One of a kind…

You will not find anything like it anywhere else but I did get the opportunity to enjoy their one-of-a-kind buffet spread once at our family reunion here and another time when my 1969 classmates and I held our 50th Anniversary reunion here. Other than those two occasions, we also celebrated Valentine’s Day here once and another time the following year.

Well, usually every Saturday evening, we would attend the sunset service in church but when Peter contacted me to invite me to his very special garden party to celebrate his mum’s 103rd birthday, I simply could not say no…so there we were, my family and I and my sister as well at Peter’s Wooden House (not to be mistaken for Robert’s Wooden House here in Sibu) with 9 of his siblings in his family of 10, their children and grandchildren and some of their friends – that sure was a big crowd that night and yes, there certainly was a lot of food to go round.

I think Andy said this was their Japanese curry…

…but it was not the same as the ones at the franchises here in Sibu. In my condition, I was not all that keen to join the crowd to get the food but Andy was so nice and thoughtful to do it for me…twice! That was why I did get to try the curry and yes, it was nice, not quite like curry as we know it.

He also got me a drumstick from the butter chicken…

– this is on their café’s menu and it does seem to be pretty popular.

This is also on their menu, their Payung chicken…

…which my girl likes and will order sometimes but personally, I am not a fan of the pungent chow chay (green) smell of the green peppers in the dish.

I’m not sure what this was but Andy said it was a Myanmar dish…

…probably their mixed vegetables and this…

…is our local paku (wild jungle fern) cooked with santan (coconut milk).

It sure looked like Peter was afraid that his family members and their friends were not so into anything hot and spicy and to play it safe, he had avoided those lovely dishes in his menu that we always enjoy a lot.

There was a range of salads including their very popular Payung rojak…

…and also their guava salad…

No, they do not have this potato salad in their menu…

…and Peter will only make his awesome fruit salad…

…when there are sweet strawberries available in town. Andy did not get any for me and both my sister and my girl came back empty-handed while my missus managed to get…a grape! It was THAT popular and was all gone in no time at all! LOL!!!

Of course, we enjoyed the beef bolognese spaghetti…

…with its freshly-made (from scratch) bolognese sauce, not one of the bottled or canned ones. We would order this at the café time and time again to enjoy and even tapao to eat at home and never mind that at this point in time, I should not be eating red meat – I just had to have a bit of it and I was quite sure it would not kill me.

This fish head curry…

…and Foochow fried noodles…

…came from the leading hotel in town, right behind the café. I did not catch exactly what Peter said – whether they bought them through a regular customer of theirs at that hotel or whether she bought and gave them as her contribution to the party.

Peter’s brother, the one who used to cook the most awesome traditional Foochow red wine and ginger chicken soup for the out-of-this-world birthday mee sua, was there that night. I heard that he had a stroke and that night, he was in a wheelchair but I was glad to see that he was very cheerful and looked good and healthy. In fact, it did not stop him from frying a plate of the most delicious bihun and just like Peter’s fruit salad, that was gone in no time at all.

I just had two rounds of the food and I simply could not take anymore – I do not eat that much these days especially in the evenings but yes, I did enjoy myself with the great food and the lovely company all around. Thank you so much, Peter (and to you too, Andy), for the invitation – it certainly was an honour for us to be part of this very auspicious celebration. May God bless your mum abundantly in the year ahead and you and all the members of your family too. Cheers!!!