Ouch…

I was at my neighbourhood fruit & vegetable sundry shop the other day looking for some fruits that I could buy.

The local ones did not tickle my fancy and there wasn’t much left of the imported ones, just some red grapes plus a few kiwi fruits and avocadoes – I still have the latter two in my fridge. The lady boss said I would have to wait till the next shipment – I sure hope we are spared of the problem with the shipping and transportation that is causing a shortage worldwide, leaving the shelves at the supermarkets empty!

Anyway, while I was in the shop, my attention was attracted to this packet of bak kua (barbecued meat slices)…

…by its bright red colour.

Unfortunately, except for a sprinkling of a few Mandarin characters, there wasn’t much else on the packet so I had to ask the lady boss for more information about it. Of course, she said it was very nice and was selling well…and she did tell me that it was homemade by someone in Kuching.

In the end, I decided to just buy a packet to try and upon reaching home, I took it all out and was going to cut the slices into little squares to store in a Nescafe bottle to enjoy slowly. However, I found that they were all individually vacuum-packed…

…so I decided to just open one…

…first to try.

It was very nice, not too sweet like some and not too hard either. Lately, I have been having problems with my teeth and gums especially when eating something hard like meat that is a bit tough but no, I was fine with this bak kua. Another thing that I liked was how it was easy to open to take it out – I had some difficulty with some brands that required a bit of heating up in a microwave or whatever. Those were such a nuisance and anyway, I do not have one!

I did not feel a thing when I paid for it, RM45.00 for a packet but when I took everything out and counted…OUCH!!! There were only 9 slices inside, RM5 EACH!!! I thought that was VERY expensive!!! I never counted the number of slices in a packet of those celebrated ones from KL or Singapore so I cannot make a comparison but this much I can say – those do not come cheap either. No wonder I see everybody making their own these days, especially come Chinese New Year!

It was quite a big slice though, too big for one sandwich but cutting it into smaller pieces, it would be just nice for 6 mini-sandwiches. I tried it with cheese and also with egg but no, I did not think I enjoyed those. I loved it plain in buttered toast, that’s all.

However, even though I did like it, I don’t think I shall be buying it again or at least, not this soon. In the meantime, I hope to drop by this pork shop to buy this…

Photo from their Facebook page

…and try.

This is one of their outlets here, the one not far from my house, that pork shop franchise that has branches all over the state. They claim that they export their meat to Singapore and of course, that speaks volumes of the quality of what they sell – that little red dot is very strict about what they import, food, in particular. Let me finish this one that I’ve bought first!

SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket.