It didn’t…

No, it didn’t disappoint me, not at all! As a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed what I had from this stall…

…here. Believe it or not, I think the last time I was here was ten years ago in 2012!

Actually, I had another place in mind – this one located back to back to this place that was famous for its VERY cheap chicken rice and yes, I did have it once at one of its former locations and it was good. When I got there, I saw that they did not have any poached/steamed chicken. After the very nice one that we had that day, I was looking forward to having it again. In the end, I went back to where I came from to the aforementioned stall.

I asked for the drumstick and the nice guy deboned it…

…prior to serving and yes, it was really very very nice. I loved it!

I also asked for some char siew (barbecued pork) and yes, it was very well charred, very well-caramelised with its lovely smoky flavour. Unfortunately, the snapshot I took of it got lost in the process of uploading here and there but you can get a glimpse of it in the above photograph and this one here below…

Yes, of course, I could not resist asking for the stewed eggs!

When the rice…

…was served, I caught the whiff of its very lovely fragrance but unfortunately, I thought it was a little salty and not oily enough and apart from that, the complimentary soup was so bland that it did not merit a second sip.

On the whole, however, I enjoyed everything (RM7.50) – the typical chicken rice chili dip…

…that came with it did help in no small way.

If ever I should be looking for some decently nice chicken rice, I’d probably come this way again…or if I want to tapao some very nice poached/steamed chicken and char siew home, I know exactly where I can head to to get what I want!

MENG KEE CHICKEN RICE is located at WAN SIANG CORNER, formerly The Food Courts (2.292288, 111.843056), is located around the middle of the blocks of shops to the left of Medan Mall along Jalan Wong King Huo with the J&T Express Office to the right and Stella Bakery to the left.

Words…

I bought my car in 2018 so it is already 4 years old now but actually, it is literally brand new, having covered over 6,000 km. only after all this time plus I take very good care of it. That includes sending it for servicing every 6 months to make sure it is in tip top shape.

The service centre is on the other side of the world, so to speak…in that part of town that I hardly ever go to. Two years ago, when I was there, I had the kolo mee…

…at one of the stalls in this coffee shop…

You can see how crowded it was that morning even though it was so early – it sure looked like everyone was back with a vengeance, coming out in full force!!!

…right across the road from the centre and last year, I dropped by there again and had the same…

…another time.

This year, I got there a little early at 7.30 – I had made an appointment for 8.00 a.m.! As they say, it’s the early bird that catches the worm. It looked like I had enough time for a bite to eat so I stopped by the coffee shop to see what I could have. I did not want the kolo mee anymore and I was not enticed by anything from the other stalls there.

In the end, I asked for the sup perut babi campur from the kolo mee stall. Before I let you all see what I got in the end, let us look at the words in Malay. Sup, of course, is soup in English and perut babi is pig’s stomach. Yes, that is a very popular dish over in the peninsula – I had it once…

…in KL and my missus loved it – it was peppery and nice though I was not too sure if those were the stomach or the intestines. I asked one of the ladies if it was tu tor therng (pork intestine soup) and she said yes so I said I would like to have that.

Last but not least, the word campur in the name means mixed so I was expecting some stomach, intestines, liver, meatballs and so on and so forth all mixed together in a bowl of soup.

In the end, THIS…

…was what was served – liver, two tofu puffs and some green vegetables, NOTHING ELSE and liver is hati in Malay!

No, it was not the true blue traditional Foochow red wine and ginger liver soup…

…that we enjoy a lot – one of our favourites is the one here. What I got was just liver served in clear bone stock soup! Surely they did not hear me wrongly?

I don’t think they cooked the liver in it either as I could not detect the taste at all in the soup but thankfully, they did manage to cook the liver to perfection (RM7.00)…

The saving grace was it was not overcooked so it was soft and nice. If you overcook liver, it will become hard and will not be palatable at all. I must say that I enjoyed eating it dipped in the very nice chili sauce that they served with it…but there was so much of it that I was a little worried that I might end up with a gout attack. LOL!!!

They gave these…

…when they served my order. The one in the middle looked like red wine so I added a bit to the soup. It did not enhance the taste in any way so I decided to just leave the soup alone and enjoy it the way it was.

The next round of servicing is scheduled for November, 6 months from now and if I do stop by here again then, I think I shall just go back to the kolo mee.

CHANG LOK CHIU CAFE (2.277376, 111.850765) is located along Jalan Bukit Lima, just before the Bukit Lima roundabout, right across the road from the Proton Service Centre (NGU’S MOTOR SERVICE SDN BHD – PROTON 4S DEALER).

Hanoi n u…

I thought they were really daring, opening up this place…

…at the height of the pandemic but thankfully, they have survived and are obviously doing really well. We did drop by once before we entered the endemic stage but it was packed with customers sitting at the tables on the pavement outside on a very hot afternoon. In the end, we decided to go some place else and come back here another day.

Finally, at long last, we managed to do that last Sunday and we were indeed lucky to be able to get a table inside…

The group that went in after us wanted to take the table behind us but they were told that it was reserved and the other vacant tables as well.

Of course, we must order the gỏi cuốn or those Vietnamese rice paper rolls (RM22.00)…

…and we sure were glad we did.

The other Vietnamese dish that we had in mind was the Phở bò, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup (RM22.00)…

…and yes, it was great!

We enjoyed both dishes but they did not come across as all that exotic. They did not seem to have any of those herbs and leaves like the daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander), Thai basil leaves, sawtooth coriander or daun ketumbar, bunga kantan – all those one would find in Vietnamese (or Thai cuisine), bringing the taste of their dishes to a whole new level. Maybe they are being cautious here just in case the locals are not so into these things.

For one thing, they do not have a menu here. You need to scan their QR Code to download it on your smartphone to see what they have via WeChat. I do not have that app but the sweet and pretty waitress let us use her smartphone to do that. In the end, my girl picked this crispy pork & spring rolls with Vietnamese noodles combo (RM20.00)…

…into which we poured in the chili sauce (something like those Thai ones) and tossed…

I tried the pork – I think we have better ones at our siew yoke (roast pork) stalls and shops in town but I loved the deep fried spring rolls. I sure would want to order that as a dish on its own the next time we drop by here. On the whole, it all tasted very good together.

I was not too comfortable scrolling down the menu on the smartphone so I logged into their Facebook page to see what I could find. A few dishes caught my eye like one that looks like ngor hiang to me and another dish of stewed eggs but the problem was they were all not labelled and the waitress did not seem all that familiar with every dish.

There was one with one giant freshwater prawn and she said it was a noodle soup dish (for 2-4 persons) and we could have a choice of yellow noodles, kway teow or bihun and therein lies the problem here – every dish seems to be a set by itself with noodles or rice by the side and you cannot order them without those. If we look at what we ordered, out of the three, two had bihun in them and one had kway teow.

I did see a group at another table enjoying something in a BIG tray and I asked the waitress what that was and she said it was tom yam. Perhaps we will come back here in a group on some special occasion and we can order that then.

Service was excellent, very efficient, very prompt and the very pleasant girl who waited at our table could converse fluently in English, no problem at all. We certainly would not mind dropping by there again and see what else we could have and enjoy.

HANOI PHO SIBU (2.307225, 111.848102) is located at No. 29, Ground Floor, Lorong Sena 8.

Branch…

I loved what I had here back in 2020 but I have never gone back there since. Then I heard that they were opening a branch in the Tunku Osman area in the town centre right beside the Big Thumb Bakery…

I can’t say I was looking forward to checking out this place even though they say that new brooms sweep well.

Well, this isn’t exactly my favourite part of town because of the terrible congestion on working days and parking is near impossible…and if you are there around noon, be prepared to get stuck in the jam with cars illegally parked left, right and centre, all the parents waiting for their children from the school right behind this block of shops. I happened to be around there after 7.oo a.m. on Sunday morning that day and if I was thinking that everyone would be asleep at that time, I couldn’t be more wrong! The place was almost full!!!

I placed my orders at the stall…

…and took my seat at one of the vacant tables inside.

Unfortunately, all those on the pavement outside were taken so I did not enjoy the advantage of the natural morning light for my photograph of the kampua mee (RM3.30)…

They did tell me before hand that they would add their minced meat instead of the few thin pieces of imitation char siew (boiled meat coloured red) unlike what transpired here once where they did not have the decency to ask me first and that really put me off.

Yes, it was very nice, just that when I stopped by, I was thinking of having what I had at the old place (RM6.00)…

…only to be told that they do not serve it like that here.

I asked for the beef tripe soup and the nice lady (the wife) said they would serve me the small (RM4.00)…

…which had a whole lot of the beef tripe inside and it went so very well with the special chili dip that came with it. The soup was great with just the right amount of vinegar in it. I’ll try the liver soup should I happen to drop by here again.

And talking about the nice lady, yes, she was really polite and friendly. I dropped the RM5.00 note she gave me (my change) and it flew under the table and she went and retrieved it for me. I guess she realised that it would not be easy for me to get down there – like an elephant in a china shop. LOL!!! And when I was leaving, both she and her hubby said, “謝謝你，老闆!” (xiè xiè nǐ ， lǎo bǎn/Thank you boss!) At most places, they do not give two hoots as to whether you are coming or going!

By the way, when I shared the above photograph of the noodles and said that it was only RM3.30 a bowl, a friend in Mukah said that it has increased to RM5.00 there and another friend commented that it is RM4.00 in Kanowit right now. Gee!!! Here, it is mostly RM3.50 with a few odd ones out that do charge RM4.00 a bowl/plate. It’s a wonder that there are people willing to go to such places and get slaughtered!

Other than being so very cordial and polite, service here was prompt despite the crowd – they were assisted by a young and handsome boy, probably their son who did not have to go to school since it was Sunday.

PYP KOPITIAM, town branch, is right beside BIG THUMB BAKERY (2.293889, 111.826492) is located at No.71-73, Jalan Tuanku Osman.

Pillow…

Perhaps I have not been shopping much elsewhere throughout the pandemic so I am quite used to it and will not venture elsewhere.

I saw this pillow dumpling (chin thow chang)…

…at where else, if not my neighbourhood fruit & vegetable sundry shop in the next lane and since the Duanwu Jie or the Dragon Boat Festival, commonly referred to as the Chang Festival is round the corner (June 3rd), I thought I would buy one and try to see if it is any good.

If I am not wrong, this type of dumpling is Cantonese but when I opened it, I saw a whole lot of peanuts…

I did hear somebody saying that such peanut dumplings are Hakka ones.

I’m afraid I did not really enjoy it – it was salty, not really tasty, in my opinion. There might be tiny bits of minced meat inside…

…but it did not do anything to enhance the taste, unfortunately.

I did buy these pillow changs before, a long long time ago and they tasted like lor mai kai…or the regular Hokkien chang, just that they came in a different shape. I enjoyed those, RM5.00 each at the time but not this one. I guess I will just go and buy my favourite changs from here when the festival comes around.

I also stumbled upon these paos (steamed dumplings)…

…at the mini-supermarket…

…in the next block.

They told me that somebody made them at home and sent them to the shop for sale but looking at all those trays (the big yellow ones they use to stack the bread at bakeries) with all kinds of filling, I find it quite hard to believe. That sure is a whole lot for one person to handle.

Anyway, I bought two…

…pork and chicken (RM2.60 each) and steamed them when I got home to try.

I was delighted to see that huge chunk of egg in the one with the chicken filling…

…one quarter of it, but they used ground/minced meat and I did not think it tasted great.

The pork…

…was very much nicer but again, they used ground/minced meat for the filling too and there was NO egg inside.

I would much sooner go for the cheaper (RM2.20 & RM2.30 each only) AND very much nicer NICER pork and chicken ones at the aforementioned sundry shop

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 and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket while KIM TAK MINI SUPERMARKET is located along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the left of the parking area – AH KAU CAFE (2.316346, 111.839861) and LOUIS BAKERY LW.Pattisserie (2.316411, 111.839847) are located in that same block to the extreme left .

Fusion…

I guess I can safely say that all the western ones here in Sibu are what they call fusion cafés and restaurants, none that is strictly focussed on one specific kind of cuisine e.g. an all-Italian restaurant perhaps.

In other words, you may be able to order some very nice pasta or pizza at one place or a lovely piece of steak or lamb chop at another and yet, you can find some more familiar options on their menu like mee mamak or chao chai hung ngang, for instance.

I was watching a programme on TV the other day and they were picking the best ever fusion dish in, I guess, KL and it got me thinking – a fusion dish? Yes, I can think of a few nice ones that I enjoy right here in our little town like the tom yam spaghetti…

…here or their just-as-nice belimbing (buloh) prawn spaghetti…

…too.

Another fusion dish that I enjoyed is the daging masak hitam kampua mee combo…

…from this place here. They also serve their sizzling seafood kampua mee which seems to go down pretty well with some of their customers but no, it did not really tickle my fancy.

Once, they tried the fusion of our Foochow bagel, the kompia, with spicy cheese chicken…

…but I don’t think they still have that on their menu anymore.

On the other hand, the people of this local franchise use the chu nu miang (the bigger, softer and slightly sweeter version of the kompia) instead of those regular bread burger buns to make their own fusion burgers – I tried the fish…

…but I think they have beef and whatever else too. They must be doing pretty well as they have been around for quite a long time already and to this very day, you can still see their stalls…

…at many coffee shops all over town.

Well, moving on from those, quite recently, we went and checked out this fairly new place in town and we asked for their babi bakar (grilled/barbecued pork) to be served with their aglio olio…

…at a special price of RM32.00 for the two together. You can order them as two separate dishes but we chose to have the fusion of the two. It turned out that the meat tasted like very well-caramelised char siew (barbecued pork) and was really very nice – we truly enjoyed the two together (even though the pasta could have been cooked a little longer that night).

I don’t know if the stall at this coffee shop is still around or not but at one time, the tom yam kampua mee…

…did draw a lot of attention and yes, I did go and try it too.

I thought the Bovril minced pork pasta…

…here was quite nice as well just that I am not too sure as to whether it qualifies as a fusion dish or not, considering that Bovril is made in England and pasta is Italian.

This fusion dish definitely swept me off my feet, their creamy tom yam giant freshwater prawn spaghetti served in a coconut…

It was so good that I simply had to go back there again for more. Unfortunately, they closed down all their outlets here including the one where this was available to focus on their business interests in Kuching and Bintulu. They did reopen another place here later and word has it that the menu there is still the same, dunno if they have this or not, but I have yet to go and check it out. Gotta get down to doing that one of these days.

There may be some more fusion dishes around town that I enjoyed but I can’t think of any right now. Perhaps if there are more, I shall have something to feature in another post. We’ll see…

PAYUNG CAFÉ (2.284049, 111.833014) is located at No.20F, Lanang Road, Sibu, Malaysia, back to back with the multi-storey car park of the Kingwood Hotel which faces the majestic Rejang River and NOODLE HOUSE (2.291406,111.829162) is located somewhere in the area immediately behind the Sibu Central Police Station at No. 2B, Ground Floor, Lorong Laichee 1, accessible either from Hua Kiew Road or Laichee Lane while OINKS Sibu (2.286075, 111.847044) is located at Sublot 7-01, Ground Floor, Hann’s Commercial Centre, Jalan Wong King Huo. and SE7EN CAFE (2.280045, 111.840458) is located at No.38, G/F, Jalan Aman, right next to The Pallet BBQ Steamboat & Buffet.

I won’t complain…

Believe it or not but right now, this…

…is my favourite nasi lemak in town!

A Malay lady cooks this at home and delivers a few packets to our neighbourhood fruit & vegetable sundry shop in the next lane from my house every morning at 6.00 a.m. I did manage to buy a couple of times, later in the morning, one or two packets that were left over for the day.

I did not know until the other day, the boss of the shop finally told me, that the lady would send it over at around 6.00 a.m. every morning! Of course I stopped by there after sending my girl to school the very next day and yes, the packets of nasi lemak were there, waiting! I grabbed all 6 of them, RM1.50 only each and had one…

…for breakfast and one for lunch and another one for dinner. The ladies had the rest.

At that price, I really have no cause for complaint but based on my criteria for judging a good nasi lemak, yes, the rice is well-cooked, not hard and dry nor soft and soggy, the grains still visibly whole…

…but it falls a bit short with regard to its lemakness – it is not lemak (rich in santan/coconut milk) enough for me.

The sambal, on the other hand, is simply perfect! Yes, it has that familiar regular nasi lemak sambal taste, a little salty, a little sweet and quite spicy and yes, the lady is very generous with it…

Of course, for just RM1.50 a packet, I do not expect much when it comes to the added ingredients…

– the two or three peanuts and the ikan bilis, a stamp-sized piece of omelette and a slice of cucumber. I am quite happy to enjoy the rice with the sambal alone.

At one time, they were selling this nasi lemak wrapped in brown paper for RM2.00 each that was very nice too and it did look that there was a lot more inside. Then they stopped until one fine day when this one appeared. The lady boss at the shop insisted that it was from the same source (the Malay lady) except that she is selling it in plastic bags now. Of course, it does not matter to me one bit since this one is also very nice and needless to say, I shall be buying more in days to come to take home and enjoy…

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…and on the other end, to the left is the Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket.

Just okay…

I said I would go and try their mee goreng (Malay fried noodles) but I changed my mind when I got there and I never got down to doing that since.

Well, the other morning, I stopped by again and I did not feel like having anything in that coffee shop nor the one next door so I decided I would give their mee goreng special (RM7.00)…

…a try, at long last!

Yes, I would say the noodles tasted great but no, they were not the same as the old lady’s here – I think I would prefer the latter a lot more. The special over at the other side had a bit of masak hitam beef and one fried chicken wing for RM6.00 plus a ringgit more if you want a fried egg as well.

Here, in their special, they were very generous with the chicken nuggets…

…and you would also get one fried egg…

…too. The egg was perfectly fried the traditional way, in a wok…with its beautiful golden fringe and its egg yolk still runny, exactly the way I would love it.

Yes, I would say that even though this was not as nice as the one at that other place, it was more than just okay and besides, if you are in this area of shops around the mall, you would be hard-pressed to try and find something halal (suitable for Muslims), only at this stall in this coffee shop and there is a roti canai stall (if it is still open) at one on the other side (facing the Methodist church) unless you go for something from Colonel Sanders or from that Taiwanese chicken franchise inside the mall or from our Sarawak’s own franchise over at the other side and those do not open till at least 10.00 a.m.

It sure looked like this one has its following too. While I was there enjoying my order, somebody came and ordered a takeaway – it was the same at the aforementioned old lady’s stall too. I also noticed a lot of people tapao-ing her noodles and nasi lemak and one more thing that I would add about this one here in its favour is that the serving I got was really huge and it was quite a struggle for me to finish all of it – in fact, it could be shared by two and there would be enough to go round.

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.

Some other time…

We had planned to go out that day for a chicken rice lunch when suddenly, the weather changed and there was a heavy downpour. Left without a choice, we decided to cancel our plans and just settle for a simple lunch of canned food at home.

Come last Sunday, the weather was good, very bright and sunny and seeing that it was the last day of the Hari Raya school break, I thought it would be a good time to go for the lunch that we were forced to put off till some other time earlier.

We had decided on the place already so we drove straight there, no second thoughts about that. There were quite a lot of things on their menu that we could choose but we opted for the simplest and easiest way out and settled for the RM48.00 set for 2-4 persons.

For RM48.00 per set, we got this plate of their beautiful, sweet and juicy steamed chicken…

…and their braised pork belly…

We were asked to choose two vegetable dishes from their list and we picked the mani chai/cangkok manis fried with egg…

…and also their ladies’ fingers…

We had to order the chicken rice (RM2.50 per bowl) separately as it was not inclusive in the set…

…but there was free flow of the very nice salted vegetable chicken soup, on the house. I would not say that the rice was so good but it was not too bad, a lot nicer than most of the other chicken rice places in the town but I still like the one my missus dishes out at home when she happens to be in the mood for this. LOL!!!

The standard chicken rice chili dip…

…was very good, just that it was not spicy. It certainly would be a whole lot nicer if it was so there would be a bit of kick in it.

My girl is more into roasted chicken so we ordered half of that only to be told later that they had run out of it. I also saw some stewed eggs in the glass display cabinet and was so tempted to order those as well. Luckily, I was able to resist the temptation as it was quite a struggle for the three of us to finish that aforementioned set. As a matter of fact, I was quite sure there was enough for 5 or 6 people! Of course, we could not finish everything so we asked for the leftovers to be packed for us to take home.

The place was pretty crowded that afternoon, probably because it was Mother’s Day but I did not feel uncomfortable at all because it was rather spacious – all the tables were placed far apart and even though they were somewhat busy, service was efficient and prompt.

All things considered, we certainly would want to go back there again the next time we feel like having some chicken rice.

TING KEE CHICKEN RICE (2.292362, 111.825681)…

…is located at No. 85, Jalan Kampung Nyabor, to the extreme left of the block of shops directly across the road from RH Hotel.

It’s not too late…

My girl loved the chai kuih…

…that I bought from here a few times but lately, when I stopped by the shop, they were not available.

I used to walk over from the pharmacy when I went there on Saturday mornings, before 8.00 a.m., to stock up on my prescriptions. The last few times I went and checked the place out, it was a Sunday, I think and I was told that the nyonya kuihs would not be available on Sundays and Mondays so I went on a Tuesday and there was none as well. That was Hari Raya and I thought it was because of the public holiday.

Finally, it dawned on me that at around 7.00 a.m., I was way too early. That was why after I had gone to get my car washed that morning…

…at around 8.00 a.m., I drove to the shop and yes, to my delight, the kuihs were available.

Thankfully, it was not too late as there were only two packets of the chai kuih and one or two of the rest left…

There was the kuih lenggang or what they call ketayap over in the peninsula…

…but I was not keen on buying those.

As I was taking those that I wanted, a lady came and it seemed like she wanted what I wanted as well so I quickly grabbed all that tickled my fancy and left the rest for her to sapu (sweep). Gee! It was still so early in the morning and they were all sold out!!!

The serimuka/kuih salat…

…was all right by our local standard, a lot nicer than all the rest sold all over town, but paled in comparison with the nice ones in Kuching.

I think I liked the kao teng koi (9-layer cake)…

…a bit more.

In comparison, I would give full marks to the chiew chu koi (tapioca cake)…

It was very nicely done – the texture was perfect and it was lemak (rich with santan/ coconut milk) enough.

The kim kua koi (pumpkin cake)…

…with its lovely hint of the hay bee (dried prawns) in it got our thumbs up as well. I certainly would want to buy these two again the next time I see any on sale here.

I am not so sure but it seemed to me that these kuihs available on Tuesdays and Saturdays only came from a different source, not the same as the one I always featured in my previous posts on them. They are mono-lingual at that shop so our conversations are always limited to some very basic stuff, no thorough discussion possible.

On a previous visit, I bought the Portuguese egg tarts from the shop and I did see my girl eating and enjoying them. That was why I walked over to the glass display cabinet to see what they had and yes, because I came a little bit later that morning, there were a whole lot of things already ready.

I asked for one blueberry egg tart…

…for my girl to try. It turned out that she liked it a lot – there was a lot of blueberry inside, she said. I did not get to try it myself but yes, since she enjoyed it, I certainly would buy more for her the next time I go to that shop.

HONG KONG PUFF is located along Ramin Way (2.291180, 111.826634), beside Sin Kiaw Coffee Shop, right behind the Petronas station at Kpg Nyabor Road (formerly Esso) across the road from the HSBC Building, Sibu branch.