Goodwill…

In Malay, the word for goodwill is muhibah, the name of the hawker centre located near my house…

It was very popular, always crowded…

…and one would have to park one’s car far away and walk all the way there in an area that was not very well-lit. That was why I was not all that keen on going there despite its close proximity.

The last time I went was in August, 2019 for what I called their Mango No. 5…

…RM10.00 only, so cheap compared to those Korean Bingxu ones.

The authorities decided to demolish the place and rebuild the whole place soon after that and some of the hawkers were relocated temporarily to a small, dark, unpleasant, mosquito-infested place at Sg Antu. Of course, I never went there.

They certainly took their sweet time in getting this place done and finally, the other day, on the 2nd of March, it was open for business. Yes, it is much nicer now, a whole lot bigger and of course, it was extremely crowded on the evening of the first day when I drove past.

I don’t know if the mango stall is still around though because a few days prior to the opening, 8 stalls at the temporary site were razed to the ground…

*Amazing Sarawak photograph on Facebook*

…and I don’t know if the mango stall was one of them.

I did see a lot of people and very long queues in front of the satay stall though I am not sure if that would be the same one…

…that we used to frequent a long long time ago…

…even though they were VERY slow in getting down to business every day.

We used to drop by earlier in the evenings to tapao food home for dinner. It used to be very nice and VERY cheap too! Imagine buying RM5.00 worth only of the very nice Foochow fried mee here and there would be enough for the whole family for dinner. These days, you cannot even get a plate for that kind of money!

This was the sweet & sour pork…

…among the other dishes that I bought from Stall No. 7 there in 2011. It did look pretty good, don’t you think?

I brought my friend, Ivan, there (now flying internationally with Emirates) when he came to town to visit me that year and yes, we were there too with Claire and her family from Ipoh and our West Malaysian blogger friends…

…the following year in 2012 and my girl sure enjoyed the fried stuff…

…from the stalls…

…there. There were a lot of those then and I bet there are a whole lot more now.

I guess we would just have to drop by one of these days to see what they now have in store – perhaps, if we could wait a little bit longer, it would not be so jam-packed.

TAMAN SELERA MUHIBAH Hawker Centre (2.310492, 111.845999) is located at the Delta Commercial Centre, off Jalan Pedada (now Jalan Datuk Dr Wong Soon Kai), right beside the AmBank branch there. 

Take it for granted…

All our lives, we called it sai seng in Hokkien…

…even though it might not be a very flattering name but in our house, it was more commonly called ikan buris, probably by virtue of the fact that my maternal grandma was a Melanau. We never bothered to find out whether that was in Malay or Melanau – we just took it for granted and assumed it was the name of the fish in both languages and enjoyed eating in various ways – deep-fried, masak rebus (boiled as a soup dish)…

…masak kunyit (cooked as a soup dish with tumeric), wrapped in/with leaves and grilled…

…cooked with durian mantak (unripened durian)…

…and one thing I would say is that never mind how we would cook it, it was going to be nice.

The other day, however, I managed to get hold of some at a shop here but the lady called it ikan lajong which to me, would be a different kind of fish altogether. My cousin in Kuching said that buris was the name in Melanau – we just used that name happily, never bothered as to what language it actually was.

Come to think of it, Malaysia is a multi-racial country. There are so many things all around us that we are familiar with – the types of fish, for instance or the different varieties of vegetables. We may know the more popularly known ones by sight or we may know the names but we never bothered to check as to whether those would be the real/correct names or not, or what language they are in actually.

The other day, for instance, I featured the kasam ensabi kepayang in my blogpost and my friend, Irene, in Kuching had no idea what on earth I was taking about…

*Photo taken from Ruai Aku’s Facebook post*

Well, I don’t blame her for that because before my girl was posted to that jungle school in Selangau, I too did not know what ensabi was. It is actually a very bitter vegetable that they preserve/pickle, thus called kasam ensabi. I do enjoy eating the fresh ones but I prefer the kasam which is something like our preserved/fermented vegetables…

*Photo from Ruai Aku’s Facebook page*

…but nicer. Incidentally, buah kepayang is buah keluak, very popular in the nyonya/peranakan cuisine.

Another name that I used to assume wrongly before was the daun Bandong…

*Photo from Ruai Aku Facebook post*

…the leaves of the tapioca plant. I had always called it Bandong hiok (leaves) from small, thinking that it was the name until an Iban friend of mine asked me what that was – it seemed that they called it daun empasa while the Malays call it daun ubi.

I love eating these leaves, fried with ikan bilis (dried anchovies) just like that but my mum would cook it as a soup dish with ikan buris – that was so very nice! For one thing, they must be pounded or blended till real fine prior to cooking as they can be quite tough and a chore to chew. For one thing, they must be cooked a long time to remove the lead or whatever and also the green smell – that was why I did not like the one I tried here.

Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other things, all so very nice and eating them can be an experience to behold even though we may not have seen them, much less tried them before. There is a very good place here at a coffee shop in town, inexpensive and they have quite a variety that one may want to try. As they say, one is never too old to learn so do drop by to see if there is anything that is of interest to you. I, for one, would drop by regularly time and time again to tapao some of their very nice dishes home for our lunch or dinner.

RUAI AKU CAFE…

*Photo from Ruai Aku Facebook post*

…is located below Eden Inn (2.285223, 111.831256) along Jalan Maju right across the road from the Rejang Esplanade.

Time’s running out…

It had been way over a week since the schools here closed for the holidays and even though we were not planning on going anywhere, it was never our intention to just let the days slip by, staying at home. Well, that was what was going on though not by choice – we were all unwell so liked it or not, we just did not go out all this while.

Thankfully, we had more or less recovered and did manage to venture out quite a bit to go to some place nice for something to eat. Well, my girl was here not too long ago with her colleagues and she was very impressed by what they had. That was why she could not wait to go back there again to see what other nice things they had on their menu.

She ordered their cheezy mushroom bacon pizza (RM34.00)…

…which was pretty good but I do feel that I had some nicer pizzas elsewhere in town.

We shared the salted egg yolk coated calamari fritti (RM19.00)…

…and I did try a little bit. Yes, it was very nice but there was just so much that I could handle and after a while, I was feeling kind of jelak (cloy) and I simply couldn’t manage anymore.

My missus has their teriyaki chicken bowl (22.00)…

…which came with this complimentary seaweed soup…

She did not say much about it so I guess it was all right.

For myself, I picked the stewed beef Benedict (RM29.00)…

…that I thought was very nicely done, beautifully presented…

The poached egg was absolutely perfect…

…though I can’t say that I enjoyed the chunks of stewed beef a lot. Perhaps my taste buds had not fully recovered yet and were acting up on me.

All in all, it was a pleasant enough lunch – nice place, great service even though I would not say that what we had would get us running back for more. The total for all the we had, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM126.90 which did not come as a surprise seeing how it was a somewhat upscale classy place indeed.

X.STREET CAFE & DINE (2.304665, 111.845870)…

…is located at No.2, Ground Floor, Jalan Pahlawan.

365…

They opened this place sometime ago in January when I dropped by that place next door to check it out and I only managed to go the other day.

From what I could see, it was more a fun pub or music lounge where customers would go for drinks with live entertainment thrown in for good measure. They had freshly-cooked ethnic dishes in the daytime – I did not ask them if they also had that at night.

I confirmed that they used regular pork for their pansoh babi (pork cooked in bamboo) so I ordered that (RM28.00)…

I am not fond of those using kampung or free range pork as the meat would be too tough and would usually have an offensive smell.

I also asked for their babi tuno (RM16.00)…

…our favourite at that other place in town so we could compare between the two to see which one was better. I also ordered their sayap ayam (RM10.00, 3 pieces)…

…a must have at every ethnic/Iban barbecue party. I liked both of them but personally, I feel the ones at the other place had an edge over the ones here.

The ikan keli bakar (RM15.00)…

…was grilled to perfection…

…still soft and juicy, not overdone till hard and dry like how they would mess it up at some places. My girl enjoyed it so much.

The kasam ensabi kepayang (RM10.00)…

…was a little bit too sour but not as sour as what we had at the other place while the paku belacan (RM9.00)…

…was just right except that I could not detect the presence of any belacan in the dish.

Fragrant rice was RM6.90 for 3 and the total for all that we had, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM98.90. Yes, yes…I had ordered too much but I wanted to try as much as possible knowing that somehow we might not come by this way again for a long while.

The very nice people there were all local Ibans from upriver, Song and Kapit, mostly and from my point of view, their cooking was in the very authentic ethnic Iban jungle style. Some may prefer how they do it a bit differently to cater to their trendier set of customers at that other place.

365 MUSIC CAFE (2.317508, 111.847844)…

…is located at Lot 3278, Ground Floor, Blk 4, Sg MTD 81, Jalan Deshon.

Master blaster…

Things were much simpler way back then in the good ol’ days and people would be able to tell the quality or snob appeal of the full 10-course Chinese banquet dinner by looking at the amount and the size of the sharks’ fins in the soup that was usually served as the 2nd dish in the meal.

There did not use to be so many different kinds of fish before – more often than not, you would get a plate of steamed white pomfret (pek chio/ikan bawal putih)…

…and of course, the host would have a great deal more to flaunt if it was a really big one and one that was truly very fresh.

If the coveted pek chio (bawal putih) was deep-fried or worse, served with a sauce…

…everyone would know that it was not so fresh and they had to resort to deep-frying and adding a stronger-tasting sauce…

…to camouflage the fact, even though it could have been cooked that way by choice – I, for one, would prefer my fish this way.

As a matter of fact, one could tell right away the instant one started eating the fish as to whether it was fresh or not. It was not difficult at all to tell when it had been frozen using the phak hong (air-blasted, in Hokkien) method whatever that might mean especially if you are truly a discerning fish eater. That was why I thought the fish we had at our Chap Goh Meh dinner…

…was very good but my brother-in-law insisted that the sweet and sour one my missus cooked for our Chinese New Year’s Eve Reunion Dinner…

…would win hands down. Later, my missus told me that it was because they had used the phak hong or chio whereas the one I bought for our dinner had not undergone that same process so everyone could detect its superior quality in comparison.

Thankfully, most of the restaurants and chu char (cook & fry) shops and stalls here will not resort to using this phak hong fish…

…so we can be sure that what we are served in the end will be very much to our satisfaction.

These days, more and more types of fish have appeared at the dinner table ranging from the super-expensive and prestigious upriver fishes – the empurau or the semah or the tangadak and the rest, the also very expensive imported cod fish…

…also called the snowfish or the Alaskan fish and others such as the tapah or if you opt for a relatively cheap package, you may end up getting a tilapia instead.

So cheap…

We did not go out to eat at some place nice on Saturday (yesterday) because it was raining so very heavily all morning, as well as most of the afternoon. In the end, my missus just went out to the restaurant /food court near our house to tapao some dishes for our meals.

We had not been buying from there for a while now because my missus went a bit too often and I was beginning to feel quite sick of the food. Besides, they do not seem to give so much anymore unlike before when RM10.00 would get us one tiffin carrier full of a meat dish! So very cheap!

My girl seemed to enjoy this chicken dish (RM10.00)…

…but somehow, it did not tickle my fancy.

The deep-fried nam lu pork (RM10.00)…

…looked hard and dry but I enjoyed the taste. I certainly liked it more than the chicken.

The ladies fingers (RM5.00)…

…was very nice even though it looked rather plain, nothing to get excited about. I’ve seen a lot of articles lately about the goodness of ladies fingers and I do enjoy eating the vegetable. I enjoy simply boiling them lightly and eating them just like that, still quite green and crunchy. It would go so well with sambal belacan, of course!

The total for the food was only RM25.00, excluding the rice and that worked out to around RM8.00 per person for the three of us, around RM4.00 if we calculate for two meals, lunch and dinner. That is cheaper than the much-talked about Menu Rahmah programme in the country, aimed at putting food on the table of those poor folks who are desperately trying to make ends meet. With more keeping the prices low, instead of jacking up all the prices anyhow they like for no obvious reason, it does look like there is hope yet, the light at the end of the tunnel or over the horizon.

GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.

Doin’ it right…

After the disastrous deep fried ikan bawal hitam (black pomfret) that we had on Wednesday, when we went out for lunch yesterday (Friday), I was determined to find a good place where they would know exactly how to go about it and do it right! No, it wasn’t difficult at all – most of the Chinese restaurants and chu-char (cook and fry) shops and stalls here can do it perfectly without over-frying the fish till it is so very hard and dry, looking like what my friend, Irene, in Kuching describes those at the Malay nasi campur places – like tree bark!!!

We had not been here before so this was the first time we had their sweet and sour black pomfret…

Gosh! That plate was HUGE and yes, it certainly looked VERY impressive.

It sure was fried to perfection, nice & crusty on the outside but still so very soft and sweet on the inside…

I guess the fish must be fresh in order than one would be able to get it like that – no way would you be able to do that with the phak hong cheap frozen till fossilised ones sold at the supermarkets! Speaking from experience, I bought TWO a long long time ago when EVERISE had a branch here in Sibu. The first one that I fried disintegrated right before my very eyes and the second one was so smelly that I simply had to throw everything away. I never bought any of those horrendous supermarket fish ever again after that!

Incidentally, you may be pleasantly surprised to know that the guy behind this lovely work of art was of ethnic descent – an Iban man, not Chinese! He was working at this restaurant for years and years before the guy called it a day and when he wanted to reopen his business here, he asked if he could join him there. The guy however, advised him to venture out independently on his own and so he did! It sure looks like he is doing o.k. at his present location…

…after all those years working for the man.

As a matter of fact, if you go to the small towns like Selangau, you will see all the Iban guys doing all the cooking in the kitchen and yes, they can do it so well. I am very sure everybody can do it very well if they put their hearts to it and learn how to do it correctly and not stick to the ways they have been doing it all these years.

We also had this ang sio tofu dish…

…and the cangkok manis fried with egg…

…for our lunch and the total came up to only RM57.00, inclusive of rice for three, slightly cheaper than if we were to go for the same elsewhere.

Incidentally, he also sells chap fan (mixed rice)…

…and the first one on the list looked like a Menu Rahmah for vegetarians, 3 vegetables for RM5.00. There were quite a number of customers going for the mixed rice, so much so that I did not see a lot left. I guess it was not doing too shabbily as well.

Well, it was a Friday in Lent, our no-meat day so we refrained from ordering anything with meat. That was why there were a few things that we used to love at the old place but could not order today. Another time perhaps!

WANG KE LAI (2.291628, 111.834169) is located at Lorong Mahsuri 2, off Jalan Mahsuri (opposite Bateras Supermarket).

Breakfast…

Ash Wednesday was a day of fasting and abstinence and we still complied even though senior citizens like us would be excused from the fasting part. We still had to abstain from meat though, just twice a year now on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but some say we would still have to continue to observe that every Friday throughout the season of Lent.

I slept a lot throughout the whole day – that way, I would not feel hungry and would not be looking for things to munch. I thought my missus would be cooking something light for lunch or dinner but when I got up at around 2, there was nothing to eat in the house. My girl said we could go and buy some fish burgers from the Sugar Bun outlet in our neighbourhood or we could go out for dinner later.

I told her we’d go out for dinner later and we could go here for the ikan keli I had once and she did like it a lot when she tried it. When we got there, we placed our orders but were subsequently told that they had run out of ikan keli. I was quite pissed off, to say the least. I simply cannot stand how those people conduct their businesses – ini tak ada, itu tak ada…and in the end, customers just go for something that is available, not necessarily something that they actually fancy.

I told my girl we could go some place else but she said it was not necessary and in the end, she asked for what I was having, the nasi penyet bawal hitam/black pomfret (RM17.00 X 2)…

I must say that the sheer look of it when it was served was somewhat disappointing. It did not matter one bit that it was VERY small, the size of the palm of my hand but it was fried till stone hard and dry. Obviously, they had used the very cheap, frozen till fossilised phak hong ones from the supermarket – some of the Chinese restaurants here do use those as well but they would advise me not to order as they would not be nice at all.

It was crispy – very hard and very crispy and dipping it in the two sambals provided…

…would probably save the day but they were EXTREMELY spicy, too spicy for me to handle so I just gave both of them to my missus and she was delighted and managed to finish all four, including her two as well. She loves anything and everything hot and spicy.

My girl did struggle a bit and managed to eat something from her platter but she also complained it was way too spicy and she did not manage to finish hers either. Only my missus managed to wipe out everything on her nasi sotong penyet platter (RM15.00)…

She obviously enjoyed the sambals so much.

There were these bits of cabbage, raw and cucumber by the side and a teeny weeny piece of tempe and fried tofu…

– I gave the latter two to my girl and left the rest untouched.

To me, the only saving grace was this little bowl of complimentary chicken soup…

The clear soup was mild and refreshing, much nicer than those they give you elsewhere at the Chinese shops and stalls.

The total, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM62.30, more or less the usual amount I would have to pay for a delightful meal from the authentic North Indian chef at the Indian/Indonesian restaurant here everytime we dropped by. If I had known it was going to be this bad here, we certainly would have made our way there instead for a vegetarian dinner. Well, seeing that this is how they go about doing things here, if this is the best they can do, I can say in no uncertain terms that we would not be coming back here again for a long long time, thank you very much.

MAT LAKSA (2.308351, 111.820696)…

…is located at No. 67 & 69, Jalan Kuda 2, Kampung Nangka, right across from Cabe Ijo in the next block, both facing the main entrance of Bisonte Grocer & Deli.

Just married…

Oh dear!!! My favourite mee sua (traditional Foochow longevity noodles) stall here…

…has closed down for good. I drove past one Tuesday and it was not open and everytime I passed by on subsequent days, it wasn’t open either.

It happened once before so I contacted the lady’s cousin in Kanowit and his wife to ask them why. Thankfully, they told me it was no serious matter – she had gone on holiday and would be back in a few days’ time. True enough, before the week was out she was back in action again. She said she had gone to Kuching to attend a wedding.

Well, on New Year’s Day this year, I went to buy her mee sua home to enjoy BUT the stall was not open! I had to go to this place here…

…to buy instead but it was not nice for want of a whole lot of the traditional Foochow red wine. Thankfully, after adding two tablespoons of the wine, it turned out just right after that and I did enjoy it in the end.

Well, this time around, it sure did not look like she was going to come back. Perhaps she had set up her business elsewhere, I thought – I sure would not mind checking out her new location as her mee sua…

…was really good even though hers was more expensive than all the rest by at least RM1.00. Eventually, one bowl was RM9.00 (usually RM8.00 elsewhere) and if you are buying home, she would use a special container and charge RM1.00 for it. It did not matter one bit as her mee sua was really good, better than all the rest, value for money.

When it looked like she was never ever coming back, I contacted her cousin and his wife in Kanowit. The latter responded to inform me that she had got married and had moved to Bintulu. Gee! Married? That sure was a surprise to me as she did not look that young but anyway, I guess we should feel happy for her and wish her every happiness in the years ahead. I wonder if she would be opening a stall in Bintulu or not – the people there would enjoy her mee sua a lot, of that I am very sure!

Don’t go hungry…

I stumbled upon a Tik-Tok video featuring the guy from this Youtube couple praising Malaysia to the skies. He was so very impressed by the effort put in by all concerned to make food more affordable to Malaysians, the poorer ones especially. They call it the Menu Rahmah programme where a complete balanced meal comprising meat or fish, vegetables and rice is made available for only RM5.00.

From what I gathered, more and more people are jumping onto the bandwagon over in Peninsula/West Malaysia and one positive outcome is how it has made others lower the prices of what they serve even though their prices may not go below RM5.00. That, of course, is a step in the right direction.

I have not heard of any here until the other day, when I saw this post on one of those Facebook pages featuring all things Sibu. They have this Menu Rahmah at this coffee shop, RM5.00 for one meat and two vegetables. I have taken the liberty of “borrowing” their photographs for a good cause – to help them promote this good thing that they are doing at this point in time.

These are the meat dishes…

…and here are some more…

…and these are their vegetable dishes…

Of course, there is also this place here in Sibu where everything is so cheap and affordable even though it is not participating in this Menu Rahmah programme. I had this…

…the other day, two meat and one veg with rice and complimentary soup and it only cost me RM4.50. The total you will need to fork out will depend on what and how much you pick and that means it can be RM5.00 or less…or a little bit more.

The Veggies on Tour guy complained that he did not see anything for vegetarians like him so if he picked 3 veg and went without the meat, would he have to pay RM5.00 regardless? I guess this is one drawback about having a fixed price like that.

Whatever it is, it is truly great that there are people thinking about how to reduce the burden on the general public, the poor ones especially when all that we see around us here are daylight robbers jacking up their prices of anything and everything till kingdom come and new eateries are opening here every day, one after another selling nothing more than a bowl of noodles, each of them at a price enough to feed the whole family for the whole day! Maybe that is the reason why this Menu Rahmah programme is not making it big here in Sibu – the people here are too rich. They do not need anything of the sort! Tsk! Tsk!

5TH AVE. KOPITIAM…

…is in the block of shops before the block where WOW WOW WEST Sibu (2.296407, 111.885216) is, on your left along Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, the road leading to the Sibu Airport, past the traffic lights junction where you would turn left to go to the Sibu General Hospital but before the next junction where you would turn right to go into Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce.