It was my better half’s 66th last Friday but we had an early celebration the previous Sunday so we had a birthday cake and the longevity noodles, mee sua, fried.
She wanted to cook some chicken soup in our traditional Foochow red wine with lots of ginger for our mee sua breakfast on the actual day but I told her not to bother. I told her I would go out and buy for all of us instead and that was what I did.
We had this…
…that morning from my favourite mee sua stall in town…
…here.
I was early – I went there just after 7 and the nice lady had just arrived from Kanowit and was setting up her stall to start her business for the day but yes, she was willing to take my orders and get down to them right away.
The mee sua I had here once swept me off my feet but I heard that the lady had call it quits so now, this is only one around…
…that, to me, is a cut above the rest.
Like everything else, the price has gone up – it used to be RM7.00 only but it did not matter one bit as it was as good as ever…
– very strong on the traditional Foochow red wine and the ginger and the poached egg was done to perfection, the yolk still runny and I also loved the super fine and smooth mee sua used.
This was provided FOC…
…and I liked that they used the environment-friendly bamboo tissue paper instead of the usual, especially those horrendously pink-coloured serviettes that they use at many Chinese restaurants.
There was a new guy running the stall in front and yes, I did stop by to try some of his dishes a couple of times but that morning, I noticed there were new people at that stall and also the second one…
I did not walk over to have a look at what they were selling but if I am not wrong, the second one is the one selling the kampua mee in that coffee shop now. I asked the mee sua lady but she said that they just left without a word so she did not know whether they had moved elsewhere or they had just decided to stop for good.
Thankfully, the mee sua stall is still going on strong. So far, I find that the rest that I tried may be quite good but one is as good as the other, none that is outstanding in any way like this one.
NEW HEE’S FOOD CORNER (2.311365, 111.846638) is located along Jalan Pedada, now Jalan Datuk Wong Soon Kai, the very first one in the block of shops to the left of the Delta Mall, with the Astro Sibu office at the other end of that same block.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
That bowl of mee sua looks really good. The chicken meat tells it all. My kind of poached egg too. Most of the kopitiam over here doesn’t provide tissue for use anymore. So I used to have a packet each of tissue paper and wet wipes in my bag… 😊😊
Yes, I bring my own too.
This stall is the odd one out – you do not get any tissue paper elsewhere, not even in most classy cafes and restaurants unless you ask for it…much less at a coffee shop.
Thank goodness they do not give you a roll of toilet paper anymore -they used to do that!
I carry a big packet in my bag like you and yes, these days I carry a bag as well…for my BIG smartphone (unfortunately the owner is not so smart, still struggling with it) and my digital camera (which I never use anymore).
RM7, that’s not bad considering that piece of drumstick was huge!
My family just had a wee holiday break in Sabah. They told me everything there was so expensive.
One plate of noodles was RM9, one cup of kopi RM 2.50.
Our little kampung only RM6 and RM1.85 for the same items above respectively.
Maybe Sabah is so far away, they have to include transportation fees to cover general costs?
I know timber was a major income earner in Sabah once, dunno what else and dunno now.
A friend of my cousin treated us to dinner that cost a few K per table, from Penang that guy
…and he said when he first went over, he wanted to run back home.
It was like a cowboy town, a haunted place, so miserable…but his friends encouraged him to stay
and soon he realised that the roads were paved in gold, those were the words he used!
He became so very very rich!
Yes, it is VERY VERY expensive in Sabah, VERY nice food, VERY fresh seafood, the best…but not many can afford!
Still, it can’t be worse that in the UK…or in countries like Australia and New Zealand and so on.
Fried noodles now NZD20.00, my brother in Auckland said!!! RM60 a plate!!! *faints*
I m glad I am here not there, never mind that we have to settle for something less. At least, things are affordable here.
PS: Flamenco? Isn’t that Spanish…and Venice is Italian?
Yes, you’re correct but the festival has nothing to do with the place name, Little Venice. It is not an Italian festival.
I was there two weeks ago, it was their first come back after 2 years of hiatus since the pandemic started.
But it was rather quiet this year, less boats and stalls. No more stage dancing either.
That makes me think of Hari Raya here the other day. Hopefully, it was not like this in the peninsula but here, the Malay kampung was quite lifeless, like a dead town…no merry making, no open houses, no visiting, no lights – a far cry of what it was like in those happy pre-Covid days. Dunno if people are still being cautious or what but it was so very sad to see!
I haven’t had mee sua with red wine for a long time. One of these days, I must get down to making my own red wine. Happy belated birthday to your missus.
Thank you! Ooooo…you can make your own red wine? I’m impressed!!! Bet you can get a bottle easily over in Sitiawan. No problem here at all, we can go and buy a bottle or more at the shops…anytime. Only RM10.00 a bottle for a good, unadulterated one.
Wow.. nice to have red wine mee sua on birthdays! Over here, it is uncommon to get this type of noodles and yes, more convenient to get it in the stalls than cooking at home… hahahaa.. but of course, tastier if your wife is to cook it, right!
We always go out to buy some special chicken (pua chai kay/half breed chicken) for its very much nicer meat to cook the soup for mee sua…but after all the soup and the “nicer” meat is gone, there will be the breast meat left and we will reheat over and over again until we decide to just throw it away. Such a waste.
Alternatively, these days, we will just cook the soup for mee sua using the “good meat”, and fry the breast meat with soy sauce and ginger in a separate dish – more palatable that way, not so nice if boiled plain in soup.
That mee suah sure looked good, with poached egg. Sure can’t find people serving poached egg in mee suah here.
This is the only place in town where the lady will do that but I heard of another place where they will do it for you upon request. Others, they will just give you the egg, hardboiled.
Gosh, that bowl is loaded with noodles. Looks very filling.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, a must-have to start off any birthday celebration!
Meatball soup? I think you’ve featured meatball soup on your page before. It’s the only place where I’ve seen that. I do believe my nephew would LOVE meatball soup. He’s a big meatball fan. I’ll have to prepare some for him the next time he visits. He was here yesterday, and I prepared him and my daughter breakfast for lunch. They had bacon, homemade pancakes, freshly squeezed grapefruit/orange juice, and fruit.
Meatball soup is pretty common here, same as fish ball soup. They give the taste to the soup like how people use bones to make the stock for the soup. We also throw meatballs into rice porridge to cook rice porridge, add salt and you have a dish on its own.