He likes…

This guy was here before. At one time, everybody said that his kampua mee was the best in Sibu. I did go and try but I was not all that impressed. I did like his pian sip (meat dumplings) a lot though. Then he moved here and I did go to eat, twice and both times, it did not get me all that excited. After he had moved to his present location, that side of the coffee shop closed down and somebody else took over the kampua mee stall in what was left of the shop.

In the meantime, the char kway teow (fried flat rice noodles) people, my girl’s favourite when she was little, moved in from here after moving here, there and everywhere all over town while the brother of the guy took over at their former location.

I never dropped by there ever since the former kampua mee guy left but a foodie friend of mine seems to be quite a regular. He would share the photographs of what he eats there everytime and sing their praises to the skies. No, it was not my intention to go there that morning – I was driving past and on the spur of the moment, I made up my mind to just stop there and check things out.

There was an old lady running the kampua mee stall, assisted by a younger man, probably the son. I ordered her kampua mee and a bowl of her pian sip soup…

The kampua mee (RM4.00) looked really good…

…but the strands all stuck together when I started to eat it. The whole thing came up like a sanggul (hair bun) and it took quite a bit of effort to toss the noodles to loosen the strands before I could start eating.

That may happen when the noodles are not rinsed in the process of cooking to remove the excess starch but my guess was it was sometime after it was cooked before it was brought to my table and I was busy taking all the photographs, so I did not get down to eating it right away or perhaps, it needed a bit more oil/lard…

I thought the overall taste was kind of mild so I asked for chili sauce and it was quite all right after that.

Actually, it was the pian sip (meat dumplings) in my foodie friend’s photographs that caught my attention. They looked really very nice and there seemed to be quite a lot in a bowl compared to the ones elsewhere. That was why I asked for a bowl (RM4.00)…

…to check it out first hand.

I must say that I sure was impressed when it was served. The dumplings…

…were as good as they looked. The skin was perfect – translucent, smooth and very thin, the kind that would slide down your throat without any need for a lot of biting and chewing and there was just the right amount of meat filling. This is a noodle dish so the main focus should be the skin and there should not be too much meat in the dumplings.

The soup, however, was like the kampua mee, rather mild/bland. I was thankful that it was not overloaded with msg so I quite enjoyed it actually. Perhaps a richer and stronger bone stock soup would make it a bit better.

Due credit must be given for the use of ceramic plates and bowls, not those horrendous gaudily-coloured plastic ones – it is about time everybody gets rid of those! Parking is not a problem and it is free plus there is no traffic jam/congestion around here. On the whole, I thought this is a convenient place to stop by for a bite to eat but considering that the ones round the corner are cheaper by RM1.00, RM3.00 a bowl, perhaps one would prefer to just go over there instead.

ORIENT CANTEEN(2.289916, 111.835333)…

…faces Jalan Pedada, to the extreme left of the four-shop block right across the road from the shops where the Sunday Market formerly was on weekends. It is accessible via Jalan Tong San