Gosh!!! It had almost been one year ago when we last dropped by here, on New Year’s Day, 2021.
Well, I had to go to town again the other day to stock up on my prescriptions – yes, it had been a month already – so I asked my girl if she would like to go some place for a nice lunch and we agreed to drop by here for the things we loved so well and had not had for such a long time.
Of course, we had her favourites, their sweet and sour fish fillet…
…and their lemon chicken…
…which we feel is the best in town!
For our vegetable dishes, we wanted midin (wild jungle fern) but they did not have that but they had paku (a different variety) so we had that, ching chao (plain fried)…
…instead. Actually, we wanted it fried with belacan (dried prawn paste) but it came out like this and because it was very nice, we just let it be.
We also had the cangkok manis fried with egg…
…and for the soup, we had the Foochow tauhu tear (bean curd soup with canned oysters)…
Everything was so nice and we sure enjoyed ourselves to the max especially when we had not dined out like this for such a long time, such a welcome change from our day-to-day routine.
I paid RM70.00 for the 5 dishes for the 3 of us and I would say for the amount of pleasure derived, it was worth it. Usually, I would have to fork out around RM50-60.00 for a meat dish, vegetable and soup but this time round, I insisted on ordering more to buang gian (appease the craving) and I did not bother to ask them to cook for two – the smaller servings would be enough to go round and it would be cheaper this way.
Of course, the prices have gone up and I am sure it is no exception here. Their fried noodles, usually 50 sen more than elsewhere, is now RM5.50 a plate…
…and with the extra char siu that we would always ask for, the total would be a whooping RM6.00.
Obviously, nobody cared as when we got there at around 11, the place was full so we had to sit at one of the vacant tables on the pavement outside. The lady boss said we would not have to wait too long as they were all having their fried noodle dishes and true enough, before our orders were served, they had all finished eating and left so we adjourned inside where there was just another table that was occupied, also a family of three but with one little kid also having their lunch there.
Y2K CAFE (2.294220, 111.825753) is located in the Tunku Osman area, round the corner from that block of shops where the branches of AmBank & RHB Bank are located with its back entrance facing the side (right, not the main one) entrance/exit of Methodist Secondary School.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I feel like I had seen this dishes before from your old posts becuase of that fern dish that I direly miss
Yes, they are our favourites – we will order everytime we drop by here but we never had that fern here. We usually had the midin, a different variety, more crunchy. Imagine, it has been a year! We stay home most of the time because of the pandemic, never eat out, that is why!
Happy New Year! Here’s to a better one in 2022~
…and the same to you and all your loved ones!
Wow, all my favourites. Very homey type of food that suits me. RM70 is for
5 dishes is reasonable. Indeed a very welcome change from the usual and most importantly you get to enjoy what you love. As for me, I did go out for dinner with my family few days ago, the very first time after long 2 years of hiding at home…😂😂
Aha!!! So you were just like us. Frankly we did not feel all that comfortable. I would prefer tapao-ing and taking back to enjoy in the comfort of one’s own home but some things are best eaten on the spot, piping hot from the kitchen.
I am tempted to try cangkuk manis and the fern that you had. I have never had that…they are not common. Exotic I would say.
You can get the stunted sayur manis from Sabah there, usually served by the side with pan mee soup and paku pakis is common there too. The problem is with midin, our most popular wild jungle fern – dunno why you cannot get that over there.
What are your New Year’s plans?
Planning to go out some place for dinner. Not going to cook our own at home – even a simple dinner like what we had for Christmas that day turned out to be quite a lot of work, especially all that cleaning and washing and don’t get me started on the preparation, the cooking. I did not think it was worth all that trouble.
I feel the same way! All of that prep and cleaning for something that disappears in minutes!
Yes, especially that “disappears in minutes” bit. Made me wonder if it was worth it.
The first 3 dishes are our favourite too. We seldom have cangkok manis cooked this way and would love to try the bean curd soup. True, prices have gone up from 50 cents or more.
This is the standard recipe for cooking cangkok manis here, Chinese Foochow-style. I don’t think there is any other way. The Malays may fry it with pumpkin or cook masak lemak with it. The bean curd soup is also Foochow style, cooked with canned oysters. They tell me they can only get the oysters in Sibu, nowhere else.
Missed going out and dine out with my family, enjoying those nice dishes. No fancy dinner today, just simple homecooked.
Happy New Year to you and family.
Thank you and the same to you and yours.
We just got home from an early New Year’s Eve dinner, will blog about it – I want to give my missus a break. At least she can just eat and enjoy, no need to slave in the kitchen before and after dinner. Not worth all that trouble, I feel.
I love sweet and sour too. Be it chicken, pork or fish.
But I don’t like it with too much gravy cos then the meat will get soggy very quickly.
They were so generous with the lemon chicken sauce too.
In my little kampung, they only give you a very thin but thick (as in consistency) lemon sauce.
Always ready made sauce though, hardly seen any fresh made ones like yours.
Oh I didn’t know “mani cai” is also called cangkuk manis.
We all call it “mani cai” in my little kampung. But I don’t think we use it in fried eggs that often though.
Usually cook the leaves in soup with ikan bilis.
Again, we don’t have paku either. We have kangkong, which I miss so much in England.
Yes, that was true of the fish. Towards the end, it was not so nice and crispy anymore. Must eat very fast. The chicken was all right, good till the end. I think the Malays here cook mani cai with ikan bilis here, we never do that…and they do not tear the veg so it is not so sweet, not nice.