Time really seems to fly these days! I just went to see my doctor a month ago and it was time to go again for a follow-up and to replenish my prescriptions.
That previous time, I went at around 9.00 a.m. and I had to wait for so long and it was way over 11, almost noon when I was through. This time around, I thought I would go a bit early, at 8.00 a.m. but by the time I managed to find a parking space and walked all the way to the clinic, it was already 8.30 and goodness gracious me! The clinic was packed – no seat available in the waiting room! It was so nice going to see the doctor during the pandemic – not a single living soul around. I guess at the time, everyone was scared of catching the virus so it was better to just #staysafe and #stayhome.
The receptionist told me that I could go some place else and come back in an hour’s time at 9.30 and that was exactly what I did. I went to the coffee shop…
…the first one in the block of shops to the left.
I shall not attempt to interpret the meaning of its name…
…with my half-past-six command of Mandarin but I used to drop by here everytime my late mum was admitted into the medical centre next door and I would just order something from the noodles stall in front except for one occasion when I had the chap fan (mixed rice).
This time around, I thought I would order something from the chu char (cook and fry) section at the back and I ordered the Foochow fried noodles, wet (with sauce/gravy). However, as I was sitting there waiting, I had a change of heart and I asked the Indonesian helper if they had the special and she said yes. I told her I would have that instead. I was expecting to get something with a whole lot of extra ingredients such as liver and what not but this (RM16.00)…
…was what I was served in the end.
Yes, it did feel kind of expensive but there were two of these huge prawns…
A friend once told me that the estimated cost price of these prawns was RM3.00 each so deduct RM6.00 from the total, that would leave a balance of RM10.00.
Besides the crustaceans, there were so many slices of this lovely fish…
…that I enjoyed so much! I did not know what fish that was so I asked the boss and he said it was a labang – that sure did not help much as I never heard of the fish before. I googled to see what I could find and it turned out that it is a freshwater river fish, not one of those super-expensive ones but no, it is not cheap either, something alongside the lajong that we really like a lot!
Deduct RM4.00, the price for a regular plate of fried noodles here and that would leave RM6.00 for all that fish! Cheap! I also loved the fact that they were so generous with the green vegetables and yes, the mee (noodles)…
…had that much coveted wok hei fragrance. I would probably order the “moon” (braised) version the next time I drop by here for this though as the noodles were more on the firm side – I would like them a little bit softer (but not too soft and soggy).
While I was sitting there, enjoying my noodles, I caught the whiff of that lovely pulut panggang fragrance – some people at the next table were eating those. I did catch sight of them earlier but I did not bat an eyelid and simply ignored them as I would not settle for anything less than the very nice Hj. Luguk ones, just that I have not been to the kampung for a very long time so I do not know if those are still available or not.
In the end, I bought a few (RM1.20 each)…
…home to try and yes, much to my delight, they…
…were very nice! They were perfectly done, well-panggang-ed enough to give them that very nice smoked fragrance and yes, it was quite lemak (rich with santan/coconut milk) too though I felt it could do with a little bit more santan, just a little bit so it would be more lemak.
I heard people singing praises of the ones here but no, I do think these were a whole lot nicer. I would much sooner drop by here to buy anytime I feel like having some pulut panggang.
It was around 9.30 a.m. when I got back to the clinic – obviously, some had left and I was able to grab a seat. Thankfully, I did not have to wait too long this time around and I was out of there by 10 something!
HAO KE LAI CAFE & REST (2.292095, 111.836698) is located along Lorong Mahsuri 1B, off Jalan Pedada, in the block of shops to the left of the Rejang Medical Centre, main building.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Ha… Kopitiams in Sibu like to use “Lai” to name their shops?
Hao can mean “great”, “posh”, “talented”. Ke is “guest”.
So this time, it’s “Great Guests Come”. Ha ha..
I quite often see black fungus and tomatoes in your local moon-style noodles.
We don’t usually have these two ingredients.
Our moon-style usually contains pork mince, dried shitake mushrooms and green veggies.
That sure is a very nice name! No wonder it has thrived over the years, always enjoys brisk business.
Black fungus is a new thing here – we never used to get that before (supposed to be good for health) and I never noticed
when they started adding tomatoes – not cheap here!
I’ve never had moon-anything anywhere so I would not know.
Even the Foochow mee here – I was told by a friend to order it like this some years ago, she told me it would be nicer…than Foochow fried mee, wet.
I loved this style of cooking – seen it at a stall in Kanowit in the late 70’s but I did not know how to go about ordering it to be cooked like this.
Kanowit? That’s a new place for me! I don’t know many places in Sarawak apart from the usual suspects, you know, Kuching, Miri, Sibu etc. I know Rajang River too. But Sarawak itself is bigger than the entire Peninsula, so I have good excuses not to know all places lah, right? By the way, I don’t often hear about beautiful islands off Sarawak mainland. You know like those in Sabah. But I am sure you must have some, right? Oh I know Bakau… And I am afraid that’s the only one I know.
Bako, not Bakau. “bakau” is Malay for mangrove.
Kanowit is a small town where I taught from 1978-1982, 2 hours by boat at the time, one hour by road now.
I used to bring friends there to visit the Iban longhouse…and yes, I did blog about those visits every time.
No, the best islands and everything else are all in Sabah, the most expensive too. Thankfully, things are much cheaper here.
The Foochow fried noodles special looks really tempting. Black fungus being added to fried noodles is very rare over here. Thumbs up for being generous with the greens. I love black fungus and use alot in my cooking. When I cook ginger chicken I add black fungus and also in my mixed veg. Family members love them.
I do enjoy black fungus even though it is quite tasteless. I think they say it has a lot of health benefits, dunno what they are good for.
It’s quite a new thing here – only lately I see them adding black fungus to the fried noodles.
First place here, the Hock Chiew char mee has so much greens! Other places, all so kiam siap!!!
Your special looked good. I can see it was quite a portion. And not to mention overflooded with gravy.
If I go to hubby’s company panel clinic after 9am, I would go to next door coffee shop for breakfast etc. Then go back to clinic, inform the nurse so they will watch out for my slot. That was the case but usually I prefer to be at the clinic by 8 am so I would be the first few patients waiting. Even that, it would take more than an hour!!!
I wish they would allow patients to call and fix appointments for certain times like at my dentist here. They do not seem to allow that. Have to go earlier – they will take a certain number – the rest will be told to come back in the afternoon or on another day.
Your special noodle looks really good with all the ingredients. I think the price is reasonable with the prawns and fish slices. I dread going to government clinics because of the long, long wait. 3 days ago, I needed to see a dentist. Thinking of the long wait, I ended up going to a private dentist. I was charged RM80 to have one of the molars extracted. I love pulut panggang too. Not easy to find good ones.
Same here! We have pulut panggang all over town but 99.9% of them are not good, not fragrant and not lemak – I would not bother to buy.
I go to a private dentist here, my ex-student and he does everything for me free of charge. So shy! Will buy gifts for him time and time again as a gesture of appreciation. I go and see a specialist doctor, private too…and spend a few hundred ringgit each time! People ask me to go to the government clinics for my prescriptions – free, I probably would have to go before dawn and wait the whole day. I’ve saved a lot of money since I stopped smoking and buying TOTO so I guess I can spare that bit of my money on this, no need to suffer.
Time disappearing seems to be on my mind a lot these days. No matter how much or how little I fit in, it seems to speed up everyday.
It does seem to fly despite the fact that I’m not doing much and there’s nothing much to do every day.