Help yourself…

When my ex-student and his Singaporean wife were at my house that day, they were very impressed and sang praises of the pineapple nuggets that I bought from here…

They seemed to know quite a bit about pineapple tarts and the rest – in fact, they have tried these…

…from Kuching before even.

These pineapple delights are a must for Chinese New Year because pineapple is “ong lai” in Hokkien and “ong” can be either king or good luck while “lai” means to come so it is believed that having these in the house will bring good luck.

I cannot remember when I started buying these pineapple nuggets…

…from the aforementioned bakery but yes, I was still teaching at the time so it would be before 2007 and I have been doing so every year without fail. I think I did not manage last year as they were all sold out so this year, I went early and was in luck! My brother-in-law went a few days later and went home disappointed.

This year, they also came out with this variety…

…that had cheese added. My guests from Singapore said that the original would win hands down and I must say that I absolutely agree. The taste and fragrance of the cheese in the pastry was somewhat overpowering and it drowned out the much coveted taste of the pineapple jam in the filling.

As a matter of fact, I bought two jars/bottles of each of the two but when my nephew, home from Shanghai, China, invited us out for dinner, I had nothing in the house to give so I just grabbed these to give to him, one of each. Otherwise, I could have given them to these connoisseurs of pineapple tarts from Singapore. Sorry, better luck next time! LOL!!!

I did try the pineapple tarts, rolls and nuggets from some other bakeries but they all paled in comparison. These…

…from Louis Bakery in the next lane from my house came in a close second. They made all three there and I got all of them in this very nice gift pack that my friend/ex-student, Alex, gave me…

…that day.

And talking about these festive cookies and stuff, I feel that the homemade ones were better because of the reduced amount of sugar added. For instance, if I am not wrong, my sister gave us the ones from this girl…

…who runs her own home-based business.

I loved her Nestum…

…a lot more than her oats…

…because of the coarser cereal used.

Other than these cereals, the use of nuts and seeds and whatever seemed to be catching on these days, for instance, in those Florentine biscuits…

This was the third one that we got to enjoy and they were pretty good as well. My missus bought them from this bakery…

…on the other side of town and she had nuts in these cookies…

…that she made herself as well.

Good grief! Gone are the days when cookies looked so elegant, so dainty and pretty – these were more like the ones I saw people abroad making using what they called “the spoon method”. Never mind the appearance, a cousin of mine who made hers using this method, told me. What is more important is the taste.

My missus also made these cheese biscuits…

…with chocolate rice added. With the extra cheese in them plus the Golden Churn butter used, they were very nice indeed. Unlike in previous years, she only made two types this time around. Instead, she just went and bought a whole lot from the aforementioned bakery.

The kuih momo…

…were all right, nothing like when they first came into the scene. Those used to be so nice with the fragrance of the ghee used in the making, something we simply can’t detect at all anymore these days. It may be because of the ghee – those available at the shops and supermarkets these days aren’t nice at all. That is why I do not bother to buy and use when I cook my yellow rice (nasi kuning/nasi minyak/ghee).

Incidentally, these were called kuih makmur when they first appeared on the scene. How on earth did it get lost in translation and become kuih momo? Our midin (wild jungle fern) is often called “million” in the menus in Chinese restaurants and the other day, I saw one that has it in the list as “merlin“. Good grief!!!

Anyway, back to the cookies, my girl loved these butter scotch ones…

At one time, the butter scotch bread from Gardenia was the craze among the people here – so good you can eat it on its own! She also loved these cheese sticks…

…and yes, I must say that I wholeheartedly agree. They were really crusty and would snap when one bit into it, plus who can resist the delightful fragrance and taste of cheese?

I used to love those peanut cookies a lot, the ones at another bakery in town but I did not bother to drop by and check it out this year. My missus got these…

…but I was not impressed. They did not have much of that peanut taste and fragrance that I loved so much.

One thing we had not bought for a very long time would be this red, sweet, spicy and super-smelly sotong (cuttlefish)…

My missus bought some that day but I did not notice it until the son of some guests of mine opened the bottle/jar to eat. Goodness gracious me! The stench filled the whole living room! The instant they left, I simply had to go and help myself to it and it sure took a lot of effort to stop!

These…

…were nice too but not as nice as those really smelly ones. Both were RM26.90 for 200 gm, RM134.50 a kilo. *faints* In my childhood days, I used to buy from my school canteen, 5 sen a palm-sized piece of rolled sotong/cuttle fish, red or plain (orange) with a generous sprinkling of fine sugar. Those were the days!

It’s Day 6 into the Chinese Lunar New Year today. I don’t suppose there will be people dropping by but of course, if there is anybody thus inclined, you are most welcome! Come! Come! Come and help yourself!

Doin’ well…

The other day, I felt like having some curry puffs…

…for my afternoon tea so I dropped by here. The last time I had any from there was in September, 2020.

They’ve renovated the place or so it seemed. The front wall had been removed and the place is no longer air-conditioned. They still serve food like what they used to do when they were a fusion cafe but it looked like their curry puff business is doing well and they have extended the cabinet and counter by the side…

There is a neon-lit sign on top: MY CURRY PUFF but I did not see it until I was passing by as I was driving away.

All their puffs are RM3.00 each and if you buy 5, you’ll get 1 free…and they allow you to pick the ones you want, no need to stick to the same one for all the 6 of them.

They had run out of their chicken curry puffs that day so I bought their curry-flavoured sweet potato ones…

…instead. There is egg inside; in fact, there is egg in all the puffs, never mind which flavour.

At best, I would say it was all right especially considering that I am not all that fond of deep-fried curry puffs. The skin was crusty and beautifully-made with the layers and all but I think I had nicer/tastier and cheaper ones from the roadside Malay stalls.

I bought one of the chicken char siew…

…to try and it was good, just that it was just like those sio paos (baked char siew buns) and as nice as any that we have here.

I also bought one of their creamy chicken mushroom…

…and this one stole the show! It did not look like much but the filling was very nice! My girl said that it tasted like those western chicken pies.

All in all, I would say that my favourite curry puffs in town would still be the ones sold at the bakery section of the supermarket on the other side of town…

*Archive photo*

We did make our way there during the recent school holidays. Maybe the taste of the baked short crust pastry and the filling was not as nice as before but I would say they were still good. Even the colour of the egg wash looked different – it was kind of orange instead of golden yellow and the price had gone up to RM1.60 each. When they first started, they were only RM1.00 each and if you buy 10, you would get 1 free. From the look of the mountain of curry puffs available for sale there, it was very obvious that they sure are doing very well too!

JUNCTION CAFE…

…is located among the shops behind Medan Mall, Jalan Wong King Huo, a few doors away to the left of JIALI CAFE (2.292140, 111.841524), in the vicinity of the Medan Hotel there.

Grab something…

On certain days in the week, my girl will not be able to come home for lunch as they will be having a meeting or in-service course or some co-curricular activities and on some days, they have extra classes for the pupils. On those days, they will have to order something for lunch to be sent to school via food delivery.

The other day, however, she said she would like to stop by the bakery on our way home so she could grab something for her lunch the next day. That is not a problem as we have many bakeries in the commercial area around the mall round the corner from our house. I just waited in the car while she hopped into one of them and that day, she was delighted to come across these bomboloni…

She did make some herself a long time ago around the beginning of last year, 2021 but she said they were something new at this bakery – they never made them before. Well, for the uninitiated, a bombolone is an Italian filled doughnut and is eaten as a snack food and dessert. Bomboloni is the plural form of bombolone, pronounced bom-bo-lo-nay with the stress/emphasis on the 3rd syllable. 

My girl bought herself the one with the strawberry filling (RM2.60) and for me and her mum, she got us the ones with pandan kaya filling (RM2.50)…

…which turned out to be very nice. I loved their own-made kaya (coconut jam) and I also liked how they had a bit of egg custard in the filling…

…as well.

However, even though I enjoyed it a lot, it was VERY sweet and the generous coating of sugar all over it sure did not help one bit. I don’t think I would want to buy it again, not when I am on a low/no sugar diet.

They are also making these ma ngee (horse’s ears/hooves)…

…these days, a local Foochow teatime delight going for RM1.80 each. they are very small though, a lot smaller than those humongous ones at the bakery across the road…

…but I feel the ones here are more authentic – the texture is more like the real thing! Those there are very nice too (and cheaper, if I am not wrong) but they are more like doughnuts which should not be the case.

In the end, my girl just grabbed two tuna puffs for her lunch the next day. Gosh!!! I would probably starve to death if that is all I have to eat for a meal in a day.

C & C GALLERY…

…is located at Lot 62 at the extreme end of the block of shops to the right of Delta Mall, back entrance.

This is ours…

I’ve said this before in one of my blogposts and here, I am saying it again: “Now if anybody tells you that bagels are something like our Sibu Foochow delicacy – the kompia, do not believe a word they say!”

I first tried it a long long time ago when they opened a bagel franchise place in Kuching and no, I was not in the least impressed. Hence, it came as no surprise at all that the place did not last very long. Fast forward to 2012, 10 years ago, my girl took us to her favourite bagel place in Wellington, New Zealand to try the ones there. Yes, we did enjoy what we had but it was mostly because of what we picked for the stuffing. After all, bagel is what bagel is, plain bread. As a matter of fact, if we eat some very good well-made kompia here, just like that, they can be very nice, very fragrant.

We can’t just go to some shops and ask for some bagels here, or not that I know of, but lately, there is somebody making them at home for sale. My sister bought us two of her wholemeal sourdough bagels (RM4.00 each)…

…the other day for us to try.

It was rather jun-jun (tough) on the outside but inside, it was soft and cushiony. It was, like I said, just bread but I took one, cut it into halves, buttered it generously inside and I added some roast chicken wings (my missus happened to be cooking some using the air fryer – nothing fancy, just rubbed with salt and pepper but it was nice), a few slices of my missus’ nice and crusty tomato from our garden and one cheddar cheese slice…

…and yes, it was very nice! I was thinking that it might make it a bit crusty and bring the taste to a whole new level if I had popped it into the oven toaster for a bit before eating.

These were the ones we had…

…in Wellington, New Zealand…

…and yes, we thought they were great. If we stuff kompia with all these nice things or if we have them in between slices of bread, they would be very nice too.

There, they had so many different types of bagels to pick and choose…

…unlike here…

My sister bought the wholemeal sourdough bagel…

…and they also have the blueberry…

…and the chocolate ones…

I think you can hop over to their Instagram page to have a look at all the things that they make and if you are keen on ordering some of them, their telephone contact is +60168881202 – just give them a tinkle and find out all the details from them.

Shrunk…

The other day, my missus cooked some phak lor sa chan bak (braised five-spice pork belly) but we did not manage to finish all of it so the next morning, I suggested eating it with kompia for our lunch that afternoon. Of course, she was all in favour of the idea – she likes eating kompia that way too so off we went to my favourite kompia shop in town.

My missus ended up buying some of their chu nu miang too and to my horror, they have shrunk so much…

…that they are now almost the same size as the kompia. They used to be at least double the size and they no longer look like what they used to before even…

For the uninitiated, the chu nu miang is what I call the female version of the kompia with its smooth appearance and its slightly sweeter taste and its softer, more cushiony texture. Thankfully, they still taste the same, just as nice as before and yes, they are still selling them at 3 for RM1.00.

They already increased the price of their kompia in mid-2019 to 2 for RM1.00 (50 sen each) and it still costs the same though I am quite positive that they are getting a bit smaller too. The prices of virtually everything have increased so they might as well do the same with their kompia and chu nu miang instead of shortchanging their customers with those miserable shadows of their old selves.

Well, we had our fill of these…

…for our lunch that day and when I shared the photograph on Facebook, it started everyone talking about the ones they had a long long time ago.

Yes, this is one of the ways by which they serve kompia here and the most popular ones…

…at the old lady’s stall at Tiong Hua Road, would date all the way back to the late 60’s. At one time, the kompia became so thin that they just served the meat on top like that instead of cutting them into halves and stuffing the meat in the middle and serving them in the delightful garlicky phak lor sauce.

If I am not wrong, my school moved into the neighbourhood in 1967 and over the years, all the students would frequent this place. Nowadays, they would come home from far and wide and they would not miss the chance to stop by the stall to eat these…with the special reddish orange-coloured serng boi chui (asamboi drink) to wash them down.

The young girls of St Rita’s Primary School, however, have fond memories of Ah Hua who used to sell this in the vicinity of their school a long, long time ago. Those girls are now grandmothers, believe you me and when they come to Sibu, they would make an effort to drop by Ah Hua’s stall at the hawker centre on the 1st Floor of the Sibu Central Market for old times’ sake and yes, he still sells kompia served this way.

I do know for a fact that they also have it this way at this shop in Rejang Park – if there are others, I’m afraid I have no idea where else you can get to enjoy eating kompia like this. Of course, they sell it at a lot of places all over town in all kinds of ways and my favourite would be the deep-fried ones stuffed with stewed pork belly here. The oven-toasted ones can be very nice too, you can take my word for it.

SENG WAN BAKERY (2.307484, 111.836558), the kompia shop…

…is located at the Rejang Park shops/commercial centre facing the Rejang Park Market, back to back with Quality Cake & Bread Factory.

Savoury…

Not everything is sweet here – they do have some very nice savoury pastries as well. My sister is a regular customer here – she likes the sio pao (baked buns) and curry puffs…

…and she likes how theirs are a lot cheaper than what one can find at the other bakeries in town, not that theirs are necessarily nicer. I’ve been here a couple of times but no, I am not a regular. There are many very popular eateries in the two blocks of shops and at times, parking may be a problem.

Well, it so happened that somebody gave my sister a box of these savoury delights including the sio pao…

I suppose these would be something like the celebrated Seremban sio pao…

…which I am not particularly fond of – I prefer the ones from Kai Joo Lane in Kuching…

…a lot more!

My girl did try the mini ones…

…or perhaps, these were the chicken ones. The shape may be different but the pastry and the filling taste and look the same.

I tried one of the curry puffs…

…and I loved the tasty curried potato filling. The pastry was kind of hard though – they would need to work on it to improve but as it was, I did enjoy it a lot more than some of the so-called curry puffs that they sell at some bakeries around town.

I guess with all the favourable reviews I’ve heard and what I tried was, on the whole, quite nice, I shall be dropping by there a lot more often now

SWEET FACTORY… 

…is located at Wisma Liberty, Lot 4047, Block 3, Jalan Pedada (now Jalan Dr. Wong Soon Kai).

Not by choice…

I guess everybody knows by now that I am staying away from a lot of things, not by choice but because of health reasons. For instance, I am off red meat and I’m staying off noodles – I will eat just a bit of rice and anything made of rice e.g. bihun, kway teow and dianpianngu. and I shall have to control myself when eating those as well – a little bit is fine, not too much! Of course, I have to stay away from sugar and go low on salt. I guess it comes as no surprise that what I eat these days isn’t very appetising, not anything that I would be looking forward to at all.

I eat a lot of fruits but I have to be selective – some are too high in their sugar content, others have too much potassium and phosphorus. Sweet cakes and cookies are out which leaves very little that I can eat for breakfast or for tea in the morning. No, my weekly tests show that I do not have a problem with my blood sugar but of course, it pays to be careful when it comes to these things.

The other day, I saw them selling these tausar peah (bean paste biscuits)…

…at a coffee shop here. They said a lot of things but in Mandarin and they insisted that they were not sweet. In the end, I decided to buy some to give them a try.

They were only RM1.10 each, the skin was very flaky and very nice, not sweet at all…

…but as far as the tausar filling was concerned, even though it was not very sweet, to me, it was sweet enough to be of concern. I think I would have to spread them out, one piece a day for breakfast or tea…or less and I would give some of them away.

I also dropped by this bakery that day – they make the nicest Swiss rolls in town. My girl loves the strawberry…

…but they have not been making that since those one or two times when I managed to grab one from there. They only had the coffee/vanilla so I bought one…

…and took it home. The ladies in the house said it was very nice but of course, I was very good and kept my distance the whole time. I felt I could do without the sweetness, never mind that it was not VERY sweet.

I’m eating the buns that I bought from there though, the pandan lotus paste…

…and the butter buns…

They’re very nice and we have enjoyed eating them all this while. The filling is a little on the sweet side so just like the tausar peah, I shall have to control myself and spread them out instead of eating too many at a time.

I don’t know if it was just my imagination but things did not look too good at the bakery. It was rather dim inside – they did not switch on all the lights and the Indon helper who used to man the cashier’s counter was no longer around. They probably sent her home already.

Other than that, there were not many things available, all placed on a small table beside the door – they used to fill the shelves but this time around, whatever was available was quite limited. There was only one pack of each of the buns that I bought, for instance. I did see the nice coconut roll…

…that I bought from there once, just one, but I did not feel like having that so I did not buy that.

YAT BAKERY (2.293035, 111.835887)…

…is located along Lorong Chew Siik Hiong 1A, directly opposite Uncle Dom, at the other end of the block of shops where Sushi Tie is in the commercial centre behind the Rejang Medical Centre.

It’s not too late…

My girl loved the chai kuih…

…that I bought from here a few times but lately, when I stopped by the shop, they were not available.

I used to walk over from the pharmacy when I went there on Saturday mornings, before 8.00 a.m., to stock up on my prescriptions. The last few times I went and checked the place out, it was a Sunday, I think and I was told that the nyonya kuihs would not be available on Sundays and Mondays so I went on a Tuesday and there was none as well. That was Hari Raya and I thought it was because of the public holiday.

Finally, it dawned on me that at around 7.00 a.m., I was way too early. That was why after I had gone to get my car washed that morning…

…at around 8.00 a.m., I drove to the shop and yes, to my delight, the kuihs were available.

Thankfully, it was not too late as there were only two packets of the chai kuih and one or two of the rest left…

There was the kuih lenggang or what they call ketayap over in the peninsula…

…but I was not keen on buying those.

As I was taking those that I wanted, a lady came and it seemed like she wanted what I wanted as well so I quickly grabbed all that tickled my fancy and left the rest for her to sapu (sweep). Gee! It was still so early in the morning and they were all sold out!!!

The serimuka/kuih salat…

…was all right by our local standard, a lot nicer than all the rest sold all over town, but paled in comparison with the nice ones in Kuching.

I think I liked the kao teng koi (9-layer cake)…

…a bit more.

In comparison, I would give full marks to the chiew chu koi (tapioca cake)…

It was very nicely done – the texture was perfect and it was lemak (rich with santan/ coconut milk) enough.

The kim kua koi (pumpkin cake)…

…with its lovely hint of the hay bee (dried prawns) in it got our thumbs up as well. I certainly would want to buy these two again the next time I see any on sale here.

I am not so sure but it seemed to me that these kuihs available on Tuesdays and Saturdays only came from a different source, not the same as the one I always featured in my previous posts on them. They are mono-lingual at that shop so our conversations are always limited to some very basic stuff, no thorough discussion possible.

On a previous visit, I bought the Portuguese egg tarts from the shop and I did see my girl eating and enjoying them. That was why I walked over to the glass display cabinet to see what they had and yes, because I came a little bit later that morning, there were a whole lot of things already ready.

I asked for one blueberry egg tart…

…for my girl to try. It turned out that she liked it a lot – there was a lot of blueberry inside, she said. I did not get to try it myself but yes, since she enjoyed it, I certainly would buy more for her the next time I go to that shop.

HONG KONG PUFF is located along Ramin Way (2.291180, 111.826634), beside Sin Kiaw Coffee Shop, right behind the Petronas station at Kpg Nyabor Road (formerly Esso) across the road from the HSBC Building, Sibu branch. 

Last stop: this town…

When my blogger friend from Penang was in town, he rented a car and went around on his own and among the places that he ventured to was this one. He liked the sourdough bread that he had there but he felt that the cinnamon roll was just so-so. I told him that I have never been there especially when I am not into these classy coffee joints serving all those sweet cakes and desserts.

Much to my surprise, after he had checked out from the hotel on the day he was leaving town, he stopped by there again and he bought me this lovely loaf of raisin bread…

He said that they were out of sourdough at the time and they would only come out with their fresh bakes at around 6.00 p.m. in the evening.

He also grabbed the solitary cinnamon roll…

…left and I shared that with the ladies in the house. All of us agreed that it was very nice. I guess by our local standard, this one stood a head above the rest – as a matter of fact, I do not remember any other place, bakeries included, making these cinnamon rolls. If they were any, I guess they were all quite forgettable and we never went back for more.

There was this yam Swiss roll too…

…but I let my girl enjoy all of it. I guess there are things I can do without now that I’m on a low sugar diet and talking about that, I sure would not mind dropping by here to check the place out now that they are serving a lot more than just those sweet cakes and desserts. I saw somebody sharing a photograph of their pizza and it sure looked good!

While he was in Sibu, my blogger friend managed to drive to Sarikei and Bintangor and he bought some old school stuff from the latter including these biscuits…

…and he gave me two packets to try. I do enjoy munching on these but I think the ones that I used to buy came from Sarikei.

I didn’t know what these…

…are called, this very old school Chinese rice cake. Usually, they are rectangular and come in layers, stacked up one on top of the other and there are other colours, pink and purple perhaps, other than white. I went around asking and was told that it is called pek ko.

My friend gave me these round ones…

…from Bintangor, with crushed peanut filling…

…inside. Nice touch! I thought that brought the taste up to a whole new level.

When he was in Sibu, my blogger-friend sent me a message asking me what this…

…was, something that he picked up at the Sibu Central Market. I told him that was our traditional Foochow engagement sweet, the lay peang, and he said he enjoyed it!

He came across this same thing in Bintangor so he bought a few to take home to Penang and he passed me one…

…to try.

There is a lot available from all over Sibu, the local ones as well as those from Sarikei and maybe, Bintangor…

…too and generally, they are all all right but my favourite is the one from that small shop in the Dewan Suarah area selling lung ngor, kompia and chu nu miang and a lot of other things as well, across the lane from Mother Cafe, same row as Aroma Bakery.

That sure was a whole lot of stuff that my blogger-friend gave me before he left town. Thank you so much and do come again – perhaps you can venture into the Melanau territories of Mukah and Dalat or the Iban territory of Kanowit the next time you come.

THE COFFEE CODE ROASTERY WORKSHOP (2.304459, 111.831098) is located at No. 1, Jalan Bintang Selatan.

The shape of you…

The other day, I decided to drop by one of the bakeries in my neighbourhood to see if there was anything that would tickle my fancy.

I spotted these ma ngee (horse’s ears), call it whatever you want (RM1.20 each)…

…but they were not quite the same shape as the traditional ones that we grew up enjoying, almost like it but not exactly. The old school ones had bigger “bags”, if you catch the drift. LOL!!!

I have not come across any really good ones from the stalls outside lately, nothing like those back in the good old days. These few weeks, I saw a lot of people coming home for the Ching Ming Festival and they were delighted to get the chance to enjoy some of these childhood delights. I must say that the ones in their snapshots looked rather pathetic, so small and all shrivelled up. So kesian!

The ones at the other bakery right across the road are very nice, HUGE but the shape and taste are somewhat different. The problem is they come out from the kitchen at around 1.30 p.m. and you would have to be there at the time to grab as many as you want. Past 3.00 or 4.00 p.m., there will not be any left and you will have to go back and try your luck the next day.

I did not get my hopes up too high that day but when I sat down to try these here…

…when I got home, I found that they were really good, just like those long ago except that they were smaller and the shape was a bit out, just a bit. I certainly would not mind dropping by here for more whenever I feel like it.

I also picked up this very small and cute “Great Britain pie” (RM3.80)…

…for my girl to try. I did not know if it was beef or chicken (I did not ask) but it had that smell that one would associate with western cuisine (ang moh ciak) probably because of the cheese in it and yes, my girl enjoyed it a lot, just that at that price for something so small, I don’t think you will see her or me running back there for more.

She was complaining that the bakery across the road was not selling their very nice Japanese cotton cheese cake anymore so I went to have a look and yes, there was none – I don’t know if they were all sold out and whether they have it at their other branches all over town. Much to my delight, I saw them selling it here (RM12.90)…

…so I quickly grabbed one and took it home.

My girl quite liked it…

…and personally, I thought it was pretty good too. If I remember correctly, this one here is slightly cheaper than the ones at that other bakery.

I also bought their croissant (RM3.80)…

…for my girl – she enjoys these things but the ones here lacked the buttery fragrance and were not nice and flaky as the more expensive ones here. They used to be RM3.00 each a long time ago but the price had gone up. Ah well! What’s new?

I also bought this chicken ham croissant (RM4.30)…

..as well that day. Hopefully, that slice of chicken ham…

…inside would bring the taste up to a whole new level.

C & C GALLERY…

…is located at Lot 62 at the extreme end of the block of shops to the right of Delta Mall, back entrance.