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.