Everybody wants…

My friends flew over from KL the other day and they were stunned to see people grabbing bags and bags of those Gardenia bread at the airport shop.

Well, needless to say, those people were all flying back to Sarawak (and Sabah too, I guess). We have become so notorious for this that there have been memes and Tik-Toks about Sarawakians and Gardenia bread all over Facebook and Instagram again and again.

My friends said they had never paid much attention to the bread from that company but nonetheless, they grabbed a pack…

…to give to me.

At one time, we loved their butter scotch…

…so much that anyone passing through the LCCT (what was KLIA2 at the time) simply MUST bring a few bags home to give to everybody.

Eventually, we had so much of it that we got so sick and tired of it that even the mere sight (and smell) of it would put us off. Imagine a number of people coming back to Sibu at the same time and each of them would bring a few bags for you and you end up with enough to open a shop selling it. LOL!!!

We never tried this flavour before…

…though and I loved the pleasant fragrance of the pandan and santan (coconut) and gula Melaka – it reminded me of the so-called onde-onde cake that I bought once to try and when I toasted a slice on a non-stick pan, it felt like I had a pandan chiffon cake baking in the oven.

Yes, it was very nice…

…eaten just like that or toasted lightly on a non-stick pan.

My friends also brought me these…

– my favourite from Marks & Spencer. These are sweet, of course so I shall have to go very very slowly and savour just a piece or two a day since I am now on a low-sugar diet. I used to finish the whole tube in two or three sittings, believe it or not.

These, also from Marks & Spencer…

…should be fine, not as sweet, I’m sure. Any with cheese are more often than not, savoury but my girl would love them a lot, I’m sure so I think I shall just leave them to her to enjoy.

Thank you so so so much to my thoughtful and generous friends from KL for remembering me and going through all that trouble to bring all the things over just for me. Hope you all had a delightful stay here, God bless & take care always.

In the air tonight…

I did mention in my previous post that my girl and the mum went out shopping last Friday and among the things that they carted home that afternoon was this air fryer…

We have one in the house – my niece, the one working in Singapore, gave my missus a small one and my missus have been using it quite a lot since. The problem with that one is the size – I think it is more suitable for people who are single. That was why more often than not, I would see my missus cooking something two or three times so that there would be enough for the three of us.

This one is big enough to roast one whole chicken of not more than 1.8 kilo. We have never tried doing that with the small one, of course and the other day, my missus used this new one to cook two chicken thighs and sweet potatoes…

…enough for our lunch and dinner, no need to do it two or three times like before.

You can read this online article here on the health benefits and the risks of using an air fryer. What is very obvious so far is how convenient it is to use and also how one can save a lot on cooking oil – the price is going up and up these days, it seems.

This particular brand is currently on promotion, selling for RM1.4K and it comes with a free gift…

…of this box of classy silverware…

I guess it is not cheap but considering that I am saving over RM200 a week on cigarettes, around RM1,000 a month and the same on TOTO since I stopped buying completely once the pandemic broke out plus I do save a bundle on petrol #stayingsafe #stayingwell #stayinghome all this while, I do have a bit of cash that I can spare and seeing how it made my missus so very happy, I would say it was a very good buy.

Dates…

It will be the fasting month of Ramadan soon – they are going to look at the moon on the 1st of April, if I am not mistaken and yes, those lovely preserved dates…

…have started appearing at the shops and supermarkets in town.

Last Friday, my girl and the mum went out shopping to stock up on supplies and buy whatever they fancied and they bought a few boxes of this brand…

…for me to eat and enjoy…

This is not the brand that I used to buy but yes, I did buy some before and yes, I thought they were good too.

For one thing though, these dates are very sweet, probably not because of any sugar (or honey) added but anyway, I went and googled just to be sure. This website says: “A person with diabetes should consume dates in moderation—up to three dates per day.” For one thing, I am following a low sugar diet and so far, my blood sugar level is under control which, of course, means that I am not a diabetic. Of course, at my age, I should not throw caution to the wind and since the website says 3, then 3, it shall be, no more, no less.

They also list a lot of benefits one can derive from consuming dates, namely they help fight fatigue, improve insulin production, improve digestion, maintain blood sugar levels, reduce vision loss and boost metabolism. They do not come cheap, of course – over RM10.00 a box, so good or otherwise, you will not find me feasting on them like there is no tomorrow.

In the meantime, my sister dropped by my house to pass me a pack of these steamed buns (mantao)…

…made in that special shape that we may see in some Chinese restaurants when served with their awesome dong po rou (stewed pork belly). I shared the photograph on Facebook and a friend said that they came from Ah Pui’s pao shop at Jalan Lanang.

One difference was the presence of the fried shallots in the buns and because of that, eating them with kaya (coconut jam) or peanut butter or fruit jam was out of the question. It probably would go well with stewed pork but since I did not have any in the house, I tried having it with the lovely sambal…

…from my dear friend, Mandy, in KL Yes, they went very well together and I sure enjoyed eating it this way.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…

…better known as The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole is a favourite of mine but no, it’s not Christmas yet, not by a mile since it is only the end of March.

All our lives, we hardly got to eat chestnuts except when we stumbled upon one (or half of it) in our bak chang (meat dumpling). I do not recall ever eating it anywhere else except for one occasion when my missus and I were on holiday in Hong Kong or Taiwan and somebody was roasting them in some coffee beans in a huge wok by the roadside and of course, I bought some to try. It certainly did not leave a lasting impression as I do not recall getting all excited eating them.

We are luckier these days as we can buy these…

…very easily at the shops. My girl loves them a lot so we would buy them quite often and she would eat most, if not all, of them.

According to this website, the health benefits from eating chestnuts include promoting stronger bones, maintaining blood flow rate, providing cognitive therapy, easing intestinal discomforts, helping cleans the body of free radicals and toxins, preventing illness, aiding diabetes, and fostering pregnancy. Other benefits are easing respiratory diseases, promoting healthy thyroid function and providing stable energy. You can read more about the benefits of chestnuts here as well.

I checked the packet for the added ingredients but it looked like there wasn’t any…

There is sugar in the nuts though…

…and I particularly like that piece of advice at the end: Eat all foods in moderation.

Of course, at the price that they are selling them for, I guess one would not have much of a choice other than to eat them in moderation. Inside a packet, there are two smaller packs of 60 gms. each…

I guess this way, you will not have to open all at one go and can keep the remaining half fresh in the sealed packet. I wish they had used those very convenient resealable packs though.

Inside each of the packets, you will find around 10 chestnuts…

…only, around 20 altogether for RM6.30. OUCH!!! That works out to around 30 sen each! I guess we’ll just have to eat very very slowly, savouring the taste of each one of them as much as we can before swallowing. LOL!!!

I don’t remember…

I remember buying some of the steamed char siew paos here once a long long time ago in 2018, those that were made in Kuching but I don’t remember if they were any good or not. I managed to locate the blogpost where I featured them and it seemed that I quite enjoyed them then. I guess at RM3.00 each, they were a tad too expensive so I never went back again for more.

When I was there for the noodles that day, I saw that they were still selling those Kuching paos at that exact same price, RM3.00 each and since at that point in time, I could not remember if they were good or otherwise, I bought two to take home and try.

They were all rather out of shape, probably due to the mishandling during transportation…

…so much so that even steaming them did not help get them back into shape.

Other than the appearance, I thought it was good, the texture of the skin and the char siew filling…

…except that it was the same as what you would find in those dim sum ones…

…just like the ones here, for instance. I was hoping it would be some meat filling, cooked with char siew sauce with some egg inside like what they had here because my friends, Irene and Rowena, in Kuching kept singing praises of the ones there.

The ones that an ex-student of mine bought for me from Sarikei that day did not impress me much but I loved their kaya (coconut jam) paos…

…a lot. Seeing that they were selling those at this coffee shop too, I quickly grabbed two to take home and steam the next morning for breakfast.

Yes, they were as nice as before…

…but it was RM1.20 in Sarikei and RM1.30 here in Sibu at that time and right now, the price had shot up to a whooping RM1.60!!! I think I would much sooner fork out 20 sen more for the very nice chai pao here, if they are available, that is – there would be more in the filling other than just…kaya.

A One Cafe (2.297428, 111.824346) is located along Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg opposite the Kin Orient Plaza (aka old Sing Kwong) in the second block of shops. 

Can’t do it…

There used to be a lady at this stall…

…here. We enjoyed her noodles very much so we would go back there again and again for what she dished out even though she was a little bit slow and at times, we had to wait quite a bit.

Well, she’s still there but she has gone into frying stuff – I saw somebody sharing a photograph of her fried bihun with canned clams in soy sauce and cangkok manis and it sure looked pretty good. In the meantime, they have set up a stall to the left where two young boys are selling kampua and kolo mee and so on, those noodle dishes that the lady used to cook herself.

It so happened that we dropped by for lunch the other day and I asked for their kolo mee…

It was RM6.00 now, compared to only RM4.00…

…in 2017.

The boy asked me if I liked things sour and I told him that I did not mind. It turned out that he added the pickled red and green chili that we get to see sometimes in kolo mee in Kuching or at other times, they will give you that as a dip.

My missus asked for their own-made noodles, kolo mee-style…

…RM6.00 a bowl now, also RM4.00 in 2017…

She commented that it did not used to be so big before and she did not like how they were using those supermarket factory-made fried spring onions. Not only are they not fragrant – at times, they have an unpleasant smell. Frankly, in the food business, you can’t do it like that. There are no shortcuts – you will just have to work hard and do everything properly to ensure top quality in what you are selling.

I shared the photograph of my kolo mee on Facebook and an ex-student/friend could name the place right away. He also said that he liked the noodles better when the lady was doing it all by herself.

I also asked for a bowl of pain sip (RM4.00)…

…but I felt it was quite forgettable, not anything I would want to order again should I happen to drop by here another time.

Incidentally, should anyone happen to think about dropping by, the lady takes a day off every Wednesday while the young boys close their stall once a fortnight, on Wednesday which means that they would not be open next week since they were open that day.

A One Cafe (2.297428, 111.824346) is located along Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg opposite the Kin Orient Plaza (aka old Sing Kwong) in the second block of shops. 

I changed my mind…

The last time I was here, there was an Iban family at the next table and I saw the little boy enjoying a plate of mee goreng (Malay fried noodles) that came with a big piece of fried chicken, probably the special, and I decided there and then that I would come back for that one day.

That was exactly what I intended to do that day when I was in the vicinity but when I got to the stall, I saw that they had nasi lemak and I changed my mind right away.

I spoke to a girl there who was not wearing a tudung and spoke very fluent Mandarin that put mine to shame and confirmed that it was indeed a Malay/Muslim stall. There are quite a lot of non-Malay/Muslim stalls around here selling nasi lemak these days.

I asked for their nasi lemak special (RM7.00)…

…and I must say that I was quite impressed by its appearance when it was served.

Uncle Roger called this…

…the perfegg Asian fried egg (9:20), a class above the “white people fried egg“, smooth and white and no texture. Of course, I would insist that the wok and the oil were clean so there would not be any of those black spots on the egg.

The fried chicken…

…was as nice as fried chicken should be, no more, no less but unfortunately, the rice was a bit dry and hard and not lemak and the sambal…

…did not taste a little sweet like what one would usually get with nasi lemak. The fact that it was very spicy did not save the day. I would give them the double thumbs up though for removing the heads and the insides of the ikan bilis (dried anchovies) – most of them here do not bother at all.

All things considered, I think I would try something else the next time I come to this part of the woods. The guy at the next table had the Sarawak laksa from another stall inside the coffee shop and it did smell nice. Perhaps I’d go for that to see if it is any good!

e-CAFE (2.311913, 111.846213) is the first shop right behind Delta Mall, Jalan Pedada – the block a little to your left if you are coming out of the mall via the back entrance.

Miles apart…

My sister bought me a bottle of this Taiwanese version of Bovril…

…in October last year in view of the fact that Bovril was always out of stock around that time and everyone had difficulty getting hold of a bottle. Somebody was selling this online and she managed to buy a bottle for me – if I am not wrong, it was not cheap at all, around that same price as a bottle of Bovril.

I had just bought and opened a brand new bottle at the time so I put this one away in the pantry. I finished that bottle a while ago and that day, when my missus said she would be cooking plain porridge for dinner, I quickly took it out to open and give it a try…

Much to my disappointment, it was miles apart from the real thing, as different as night and day or as we say in Hokkien, char th’nee, char tay!

It did not smell of Bovril or for that matter, beef in any way despite the claim that it was real beef and it tasted completely different.

Marmite…

…and Vegemite…

…are both different from Bovril and I don’t mind those with porridge or whatever. Frankly, I thought this Baoril was completely out. The porridge I had that evening would probably taste nicer with soy sauce even! No wonder at the time, I did google to see what I could find about this product and I stumbled upon an ad from a supermarket in Miri – they were selling it at HALF the price per bottle!

So it wasn’t like anything that I know of at all. As a matter of fact, I don’t know if it would be good for anything at all – I wouldn’t take the risk of using it to cook some dish and end up throwing everything away but perhaps, I can try to cook a bowl of noodles with it the same way I used to cook Bovril mee before. If it is not going to be any good, I guess I would have no choice but to just throw it away.

That evening, we had the porridge with the ngor hiang (meat rolls)…

…that my missus made for Chinese New Year and there were still a few in the freezer.

She tried this okra omelette…

…but because the vegetable does not have a strong taste of its own, it did not stand out at all unlike when we cooked bitter gourd or long beans like this. Perhaps if she had added some slices of lap cheong (Chinese sausage) or a handful of shrimps, they would have saved the day.

In June…

This was in June, the coffee shop, not the month. I went there real early on Sunday morning to buy breakfast for everybody in the house. The old couple were there and the Iban lady helper too – all were busy setting up the place and getting the things ready but no, the handsome young guy was not there yet. “He’s on the way,” the mum said, “he’ll be here soon.”

This coffee shop is always very crowded but this stall is located in one little corner at the back and I could go there to order without having to go through the coffee shop, no worries whatsoever about physical distancing at all. Of course when people say that somebody is on the way, you may need to wait a while longer and it was way past 7.30 a.m. when he finally appeared.

Wasting no time at all, he got down to work…

…right away.

I asked for three plates of his char kway teow…

…and that sure looked a lot more than what my blogger-friend, Phong Hong had that day except that hers had see ham (cockles). There is one place here where the char kway teow had see ham but I did not really enjoy it all that much so I never went back for more.

I would say the one here is consistently good all these years and the price is still RM6.50 a plate, the same as when I had it…

…in 2020, compared to RM13.50 for what Phong Hong had. *faints*

My missus said they were so generous with the lap cheong (Chinese sausages) and prawns while my girl, being a small eater, said that the serving was so big that she had to struggle to finish her plate of the same.

The old lady said that they also had fried kway teow with beef and fried bihun with their own-cooked khao bak (stewed pork). I sure would not mind coming back to give these a try some day.

六月饮食坊 JUNE CAFE (2.292649, 111.834878)…

…is located at No. 16, Lorong 3541, Lorong Chew Siik Hiong 7, formerly Weiison Corner directly opposite/right across the road from Kopitiam Fantasy.

The blacksmith’s wife…

I did mention in my blogpost the other day that we had run out of all the fish in our freezer so last Friday morning, I quickly made my way to my favourite fish and seafood stall not far from my house to see what I could get hold of.

Thankfully, it was open – it sure looked like the weather is not too bad these days and the lady had a lot of fish and prawns for sale. She asked me to buy the blacksmith’s wife or in Chinese, the phak thik poh (打铁婆，松鲷 or tripletail fish or patipok or kuku laut in Malay), whole but I simply refused.

No, it wasn’t because it was not nice. In fact, ever since the first time we had it here, I would not hesitate to buy whenever there was any for sale. You see, once, I was persuaded by that young boy at my neighbourhood fruit & vegetable sundry shop in the next lane to buy one threadfin (ngor hu), whole. It was not very big, he said. Yes, it was very very nice initially but as we went on eating it, the pleasure we derived from doing that grew less and less and by the time we managed to finish all of it, we did not care if we would never see any ngor hu ever again!

Eventually, the nice lady agreed to sell me TWO slabs…

…but at a higher price than if I were to buy it whole. Of course I did not mind as there were only three slabs altogether plus the tail part and the head (almost half of it) and I sure do not feel like having any fish head curry so I would not know what to do with that!

We fried one for our lunch and dinner that day, Friday and yes, it was very nice…

…We sure enjoyed it very much. The lady did tell me how much the two were in total but I can’t remember now – probably around RM28.00, less than RM30.00.

There was cencaru, the smaller kembong-like fish with those huge marble like eyes but I think, I am not that fond of those. Yes, the lady said that the ikan jamar that I bought the last time was nicer so I bought those again, two kilos, TEN altogether. I asked for them to be cleaned and packed in twos so we could fry them two at a time, no need to take them all out of the freezer at one go to defrost and to cook and put back the rest.

There were a lot of or chio/ikan bawal hitam/black pomfret and I asked for SIX of the smaller ones, to be packed individually after cleaning. This way, we can fry one for lunch each time and if we want another one for dinner, we shall fry another one. In the past, I would buy one big one for two meals but I found that after reheating, come evening time, the fish would be a bit hard and dry, not so nice anymore.

All in all, I spent RM126.00 on the fish that morning but that should be enough to last for quite a long while. Besides, my doctor said I needed the protein and fish would be a very good source.

I still have some seawater pek hay (prawns) and freshwater ones (chia chui hay aka tua thow hay (big headed prawns)/ udang galah in the freezer but with my cholesterol level shooting through the roof, those would be best avoided at this point in time.

That day, my missus took two to cook our traditional Melanau style sayur rebus…

…and after simmering the prawns with the other ingredients, she added the cangkok manis from our garden, torn of course…

…to bring out the taste and the sweetness and some pumpkin…

Here, I cooked that same soup but with unripened papayas and it was nice too – the ikan bilis would be optional, not a problem leaving that out since there were the prawns already for the stock.

Just add a bit of salt according to taste, no need for any msg and you can enjoy the clear and refreshing soup, so sweet from the prawns and the ingredients added.

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.