Not like that…

I have had those Indian banana leaf cuisine meals in Kuching, KL and Penang and yes, I did get to enjoy the authentic vegetarian version here once when my Indian friends at Payung invited me to join them one evening and yes, we do enjoy them very much.

Unfortunately, we did not have any in Sibu probably because of the very small Indian population here. I was very happy when some Indian mamak guy opened this place here but unfortunately, it turned out to be a Muslim nasi campur (mixed rice) joint that served everything on a banana leaf with nasi biryani on Fridays. A true blue authentic Indian banana leaf is not like that, no way!

I kept telling the boss at our favourite Indian/Indonesian restaurant in town to have it there, maybe once a week for lunch on Saturdays or/and Sundays but it all fell on deaf ears. “It’s very troublesome,” he kept on saying. “A lot of work!” Well, if he saw the crowd at this sparkling new place here…

…he probably would be keen on taking up my suggestion.

I was delighted when I saw the post on it on Facebook. “Finally!” I thought. “At long last!!!” I wasted no time at all soon after it opened to drop by and give it a try. It is a small and simple place, one shoplot and no decor other than this neon-lit sign on the wall…

I would say it is more like a coffee shop except that it is air-conditioned.

There was a Chinese guy there who looked like the one in charge, possibly the owner plus a few Malay girls waiting at the tables and serving the food. I did ask one of the girls what the name meant and she did not know! Other than that, I also tried to find out who the chefs/cooks were and where they came from and I must say I was quite disappointed when I was told that they were two local Sibu Malay guys – I thought that at least, they would be some of those Indian ones from West Malaysia. Never mind! The test of the pudding is in the eating – after all, the best kacangma chicken, the one and only in Sibu, is the one cooked by my Indian friend, the chef at Payung, from New Delhi.

Of course we went for the banana leaf set (RM14.90 each) and we were served some rice on a banana leaf, drowned with curry sauce, chicken or fish…

No, there wasn’t any meat, just some potatoes.

As for the sides, there was this cabbage thing…

…that my girl liked a lot because it wasn’t just any fried cabbage – she could taste the cumin in it so it did come across as something Indian.

I’ve always enjoyed this cucumber pickle…

…but I have the impression that it is more Malay or Indonesian, not quite Indian.

There were these papadums/poppadoms…

…too and I asked for two at one go and the girl willingly obliged. I remember one nasi kandar shop in Sg Petani, Kedah where they did not give us any and when I asked, they distributed to us one each, sealed tightly in a plastic bag and we were charged RM1.00 for ONE piece! *faints*

All the aforementioned are refillable – you can ask for more as many times as you like. I did ask for a little bit more rice with the curry gravy and the lady served me this ladies’ fingers…

…that second time around, piping hot from the kitchen and yes, I thought it was very good.

You have a choice between the chicken…

…or the fish…

…as part of the set but you only get it once, non-refillable.

I chose the fish so I would have something different to blog about and besides, I thought the chicken did not look that appetising in their menu. It turned out to be really very nice, the chicken…while the fish was rather bland/tasteless. I suppose it was one of those frozen till fossilised ones sold at the supermarkets.

You can order some add-on dishes, if you are thus inclined. The mutton curry looked very good in the picture but my girl did not want it and I am off red meat. I asked for the sambal petai but it was not available and in the end, I had the curry egg (RM2.50)…

…instead. I always enjoyed the sambal telur at the Malay or mamak eateries but unfortunately, I can’t say the same about this egg that I had. The curry was unimpressive, to put it a little nicely.

The ladies had teh tarek (RM4.50 a glass) and I had a small bottle of drinking water (RM2.00) and the total came up to RM67.51, inclusive of SST and service charge.

My missus felt that was too expensive seeing how on the whole, we did not get much but I thought it was all right as far as the price went but my bone to pick was that it was not exactly what an Indian banana leaf meal should be like. There were no chutneys – I love their mango or pineapple chutney, none of those Indian delights like their aloo gobi, for instance, their deep-fried bitter gourd, their raita and so on and so forth, all those things that I enjoy a lot and always look forward to but unfortunately, what we had turned out to be more like a Malay meal served on a banana leaf.

VOLNANA (2.296424, 111.885179) is located along that road to the Sibu Airport at 31A, No, 22, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, right beside the immensely popular Wow Wow West.