You said…

My friend/ex-student shared her photograph of the chao chai hung ngang…

…that she had here…

…on Facebook and sang its praises so enthusiastically.

Chao chai is a variety of (Chinese) preserved vegetables – a bit fermented, a little sour and a little salty while hung ngang is the big bihun (rice vermicelli). Of course I had to make my way there to give it a try but it was not open that morning – I think it was Ching Ming (the Chinese Tomb Cleaning Festival) that day.

Not long after that, more recently, she put another photograph on Facebook insisting that it was so very nice that she simply had to go and enjoy it again and of course, I went there again too but once again, the stall…

…was not open! The nice lady at the stall next to it told me that they do not open on Mondays.

Well, last Friday, I went to the wet market in the vicinity and seeing that it was open, I went right in and placed my order with a special request for extra fish balls and NO meat (RM12.80)…

It was served soon enough and finally, I got the chance to give it a try.

The soup was very nice, sour and flavourful (with the taste and fragrance of the chao chai) enough but I did feel that it paled a little, just a little, in comparison with the one I had here that day. The fish fillet in my order then was bland, not nice at all but I did try one of my missus’ fishballs and it was very nice. The ones here were obviously own-made too and they were bigger but I thought they were a bit bland and not as sweet when it came to the taste of the fish used in making them.

I must say, however, that the egg here…

…was perfectly poached, with the yolk still runny, exactly the way that I like it and yes, they got my order spot-on – there was no meat in it!

On top of all that, this one here is a lot more expensive than the ones we had at that other place (around RM8.00 only). I think if I were to give that one over there a 10, I would give this one a 9…or maybe just an 8.

DIANDIANLAI CAFE (2.310079, 111.831103) is located in the block of shops facing the Sibu Civic Centre (car park) along Jalan Dewan Suarah that links Jalan Melur and Jalan Suarah.