What’s on the other side…

It’s Christmas Day, the 25th of December, 2022, so a very Happy & Blessed Christmas, everybody! May God bless us abundantly in the coming year.

“May we share our hearts and give ourselves Feel the hope in helping someone else…“

Moving on to the post proper today, this is actually a bit backdated, before my visitors came to town and I was caught up with the things happening when they were here.

We were here for lunch the other day and I noticed that there were a lot more customers at the restaurant on the other side. We stopped going there when the quality of what they served started deteriorating but I did hear some people saying nice things about what they ate not too long ago. My girl liked the ikan keli I had that day and when she wanted to go back there for that, I suggested dropping by here instead.

Their lalapan ikan keli (RM16.96)…

…came in no time at all and I noticed the chip in the plate right away! Of course, I was put off by that.

My missus had their ayam bakar balado whatever, extra spicy (RM16.96)…

…and yes, her plate was chipped too!

Thankfully, mine was all right…

…but no, for an upscale restaurant, not some cheap and miserable no-class-at-all coffee shop, I simply cannot turn a blind eye to that! It gives the place such a bad impression – they simply must tell their workers to be a lot more careful when handling the ceramic crockery.

As for the food, I’m afraid we were not all that pleased with what we were served that day. It was bad enough that the chicken in my lalapan ayam madu (RM15.37)…

…was way too sweet and the texture of the meat felt like it had been boiled/braised/stewed for too long until it was almost fall-0ff-the-bone tender. My missus also felt the same about hers and my girl too as far as her fish was concerned. They complained that they all felt like those things that had been reheated one time too many! Yes, my girl did say that what I had that day on the other side was very obviously freshly cooked and tasted a lot nicer!

I love places where they wrap the rice in banana leaf and steam it as that would give the rice a special fragrance but mine looked kind of withered and discoloured…

I certainly hope they used an old leaf, not one that they had used before and had recycled to use over and over again. If they run out of some nice green ones, they might as well forget about wrapping the rice in the leaves altogether.

Yes, they still have the main attraction here – the three sambals…

…but they no longer serve them in those very nice traditional stone mortars that they were using when they first opened this place. They were all very nice but I prefer the sambal belacan, the one in the black saucer that came in the middle of the plate with the chicken. The ladies loved all three and we sure enjoyed them with the cucumber and the blanched vegetables as well as the rice.

The ladies had their teh tarek (RM4.24 per glass) but if I am not wrong, their glass was a little smaller than what they used on the other side. The total for our lunch that day came up to RM72.10. They did seem a little under-staffed here even though the place was very much bigger – there were a lot more waiting at the tables on the other side but it did not matter much as service was prompt and efficient. Nonetheless, it is pretty obvious that if we were to come back here again, we would not hesitate to go and enjoy what’s on the other side.

Yes, there were some buskers providing some light entertainment like the other day but instead of that girl in a wheelchair, there was another girl and a couple of boys performing. The girl was not too bad, not as good as the one before but I quite liked her slowed down version of The Reason…and she was a lot better than the boys – their singing lacked the enthusiasm and even their rendition of Rindu Bayangan sounded lacklustre.

CABE IJO 2.307983, 111.820602)…

…is located at No. 71 & No. 73, Ground Floor, Lorong Kuda 2, Kampung Nangka in the vicinity of the entrance to the Bisonte Grocer & Deli.