did have pansoh manok (chicken cooked in bamboo) but I am not fond of that as they always use those lao kay boh (old mother hen/chickens that have served their time, no longer producing eggs). The meat is tough and more often than not, I could detect an unpleasant smell that would put me off right away.
In the end, I just bought RM5.00 worth of the daun bandong/empasa/ubi (tapioca leaves)…
…and the sambal petai (stink beans), RM5.00 of that too…
I must say that they are not very generous at those ethnic stalls – for RM5.00, I only got about a handful of each.
The cangkok manis with pumpkin looked good…
…but I decided to give it a miss.
As soon as I was done, my handphone rang. My girl had finished doing what she had to do so I had to go and get her, no time to roam around or do much else. We headed home and had the two vegetable dishes for our lunch and dinner. I would say that even though there wasn’t much, there was enough to buang gian (appease my craving). I sure enjoyed them…a lot!
RUAI AKU CAFE is located below Eden Inn (2.285223, 111.831256) along Jalan Maju to the right of Hai Bing Coffee Shop/Seafood Restaurant, right across the road from the Rejang Esplanade.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Same too over here in Kuching. Like nothing has happened and everyone is loose and free. They forgot we are now living with the virus. Yay, I love those sambal petai and cangkok manis with pumpkin but I have never eaten tapioca leaves before. Wonder how is the taste and if they are “siap siap”.
No, when they pound them till really fine, they will not be siap siap. I know people simply “gosok” like washing clothes – I do not like it like that.
Cases on the rise again. People should be worried but nobody seems to care! Sad.
I like daun bandung. Will never miss it if ever I come across any at the fast food stalls.
They have? Not here, I think except at this ethnic stall. I remember I did see at a fast food place at Sarawak Plaza in Kuching – at first, I thought it was kacang ma chicken. Turned out to be daun bandung…but also nice!
Oh we don’t have many Orang Asli tribes in Johor.
I have not tried their food before.
Truth be told, I have never met an Orang Asli in the peninsula before, much less eat the food!
Maybe there are not as many as the Dayaks here in Sarawak. The Ibans are the majority here, the largest group among all the races…more than the Chinese and the Malays but for reasons unknown, in Sibu, there is just this one place where I can buy their culinary delights.
There is another one, a classier cafe-like place that is very popular – it opened its own place in the midst of the pandemic so of course, I have not gone to check it out. Looks good, lots of people have shared photos on Facebook.
that cangkok manis looks yum! 🙂
One of our favourite vegetables, very sweet…which explains the name “manis” (sweet in Malay).
Those express boats look cool! I’ll have to learn more about them!
We depended on our rivers for transport. Getting less and less as more roads are built, may become a thing of the past, extinct soon. Sad.
We’re finding a similar situation over here. A bit scary when people are not taking proper precautions.
The news is saying that cases are on the rise again. Some doctor is warning about a December surge or something!!! Scary!!!