We meet again…

We had not seen one another since December, 2019 when we were all in Kuching for my maternal cousin’s daughter’s wedding, before the pandemic broke out soon after, not until the other day when another cousin, one residing in Bintulu, drove over to Sibu for her hubby’s family reunion or something and of course, I was so delighted that we were able to meet up for breakfast and spend sometime together, chatting and catching up with each other’s lives.

Actually, we were invited once again but this time, to my cousin’s son’s wedding in Kuching in early September (the one whose daughter tied the knot in 2019) but I was not feeling too well already at that point in time and unable to travel here and there and my sister had a nasty fall and had to undergo surgery on her wrist. In the end, none of us went.

Of course, I was very happy when she sent word the other day that she would be flying to Mukah where the son and his wife are currently teaching and they would come to Sibu together by road. She asked me to help book a table for 10 on Saturday evening and we would have some kind of delayed celebration of her son’s wedding right here in Sibu.

I went to this restaurant that we like a lot to make the reservation and from the request, I assumed that they would like to have a complete full course Chinese sit-down dinner/banquet. That was why I requested for this hot plate combination…

…or what is called the Four Seasons elsewhere, just that we have a lot more than four choices in the platter here to start off the dinner and this yam paste (or nee) with lotus paste pancake…

…for dessert at the end. I handpicked all the dishes carefully and made sure there was a well-balanced spread of everything.

So there we were that evening at the restaurant, 10 of us altogether – my cousin, her son & daughter-in-law, my missus, my daughter and I, my sister and our late aunt’s foster daughter, her hubby and her daughter.

When all of us had arrived, we asked them to “choot chai” (start serving the dishes) and I was taken aback when the Thai chicken…

…came out first. I told them specifically that I wanted to make a chiak tok (“eat table”, meaning have a complete full course Chinese dinner) reservation but I did not want to just choose one of their sets – I wanted to pick the dishes myself, one by one.

Of course, I asked them why we were not served the hot plate combination platter first and they said that they were not given any specific instructions regarding which order to follow. I was quite pissed off, to say the least – I even had everything listed on a piece of paper and gave a copy to the lady who took my order. Because of this, the dishes would be served in any order as it pleased them, all at one go!!! Tsk! Tsk!!!

The sea cucumber with crab meat soup…

…that we enjoyed a lot on our previous visits, was served next.

Despite all that has been said about saving the sharks, the not-to-be-mentioned soup is still being served at such banquets here and of course, the amount and the size of the tasteless ingredient would determine its snob appeal. I chose this alternative instead as the taste was quite similar and my girl is not that keen on the chicken soup (with the extra nutritious black chicken usually) with scallops and fish maw that many would include in the menu these days instead of the “forbidden stuff”.

I guess everybody loved it but I only had a small individual bowl myself. I thought the sauce in the hot plate combination platter was very nice so I picked what I wanted from the selection and drowned them with the sauce so I could have that as some kind of a soup. Everything in that platter was very nice but somehow or other, because of the candles underneath to keep everything nice and warm, the green-coloured skin of the dumplings got stuck to the metal plate and ended up getting burnt. I certainly would ask them not to include those should we happen to have that again.

Yes, everyone thought the chicken was great but it was supposed to come later in my list. I had included their signature pork ribs…

…right after the soup with a special request for their very nice pickled jelly fish by the side. Previously, we had their other version with the sweet sticky sauce and the ribs cut into individual strips instead of being served in one whole slab like this but I thought it would be nice to try this one for a change. Personally, I liked the ribs done this way a lot more as the lovely taste of the pork was able to stand out, without it being overpowered by the sweet sticky sauce.

This broccoli with 3 types of fresh mushrooms…

…another of my daughter’s favourite dish here, was supposed to come out in between the ribs and the chicken dishes. This was an obvious favourite as it was gone in no time at all. I did not get to eat any, not even a bit but of course, it was because I was preoccupied with all the lovely dishes, the pork ribs especially.

The fish platter was served last by which time everyone was already too full to eat much of the delightful cod fish, steamed on one side…

…and deep fried…

…on the other. We had it steamed everytime and this was the first time I tried their deep-fried version. Despite the fact that I was so very full already, I liked it so much and helped myself to quite a lot of it. I don’t know what they used to coat the slab of fish but it was really very nice!

The butter prawns dish…

…usually the last dish at such dinners right before the dessert, was another bone to pick. I specifically told the lady I did not want this dry version with the egg floss and insisted that I wanted it creamy-style but it all fell on deaf ears!!! I did not like it when we had this same dish at the dinner with my niece, home from Singapore but it was a bit better this time around – they removed the shell of the prawns and the crustaceans were probably a lot fresher than those we were served the previous time – they were sweeter.

I did ask the newly-weds how much they paid for the dinner and they said it was around RM580.00, inclusive of drinks and rice. I thought that was pretty reasonable – I heard people complaining that the standard price per table these days is around RM1k and there usually isn’t much to eat – nothing to get excited about. You would have to fork out a lot more if you would like something better. Having said that, had I known that they would not serve everything dish by dish, “ciak thok” style, I probably would have ordered fewer dishes, a more manageable number and that, of course, would be even cheaper.

Thank you so much, cousin Isabella and of course, to the two of you too, Felix and Vianney, for the special treat. We sure enjoyed everything, the food and the company and yes, it was so very nice to see you all again. God bless, all…till we meet again!

The GRAND WONDERFUL RESTAURANT is right beside the GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…to the left, in that same building where the GRAND WONDERFUL HOTEL is located, along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.

Do you love me…

I cannot remember when they first started serving braised pork belly with mantao (steamed buns)…

…as one of the dishes in our full-course sit-down Chinese banquet or when we got some restaurant to cater for a lavish buffet spread for our home dinners/parties but I vaguely remember enjoying it so much in the late 60’s or early 70’s.

I am pretty sure it is still available these days at some restaurant in town or they may serve it with stewed pork leg like this…

*Grand Wonderful Restaurant photo from their Facebook page*

I loved the dong po pork belly with mantao here but sadly, the restaurant has since called it a day. Otherwise, you can try going to this food court and order from one of the stalls there – I have not been there for a very long time though so I am not sure if it is still around or not.

The mantao/buns…

…are easily available at many shops and stalls all over town. You can drop by one of the wet markets – they should be selling them there but the problem is you will have to cook the stewed pork belly…

…yourself.

Well, it so happened that the other day, I spotted a packet of 6 at one of the shops in the next lane from my house. I did not take note of the price – I just grabbed it and paid for everything that I bought from them that day. They do sell them on a regular basis but they do not seem to have a lot so most of the time, they are all sold out.

My missus will steam them and eat them with butter and jam and whatever but the other day, she went and cooked that awesome bowl of stewed pork belly in the above photograph.

Of course, we were a lot more generous with the meat…

…when we pried the mantao open to stack up the meat inside. We also sprinkled a bit of the sauce on the stewed pork belly to enhance the taste, making sure not to add too much as it might make the mantao wet and soggy and it would not be so nice anymore that way.

Once done, we covered it and feasted on it…

It tasted absolutely great and we sure enjoyed our lunch that day to the max. Rest assured that I shall grab another pack or two the next time I see any available at our neighbourhood shop again.

Combination…

I remember the first time I set foot on this food court was in September, 2020 and I tried the lor mee from one of the stalls there. It was a far cry from what it is like today, a lot more stalls and a lot more things to choose and enjoy.

When we were there one Sunday morning not too long ago, I saw something being served to a customer at one of the tables and it looked really good. That’s the lor mee, my girl said. She said she would like that with the noodles combined – I think they call it lor mee cham (mixed) in the peninsula…

*Hailam lor mee cham in Penang*

…but as far as I know, here, everyone has it with yellow noodles, nothing else. My girl and I had it that way when we were in Penang a long time ago and she remembers it to this very day.

Well, it so happened that the weather was good on Monday that day so off I went to the car wash and once it was done, I dropped by the food court for breakfast and of course, I wasted no time at all in ordering the lor mee…

…but I asked for the combination of two types of noodles, the usual yellow noodles and bihun (rice vermicelli)…

…the way my girl would love it!

Yes, it was very nice. The rich thick phak lor gravy was very well done and tasty, not too strong on the five-spice powder (ngor hiang hoon) which would put me off but I was missing the few strands of kangkong (water spinach) that one would usually find in a bowl of lor mee. Other than that, I did not like the factory-made fried shallots the first time and I had forgotten all about it or I would have told the lady I would not want those – I just cannot stand the smell/taste.

All things considered, it was nice and at only RM6.00 a bowl, I thought it was cheap. There was a lot of lean meat slices, aside from the tofu puffs and the hardboiled egg. However, I did not feel there was any difference in the overall taste despite the combination – it was like what it was, lor mee.

My blogger-friend took me out for breakfast here in 2012 and he had the combination of their lor mee and prawn mee…

…and yes, there were yellow noodles…

…and bihun…

…together in the combined dish and yes, I did enjoy that. Unfortunately, I do not remember what it tasted like and I don’t think we can get anything like that here so we will just have to be happy with what we have, never mind that it isn’t anything to get excited about.

GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.

Unchanged…

I’ve been having two half-boiled/cooked eggs and some oats with cranberries for my breakfast most every morning so much so that on some days, I really feel like I am so sick and tired of them. I guess I do not have much of a choice and will just have to go on eating them whether I like it or not.

Well, I was thinking that perhaps, once in a while, I can go for something else for a change. The little break would be a welcome relief and the other day, I was feeling like having some steamed bak paos (meat buns).

I like these…

…a lot, my favourite among all that we have in town.

I did drive past the coffee shop (across the road from SM Tung Hua in the vicinity of the Dewan Suarah, Sibu) and it looked like they have renovated it very nicely now. I saw a steamer for steamed paos and also a glass cabinet – I wonder what else they are selling there now. They were telling me that the guy making the paos would be there before dawn and everything would be sold out by 7.00 a.m. so he would not be around any later than that. Perhaps he is making more these days so even though it was already 9 something, I did see some paos on display.

I did not stop to go and have a look though. These days, after my nasty fall, I am not keen on going anywhere, especially when I am on my own and I would definitely avoid uneven places with the sinking land problem. I just went to the stall in the next lane from my house in the afternoon, after around 2.30 p.m. to buy a lot to keep in the fridge to steam and heat up and enjoy eating slowly.

I must say that I am mighty pleased that the price has remained unchanged – they are still RM2.50 each despite the rising prices of pork and everything else around here. I don’t think there is less meat in the filling…

If they have scrimped and saved on that, it sure does not feel like it and yes, I am glad that the wedge of hard-boiled egg…

…has not gone missing like the ones here that I enjoyed and used to buy regularly.

That one has gone up in price too, RM2.50 now. It used to be RM2.00 for a long time and then, it went up to RM2.20 and later, RM2.30. It is so very flat nowadays that it sure does not take a lot of imagination to see that there is very little filling inside. Yes, there is a bit of egg these days…and I do mean a bit! It is not even a wedge, probably 1/32, half of a 1/16 wedge. Seeing how disappointing it has become, I have stopped buying it completely, thank you very much. Period.

The Chinese pancake or ban chang kuih (慢煎糕)/apam balik stall…

…is located on the five-foot way in front of the TCM clinic between Kim Won Chinese Medical Store and Mini-supermarket and Swee Hung (2.316161, 111.840441) along Jalan Ruby, in the block of shops on the right – next to a hair salon at the extreme end.

Not for everybody…

My sister gave me a pack before that was vegetarian which meant that there was no lard inside and when I told her, she gave me another pack without the word “vegetarian“…

…which of course means that this is not for everybody, if you can catch the drift!

I finally got to try it when my missus finished off the last packet in the previous pack – I did not want to open a new one when one was still unfinished.

I took a packet and cooked it and I also fried an egg to go with it…

It was all right – I thought the fragrance of the lard and shallot oil was somewhat mild, not as strong as I would have liked it to be.

That was why when I cooked the second packet, I decided to add some Bovril…

…and a bit of soy sauce instead.

Yes, there is a sachet of fried shallots in this one…

…and I mixed half of it with the oil together with some chopped spring onions from our garden (and sprinkled the rest on top of the noodles prior to serving).

I put away the other sachet, the one with the chio cheng (light soy sauce) for use some other day. That would not be necessary at this point in time as it would be salty enough already, I’m sure.

Yes, it…

…was very nice. I loved the taste and no, it was not too mild nor too salty, just right but I did not like the QQ texture of the noodles nor the taste.

It took a long time to boil – just like the old school mee kua (mee sanggul) at one time but it lacked the latter’s fragrance and taste. I think I should just go and buy a kilo of kampua mee or mee pok or a bag of mee sanggul to cook my Bovril mee instead of wasting these this way. I’m pretty sure it would be nicer with those noodles.

Incidentally, these instant noodles are not so well marketed but they told me one can get them at Farley or Kim Hock Supermarket or Doremart (including the branch at Sg Merah).

All’s well that ends well…

My girl dropped by here with her mum one afternoon and when she got home, she said she would like to go there again to see what else they had on their menu. I guess she liked what she ate there a lot. Of course, all this while, I wanted to take her there but somehow or other, most of the time, we ended up elsewhere. Once, when we got there, they were closed for two days for a private function – I wonder why they did not bother to announce it on their Facebook page!

I also found out that they now open at 11 unlike before when they would open at 9.00 a.m. to serve their breakfast menu. Their lunch menu would start at 11 and their dinner menu at 5. I guess they did not get a lot of people coming in for breakfast so they have decided to stop serving that.

We finally managed to stop by last Sunday for an early dinner, right before a massive storm blew up! We were given the QR code to scan with our smartphones or whatever for the menu and to place our orders. Well, I do not have one and for reasons unknown, the ladies refused to use theirs – in the end, they just browsed through the waiter’s small one, scrolling up and down and squinting their eyes to see what they could manage to see. Honestly, I think it is such a bloody nuisance. They want to be so canggih, they can supply tablets or ipads for customers to use to look at the menu and make their orders. We did encounter this same thing at one other place and the sweet young thing did everything for us with her own smartphone!

I did not want to wait for my turn so I just looked at the photo displays on the wall behind the bar/counter. I saw they had fish and chips, Thillapia [SIC] and I was curious as to how they could fillet it. It is not all that fleshy with one big bone down the middle. I do enjoy the one (eco-fish) at our local Sarawak franchise (Sugar Bun) with their fragrant rice and some pickle by the side but the price has gone up to around RM25.00 now so I would much sooner go for something else that is more affordable and perhaps, even nicer.

Anyway, the boy (waiter) said they were out of fish and all the dishes were not available except for one – fish fingers. “You mean those frozen ones that they sell in boxes at the supermarkets, Pacific West, for instance?” I asked the boy and he said yes. “No, thank you!” I told him. “I have a lot in my freezer at home!“

I moved on to the pork loin and the boy said they were out of pork too so no, I could not have the pork loin nor the pork chop. “My goodness!” I exclaimed. “This is absolutely disgraceful! What on earth do you people have?” In the end, I just asked for the porkie burger (RM18.00)…

…and thankfully, they did have that…

…and yes, I did feel it was quite nice and I do mean QUITE! I enjoyed it but no, it did not exactly sweep me off my feet. As a matter of fact, I felt the presentation looked quite bare…

– other than those few miserable strings of fries, they could have given a bit of coleslaw, tomato slices for the colour and so on.

My girl’s aglio-olio seafood (RM32.00)…

…was very good, very strong on the lovely fragrance of the garlic and not too much olive oil. I do not enjoy those that are somewhat too oily, not at all. It did not come cheap but with so many of those huge prawns, the mussels and the sotong (squid), it sure did not come as a surprise…and they were very generous with their ownmade pasta too.

My girl had this calamari fritti (RM26.00)…

…when she was here the last time and she loved it a lot. That was why I asked for it again to let her enjoy it some more. It came with this tomato salsa but personally, I liked the sotong without the dip – it was much nicer on its own.

My missus had their yakitori chicken chop (RM28.00) before and yes, she asked for that AGAIN…

…and yes, it was good – the yakitori sauce sure did wonders to enhance the taste of the meat but it felt like FOREVER before it was served. We even had to get their attention and nudge them a little before it came. With the storm raging outside, there were not many customers around (and they had so many people in the open kitchen) so there certainly was no excuse!

We sure enjoyed all our orders that night unlike during our previous visits – the last time we dropped by here, the Ceasar Salad, something that we always enjoyed everywhere else, was so very salty that we could hardly eat most of it…and I did not like their matcha panna cotta, not at all. I thought that was awful!

The bill that night came up to RM120.65 with the 6% SST and the 10% service charge on top of the RM104.00 for the food. For the kind of money they are charging, I sure am glad to see that finally, they have got rid of the assorted crockery they were using before – I used to get so mood-spoilt when I spotted some badly chipped ones time and time again. This new set that they are currently using certainly look classier and are obviously of a much better, more durable quality. Pat on your back, Anvil!

CAFFEINE CAFE (2.302620, 111.842988)…

…is located on the ground floor of Wisma Liberty, Block 3, Lorong Dr Wong Soon Kai 7, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada) – on your left, if you are coming from town.

Too much to handle…

We dropped by this restaurant for lunch the other day as I was told that it did not matter even if there were just the three of us and all the tables were those HUGE Chinese banquet ones for 10 persons. Of course, some friends had forewarned me that I must ask for smaller than small servings because even then, we would end up getting too much to handle!

The soup that we ordered, their sea cucumber soup with crab meat, came…

…and goodness gracious me! That is the regular bowl that they usually use to serve the soup for 10 people at any Chinese banquet! We ordered that before but there were six of us and we did manage to finish most, if not all, of it.

Thankfully, it was, like the first time, very nice – just like sharks’ fins soup minus the offensive stuff but I just had a small bowl with a bit of black vinegar added…

…all to myself and that was enough for the entire meal. In the end, we asked for the rest, at least half the bowl, to be packed for us to take home and have it for dinner that evening.

We also had the broccoli with three types of fresh mushrooms before and my girl loved it a lot so we had that…

…again. We managed to finish half of it and yes, we also had the rest packed for us to take home.

For our meat dish, I asked for the Marmite pork ribs…

…which was, at best, all right but no, it did not taste anything like Marmite as I have always known it to be since time immemorial. I’ve seen them selling the sauce at the shops so perhaps, they used that instead of the real thing which, like Bovril, does not come cheap, not at all!

I thought it tasted all right but was a tad too salty. No, I don’t think it was anything I would want to order again even though I’ve seen a lot of people talking of the Marmite-whatever dish that they had and enjoyed so much, their Marmite crabs, for instance. We did manage to finish all of it so we did not have to get it packed for us to take home as well.

The total for the food came up to a whooping RM85.00 but looking at the size of the servings, I wouldn’t say I was surprised. Perhaps if we had ordered 2 dishes for the 3 of us, there would not be too much for us to handle but usually, we would have a meat, a veg and a soup. I guess it would be better to reserve this place for big parties when there are lot of people coming together for dinner, not just the three of us…and in the meantime, we can just go and enjoy what they have at their chap fan (mixed rice) stall at their food court outside.

The GRAND WONDERFUL RESTAURANT is right beside the GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…to the left, in that same building where the GRAND WONDERFUL HOTEL is located, along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.

This is ours…

I’ve said this before in one of my blogposts and here, I am saying it again: “Now if anybody tells you that bagels are something like our Sibu Foochow delicacy – the kompia, do not believe a word they say!”

I first tried it a long long time ago when they opened a bagel franchise place in Kuching and no, I was not in the least impressed. Hence, it came as no surprise at all that the place did not last very long. Fast forward to 2012, 10 years ago, my girl took us to her favourite bagel place in Wellington, New Zealand to try the ones there. Yes, we did enjoy what we had but it was mostly because of what we picked for the stuffing. After all, bagel is what bagel is, plain bread. As a matter of fact, if we eat some very good well-made kompia here, just like that, they can be very nice, very fragrant.

We can’t just go to some shops and ask for some bagels here, or not that I know of, but lately, there is somebody making them at home for sale. My sister bought us two of her wholemeal sourdough bagels (RM4.00 each)…

…the other day for us to try.

It was rather jun-jun (tough) on the outside but inside, it was soft and cushiony. It was, like I said, just bread but I took one, cut it into halves, buttered it generously inside and I added some roast chicken wings (my missus happened to be cooking some using the air fryer – nothing fancy, just rubbed with salt and pepper but it was nice), a few slices of my missus’ nice and crusty tomato from our garden and one cheddar cheese slice…

…and yes, it was very nice! I was thinking that it might make it a bit crusty and bring the taste to a whole new level if I had popped it into the oven toaster for a bit before eating.

These were the ones we had…

…in Wellington, New Zealand…

…and yes, we thought they were great. If we stuff kompia with all these nice things or if we have them in between slices of bread, they would be very nice too.

There, they had so many different types of bagels to pick and choose…

…unlike here…

My sister bought the wholemeal sourdough bagel…

…and they also have the blueberry…

…and the chocolate ones…

I think you can hop over to their Instagram page to have a look at all the things that they make and if you are keen on ordering some of them, their telephone contact is +60168881202 – just give them a tinkle and find out all the details from them.

Missing…

There was an immensely elaborate spread at the buffet table at Peter’s garden party that night to celebrate his mother’s 103rd birthday but despite that, as I did mention in my earlier post, I noticed that a lot of the nice dishes on the café’s menu were missing, those lovely hot and spicy dishes especially.

Surprisingly, their very nice kacang ma chicken…

…was not included either. I wouldn’t say it is difficult to cook this ladies-in-confinement dish but it may need a lot of effort and can be quite time consuming.

You can buy the leaves easily at the Chinese medical stores here, slightly green still even though they have been dried before hand. Consequently, you will have to dry fry them till they’re well done and black in colour and grind or blend them well before they are ready for use.

Other than that, you will need to pound/blend the top quality local ginger till really fine – nothing puts me off than getting bits of it in my mouth while eating the dish and yes, I did say local ginger. Those dehydrated ones imported from China simply do not make the grade. They are not juicy (which is squeezed out and used in the cooking) nor are they “hiam” (the strong and pungent spicy quality of the root) enough and no, you must not remove the skin – that is where the lemakness (richness) of the ginger is).

On top of all that, you will need a reliable supply of the top quality Chinese white wine (pek chiew thow) for the dish!

You can google to find the complete recipe and the steps to cook the dish. It shouldn’t be too difficult, especially considering that Andy, Peter’s Indian sidekick, at Payung Café can do it and do it so very well. I must say that what he dishes out is simply the best, better than many at coffee shops elsewhere (in Kuching) especially when they scrimp on the ingredients or do not use the best…or perhaps, they are not so good at cooking it.

We had our fill of it not too long ago when we were going to my sister’s house for lunch, those days when she was nursing her fractured wrist and since we did not have it that night at the party, I asked my missus if she would like to hop over to the café the other morning for it…

…and needless to say, she was 100% in favour of the idea. We sure enjoyed it and what we were told was that lately, they have had customers dropping by just for a bowl of this to enjoy for lunch with a plate of rice. It certainly looks like more and more people in this Foochow town have acquired the taste for it these days.

We ordered their pomelo salad…

…as well that day and the fruit this round was super sweet. We sure loved it a lot.

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.

Helpless…

I did blog about the increase in pork prices here in Sibu the other day and how many coffee shops were closed in protest against it.

They did circulate a list of prices for the different parts online but I did not bother to have a look – after all, we are helpless against it and there is nothing we can change. Either we do not buy and eat…or we just close an eye and go ahead. My missus did grumble over and over again that it went up by 25% from RM28.00 a kilo to RM35.00 a kilo but she has not said anything about it for a while now – as they say, life goes on!

This very popular place used to charge RM4.50 for a plate of kampua mee while others were selling theirs for RM3.50 or RM4.00. Well, somebody told me that it has gone up to RM4.80 now but everytime I drive past, I will see the crowd there – obviously, nobody seems bothered about the increase in price. However, I do feel that the kampua mee from the stall here should not be that expensive – it was RM4.00 too when they were charging that price at that other place.

I would not say the lady’s kampua mee is exceptional. Yes, it is good enough for anyone who happens to be at that food court to order and eat but when it was RM4.00 at that other place, she also charged that outrageous amount, RM4.00 for something quite mediocre. Others elsewhere were selling theirs at RM3.50 or less!

Well, the other day, I ordered her pain sip (meat dumplings) soup and it was RM4.50. Perhaps she has not heard that they have jacked up the price to RM4.80 at that other place. Just like her kampua mee, her pian sip…

…was good enough but I would not rank hers among the best in town. The skin was not thin enough – as one can see in the photograph, it is not thin and translucent and as a matter of fact, I could taste a bit of the floury or doughy taste while I was eating them. Of course, some are worse…but if you want to keep increasing your prices, you just have to pull up your socks and keep on your toes.

Well, we were there for breakfast after the church service on Sunday morning – we did not go to the sunset one the previous evening as we were at the birthday party here and of course, like everytime I dropped by here, I just had to have the delightful clear fish soup…

…that I enjoy a lot with kway teow (flat rice noodles)…

…and that too has gone up from RM6.50 to RM7.00, not that they have added an extra meatball or something to merit the additional 50 sen for any extra pork used but this is very nice, value for money and I do not really mind paying a little bit extra for it.

My girl wanted to try their tom yam hung ngang (big bihun)…

…and that cost even more, RM8.00 a bowl but thankfully, she did enjoy it. It was sour, she said, and not spicy.

My missus went to that stall beside the kampua mee stall where I ordered a pack of ayam penyet rice to take home and I got his not-nice-at-all roast chicken rice in the end. After that one occasion, I had no intention of going back to that stall ever again, thank you very much. Actually, that handsome Iban man was a waiter in the drinks section at that food court but he decided to venture out on his own so I can’t say I had a lot of confidence in his cooking ability.

The mee mamak…

…that my missus ordered from him did not look all that enticing but she said it was nice. She also got my girl to try and yes, she liked it too. Well, for one thing, it was RM6.00 only (I don’t know if they have jacked up the prices at the Chinese chu char places) and he was very generous with the ingredients. I guess I can give it a try myself the next time I drop by here to give him a second chance.

GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.