Got it all wrong…

We liked the scallop siew mai so much that I made up my mind to go back to the shop and buy some more and at the same time, I also wanted to buy the other two varieties to try – my missus said there were three altogether.

However, when I got there the other morning, there was only one pack of the scallop ones left so without a second thought, I grabbed it right away. Unfortunately, there were only two packs of one other variety…

…available. Initially, I did not think it looked very nice – in fact, I had no idea what it was and I could not make head or tail out of it but in the end, I went ahead and bought a pack. As they say, we wouldn’t know unless we try.

This was what it looked like inside, frozen…

I would not say it looked very alluring and after steaming, it…

…did not look much better.

It tasted all right, much nicer than what it looked like…

…but I must say that the scallop ones had an edge over these – those were much nicer. I peeled off the layers to have a closer look and I found that underneath the green siew mai skin was a bean curd sheet…

…and wrapped inside that was some meat or fish in a nice QQ fish ball kind of texture.

This was very early in the morning before the ladies got up and I did not know that I had got it all wrong until my girl woke up and came downstairs for breakfast. “That’s bread crumbs all over it,” she said. “You are supposed to fry it!!!” Oh dear!!! How was I to know? They did not say anything in that white label/sticker, no instructions whatsoever about how to prepare it.

Well, I still have 8 more pieces in the freezer so when the time comes, we can fry those to see if it is any better that way. There were 20 in a pack (RM20.00 each, a ringgit more than the scallop ones) but these were so big and I could not fit them all into my mini-steamer so I decided to save some for another day. That was why I had a few left.

Fingers crossed, they will be very much more to our liking when done the correct way.

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.

Classic…

I used to buy their grilled chicken sandwiches…

…for my girl to enjoy. I was thinking that even at RM3.90 each, despite costing more than a plate of kampua mee, with that thick slab of chicken in it, it would be worth it, value for money. Eventually, I stopped buying because my girl said that even though it was nice, it wasn’t exactly anything spectacular that she would want to buy and eat again and again.

Well, the other morning, I was at the shop in our neighbourhood before the break of dawn and the suppliers had not delivered the stuff that they would leave there every day for sale…except these sandwiches. In the end, I decided to buy the other varieties available to give them a try.

I bought their egg mayo (RM2.90)…

…which was all right but nowhere as nice as mine as they only had the mashed egg and mayo with a sprinkling of some kind of herbs inside. The ones I make myself at home have an edge over this as I have cheese and butter in mine plus I am a lot more generous with the filling…

…and as and when available, I may add some thin slices of tomato (or cucumber) and a bit of lettuce as well.

On the other hand, this so-called classic sandwich (RM3.50)…

…turned out to be really very nice with the chicken ham and the slice of smoked cheddar cheese…

…and some lettuce in it except that I have a bone to pick over how, instead of the same, they have their egg mayo filling in the other half of the sandwich.

I liked it so much that I went back again another day and got my girl one to try and yes, she did enjoy it and yes, she thought it was nicer than the grilled chicken one.

I guess for obvious reasons, we call it chicken slices now, instead of ham, the same thing with what we get at the hotel buffet breakfast in the morning…

– sliced beef, not beef bacon any longer. In the words of William Shakespeare, “What’s in a name? A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet!” Some people are so good at making mountains out of molehills.

Well, seeing how we do enjoy this classic one, I guess I shall be buying it time and time again for breakfast or for tea. One thing that I would like to mention here is how nice the texture and the taste of their bread are, very much nicer than all the bread from so many different bakeries available at the shops in my neighbourhood.

SWEE HUNG (2.316161, 111.840441) is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to the hair salon at the extreme end.

Better than none…

I guess the one here…

…is still available and should be nice as well but I have not gone there for a long time. I’ve seen it in the list of places with positive cases so to me, at this point in time, it is best avoided. #staysafe #staywell

This one here…

…was the best in town and it was served the old school way, how we had it in our growing up years. The special sauce/dip was served separately and we had to dip everything in it as we ate. Unfortunately, he was not there for long – eventually, I found the stall closed and there was no sign of him since. I did hear that he stopped doing his business at his previous place (before he opened his stall here) because of ill health.

I did drop by this stall…

…presently at the guy’s previous location at this coffee shop…

…once but I found that it was all right, not as nice. That was why I never went back again after all these years. This is a popular coffee shop in town so it comes as no surprise at all that it has appeared in the dreaded list many times as well, the places with positive cases so I am not all that keen on going there at all.

Nonetheless, since I had not had it for so so so long, not since the outbreak of the pandemic, that’s for sure, I decided to throw caution to the wind and go there to tapao the jiew hu eng chai (sotong kangkong) home.

I told the nice young guy that I wanted to buy for 3 and he suggested buying RM15.00. That was fine by me and I made it a point to tell him to pack the kangkong separately as the moisture/steam would affect the crispiness of the fried ingredients and they would not be so nice anymore by the time I got home.

He also sells fruits rojak…

…and looking at what he made and served, I thought it looked pretty good. Perhaps I should give his a try one of these days.

For his sotong kangkong, he has some fried vegetable fritters…

…some sweet potato fritters…

…and also some fried tofu.

Other than those, the sotong (cuttlefish)…

…and the kangkong (water spinach) are boiled prior to serving.

Of course, if you are eating it there, it will all go into one plate…

…not served separately.

This…

…will be served with its special sauce/dip and that is the thing that differentiates between the boys and the men. I found that the one here was kind of pale and even though it did have that old school taste that we loved so much when we ate this in our growing up years, it was kind of watered down.

Still, since we do not have much to choose from around here, I guess it is better than none. As they say, something is better than nothing!

YALIN COFFEE SHOP (2.290902, 111.827723) is located along Jalan Kampung Nyabor, to the right of the Sibu General Post Office – the first one in that block of shops there.

I don’t like the look of it…

I quite liked their fried kway teow the other day and as I was leaving, I saw somebody having the char chu mee (炒煮面) with a poached egg in the soup and that looked really good. I made up my mind there and then to go back there one day and give it a try.

As soon as I got there that morning, I walked straight up to the stall and placed my order, no second thoughts whatsoever and soon enough, it arrived (RM5.00)…

I must say that I was very disappointed at the mere sight of it. It did not look anything like what the usual char chu mee should look like.

No, I did not expect anything looking like this…

…not with all those prawns but it should look something like this…

…at least.

No, I was not all that thrilled by all that char siew – usually, there will be just a few miserable bits of meat and if you are lucky, you may get two or three minute shrimps and I do like a bit of green vegetables (sawi) for the taste as well as the colour. Other than that, I was quite put off by all those bubbles in the soup!

However, looks aside, it did not taste too bad, not too strong on the wok hei but it was nice and I liked how there was no msg overload, a predominant feature in many of the noodle dishes around town.

Another point in their favour was how the poached egg was perfectly done…

– the yolk was still runny, exactly the way I’d like it.

I guess I’ll be back here again since it is a convenient place for me to stop by for a bite to eat but I don’t think I’ll be ordering this again. I may try something else on their menu or I’ll have something from the other stall that is there – so far I’ve had their lor mee and their mee sua, and both were pretty o.k.

GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163) is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.

Let’s go back again…

When my friend, Yan, shared the photograph of the RM3.00 kampua noodles that she had here on Facebook, she said in one of her comments that the steamed vegetable pao (bun) that she had there was very nice.

According to the lady who spoke to me, only 3 of the paos available were made by the lady boss, the lǎo bǎn niáng (老板娘), including the vegetable ones. I did try the meat ones but no, I was not that impressed – they were not the best nor were they the worst, this much I would say.

So far, the only chai pao, the steamed vegetable buns, as we call it in Hokkien, that I like is the one sold by one old lady at the central market since time immemorial – even when it was at its old location, opposite the Palace Theatre, between Market Road and High Street. Her meat buns are very nice too but of course, with the outbreak of the pandemic, I never set foot on that place so I do not know whether she is still around or not.

Seeing how the meat ones all over town have not been all that great, I thought I would give this vegetable one a try. It is not all that cheap though, RM1.80 each…

…compared to RM2.30 for the meat ones (and that can go up to RM2.80 or more elsewhere).

Inside, the filling was made up of cabbage, carrot and long beans…

…and it was a case of love at first bite! Yes, it was very very nice and I loved it so much that I asked for half a dozen (6) for me to take home.

My girl and the mum tried one each and both of them gave their thumbs up! All this while, either they never really liked the meat ones that I bought home or they could not be bothered to sing their praises.

I heated them up for tea that afternoon and had one more. The skin was so soft, eaten piping hot from the steamer, so much so that I liked it all the more. I certainly would want to go back again to buy some more from time to time.

While I was at the coffee shop, I decided to have a plate of their kampua noodles since I had not had my breakfast yet that morning. I ordered a plate of the black version…

…tossed in dark soy sauce, the way that Yan and also my friend, Annie, residing in KL, love it.

Maybe it was because I had just finished the aforementioned vegetable pao before the noodles were served so I was not that famished anymore…or perhaps it was the soy sauce that they used. It did not taste anything like what I would cook at home using the mushroom soy that we have been using for as long as I can remember (sometimes with a bit of Bovril) so I did not really enjoy it…

I did not feel like I could taste the fragrance of the lard and the shallot oil, that old school kampua noodles taste that I grew up eating and loved so well. As a matter of fact, I could not finish all of it and I did leave a bit behind.

Of course, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. While I was there, an ex-student/ex-colleague, now holding a high-ranking post in the school, stopped by to tapao the kampua noodles home. I thought he stayed nearby but no, he said his house was at one far end of town but they liked the kampua noodles here so he was buying for his family to enjoy.

For one thing, with three kids (Gosh! The eldest is already in Form 5!!!) plus his wife, 5 of them altogether, he could save RM4.00, enough for an extra plate, compared to buying the noodles elsewhere! I had a glance at what he had in the plastic bag and yes, it looked like they were all like me – with a preference for the white/pale version, tossed in chio cheng (light soy sauce). High 5!!!

MASTER BAKERY CAFE (2.306820, 111.836234) is located in the main block of shops facing the main road at No. 26, Jalan Teruntum among the shops at the Rejang Park Commercial Centre here.

Disappointing…

Last Saturday, I asked my girl if she would like to go out for lunch and she said that the last time we were here, she saw some noodle dishes on the menu that she would love to try.

I thought they had some special unique ethnic/Dayak-style noodle dishes but in the end, it turned out that my girl had this tomato kway teow (RM10.00)…

…while the mum had the mee goreng basah, fried noodles with sauce (RM9.00)…

…both quintessentially Chinese dishes. Thankfully, they were very nice but of course, there are others that are just as nice or even nicer at around half the prices elsewhere!

We liked this babi tunu, barbecued pork (RM16.00)…

…a lot the last time we were here so we ordered that again to share and yes, it was good. I loved the pickled carrot and cucumber slices by the side a lot – one of these days, I shall try to make my own!

I ordered their tempoyak (fermented durian) goreng ikan bilis (fried with dried anchovies) rice (RM9.00)…

…and as it was served, I caught a whiff of the tempoyak and the fragrance swept me off my feet. Gee! This is going to be good, I thought.

However, the excitement was short-lived because the tempoyak was sour! If I am not wrong, according to the old folks, there are a lot of pantangs (taboos) involved in the making of tempoyak or tuak (the ethnic rice wine) and even our traditional Foochow red wine like when a girl is menstruating, she is not supposed to be making the wine as it will turn sour.

I just ate as much of it…

…with the rice but in all honesty, I did not really enjoy it. It was a far cry from the one here…

– I could eat two plates of rice with that and still ask for more, believe you me!!!

I also ordered a vegetable dish, this kasam ensabi buah kepayang (RM18.00)…

…their preserved salted mustard green with what is also called buah keluak (pangium edule). I did not take note of the price in the menu, otherwise I would not have ordered that and the worse thing was it turned out to be EXTREMELY sour, everything in that plate. I just tried a bit and left the rest behind, untouched.

I enjoyed the one at this coffee shop…

…a lot – theirs was so very nice and for RM5.00, I would get enough for two meals, lunch and dinner! In fact, I would say that their vegetable dishes would win hands down…anytime!

Only my girl had a drink, their honey lemongrass (RM4.50) and the total came up to a whooping RM66.20). With that kind of money, we can go for something a lot more delightful, scrumptious and substantial, not just some noodles dishes mostly, elsewhere. Truth be told, after that disappointing experience, you can be sure that it is not at all likely that we shall be back here again, not for a long while.

MAK BORNEO (2.301301, 111.843548) is located at No, 21, Ground Floor in the block of shops behind Nam Heong Ipoh/Kim Hock Premier Food Court, Lorong 4D, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada).

Scallops…

We have one very good Chinese restaurant here – the dim sum every morning was absolutely awesome but I have not been there for years now, simply because I have not been anywhere much since the outbreak of the pandemic and other than that, I often saw it in the list of places with positive cases so it can be considered high risk, a place I would definitely avoid. I wouldn’t know how true this is but I have seen friends complaining on Facebook that the quality of the food served there has dropped lately, dunno the dim sum.

There is a stall here now but I don’t think I was all that impressed to wanna go back for more again and again. In the meantime, the other day, my missus went to the fruit & vegetable sundry shop in the next lane from my house and bought these…

They’re scallop siew mai (meat dumplings)…

…made in Rawang, Selangor and and they were so cheap! RM19.00 for a pack of 20, less than RM1.00 each! Usually, you will get three in a bamboo basket for RM4.50 at the dim sum places, RM1.50 each.

This was what it looked like…

…after it had been steamed till piping hot, with all the strips of scallop or whatever inside…

My girl thought it was crab but no, I don’t think so.

I must say that they tasted really good – all of us enjoyed ourselves, having these for breakfast that morning. I certainly would want to hop over and buy some more…and according to my missus, there are three different varieties available. I’d probably grab them all!

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.

Listening to you…

I did mention a couple of times already that I could not get hold of any pek chio/ikan bawal putih (white/silver pomfret) for our Chap Goh Meh steamboat dinner and the nice lady at my favourite fish & seafood stall suggested buying the pek hu/ikan putih (white fish) that she had already filleted…

She said it would be great for fish soup or fish noodles and when she heard that I was planning to have steamboat that evening, she said this would be perfect for it. In the end, I just listened to her.

There was quite a lot from just one fish. We already ate half that night and there was still so much left, RM31.00 for all that altogether. I don’t know what it looks like but I guess it must have been quite big.

My girl was not that keen on having claypot yam with fish – she just asked for it to be sliced and deep-fried, coated with tempura batter, served with roast potatoes by the side…

…and that was what we had that day, Friday – our no-meat day.

Yes, it…

…was very nice, very fresh and sweet, with its lovely fish texture though it wasn’t as smooth as the pek chio, no bones since those had been removed already and best of all, no fishy smell, none at all!

We enjoyed the potatoes…

…too – that, of course, is a lot healthier than having deep-fried chips or fries.

The next time I see this fish at the stall, rest assured that I shall grab it and buy it again without any second thought.

The fish & seafood 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. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan. Go straight ahead till you reach the place towards the end of that road on your left.

Giving and receiving…

On Chap Goh Meh the other day, in the morning, I dropped by my favourite fish & seafood stall here in the hope of getting hold of one pek chio/ikan bawal putih (white/silver pomfret) which, unfortunately, was not available that day. However, I did manage to get an alternative for our steamboat dinner that night and we all enjoyed it a lot.

The nice lady said she had not seen me for a long time and she went and got something she wanted to give to me. She said that her ethnic employees went home for the Chinese New Year break and when they came back, they brought a lot of things to give to her. Yes, I did speak to the boys before and yes, they did appreciate the fact that she had always been so very nice to them and they did like her a lot.

She gave me this tapioca…

…which obviously came straight from under the ground. If you buy this at the market, they probably wash it first so it is nice and clean.

I had to wash it myself, after which I peeled off the skin and cut it into chunks…

Then, I put the chunks in a pot of water, added a teaspoon of salt…

…and brought it to boil. I let it simmer until it was cooked and was soft enough before I fished it all out onto a plate…

Normally, I would eat this with a bit of sugar or gula apong (nipah sugar) but this was so nice that I could just eat it on its own, no need for anything else.

Now, I am regretting saying, “Enough lah! Enough already lah!!!” the whole time she was taking the things from her huge bag to put into a smaller one to give to me. There is this joke about our Foochow social etiquette, how it is considered good manners when somebody is giving you something to say, “Nei ah! Nei ah! (No need! No need!) Enough already!” with the hands outstretched, wide open. LOL!!!

But truth be told, that was more than enough for the three of us in the house to enjoy and other than the tapioca, she also gave me these yam…

Perhaps it would be good to cook these in a claypot with prawns and leek and everything else. We’ll see!

Before the sun rises…

I am up and about every morning way before the sun rises and on working days (weekdays), I would send my girl to work and come home at around 6.00 a.m. I bet a lot of folks would still be lost in dreamland at the time.

The problem is when one is up and about that early, there will not be a lot of things that he or she can stop to buy along the way for breakfast. Here, a few kampua mee stalls are open, just a few and one morning, I dropped by my neighbourhood fruit & vegetable sundry shop in the next lane. Yes, they were open but no, there was nothing available yet – usually, they would get some homecooked/made breakfast & teatime stuff delivered there for sale but no, they do not send them over that early…unfortunately.

On yet another morning, I decided to try my luck here…

…and yes, they were open and yes, I saw that they had some things laid out at the long table in front of the shop.

I asked about their curry puffs…

…and the young guy said it was chicken, only RM1.00 each. It sure looked like there was hardly any chicken in the filling, all potatoes but to give credit where credit is due, it was very much to my liking. The filling tasted great and the pastry was nice and crusty. I sure wouldn’t mind buying these again should I happen to drop by there next time.

On the other hand, the tee peang (Fuzhou oyster cake)…

…was, at best, quite all right – not the best in town and definitely not the worst either. For one thing, they were cold already – such things are usually nicer eaten piping hot from the wok. The ones with meat filling were really huge compared to all the others sold all over town.

They also had deep-fried stuffed kompia and from the look of it, they probably used that same filling for those too.

The kosong (empty) ones…

…were pretty much the same – I also thought the texture and the taste were all right, nice enough but not quite there.

I did not ask how much they cost but all in all, I paid RM6.00 for everything. Minus the RM2.00 for the curry puffs, they would leave RM4.00 for the tee peang. This probably means that they are only RM1.50 each for the ones with meat filling and 50 sen each for the kosong ones. Gee! That is so very cheap!!! To date, the cheapest I’ve encountered would be RM1.80 for the ones with meat filling and 70 sen for the kosong ones (and the latter are extremely small!)

The kampua mee stall at the coffee shop next door was still closed when I got there. As I was getting into my car, parked right in front, I saw the guy walking past. He had just arrived and was about to open his stall and start his business for the day. That was around 6.00 a.m. so I guess he would not be ready to roll till 6.30 a.m. at least, when the water has started boiling.

TOTO CAFE (2.311913, 111.846213) is among the shops right behind Delta Mall, Jalan Pedada – the block on your left if you are coming out of the mall via the back entrance, the second coffee shop in that block. This coffee shop with its very popular kampua noodles (now RM3.20 a bowl/plate) is in the same block, at the other end, opposite the Methodist church there.