I wanna see you again…

My ex-student, Soon Yiew, still had a few days left in town before he had to fly back to Singapore on Friday but I did not want to deprive him and his parents of the precious quality time that they had to spend together especially when he would not be coming home so often. However, I still owe him for his lunch treat, his present and of course, the generous ang pao that he gave me so I decided to take my chance and asked if I could see him again.

He said he would be busy all day Thursday but he would be happy to meet up for dinner on Wednesday evening. Of course, I jumped at the chance even though I was not planning on going to some place grand and special, just this place that we frequent ever so often. I asked my girl and the mum to come along so we would be able to order more of their home-cooked like dishes – normally, we would not order so many and so much if there were only two of us.

I asked for the pek chang kay (poached/steamed chicken)…

…my favourite in town and I dare say I have yet to come across any here that is better.

The pork belly with dried chili and salted fish…

…was a disappointment. I do recall having others elsewhere that were a whole lot nicer and other than that, the meat was hard, like it was cooked for something else, probably siew yoke, and reused to come out with this dish. I regretted not asking for their sweet and sour pork ribs instead – one can’t go wrong with that dish here, that’s for sure. Very nice!

Yes, Soon Yiew wanted the midin (wild jungle fern)…

…which he would not get to enjoy eating in Singapore, that’s for sure and we also had our current favourite vegetable here, their kangkong (water spinach) with pork fat crusts…

A few days ago, my girl said she saw that they had chao chai hung ngang (big bihun in preserved vegetable soup) on their menu here and she wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, it was closed that day…and we ended up having the most disappointing one at another place in town. That was why that night, I suggested ordering the traditional Foochow chao chai soup with freshwater fish…

…and that would give us some idea as to how nice their chao chai hung ngang would be if we come here next time and order that.

Yes, Soon Yiew enjoyed it particularly, the very nice soup that he had not had for a very long time, he said. I also ordered a small serving of the Foochow fried noodles (with char siew added) here…

…to share so he could enjoy it, seeing how, in our opinion, the one here is the best in town. He did seem to like it and kept going back for more. In the end, we asked for what was left to be packed for him to take home for supper.

The total that night came up to only RM145.00 for 4, inclusive of rice and drinks and on our way to Soon Yiew’s house that evening, we stopped by a supermarket to buy half a dozen packets of this instant Kuching laksa…

He would be able to take them back to Singapore and enjoy with his wife and children there.

There you are! Like what I said earlier, we did not go for anything grand and expensive, just some simple and home-cooked like Sibu Foochow cuisine. Soon Yiew did comment on my Facebook post on this and this was what he said, “Thank you for a wonderful evening. The food was great, but your stories were far better! Till we meet again.” Ain’t no surprise that this old man had a lot of tales to tell, eh? LOL!!!

Y2K CAFE 千禧餐馆  (2.294220, 111.825753)…

…is located at No. 16, Jalan Tunku Osman, round the corner from that block of shops where the branches of AmBank & RHB Bank are located, with its back entrance facing the side (right, not the main one) entrance/exit of Methodist Secondary School.