The schools are having their holidays right now and my girl went over to Kuching with my sister for a much-needed break. Yes, she went out for dinner and lunch and whatever with our relatives – her grand-uncle & grand-aunties, her aunties and also with her friends, those working in Kuching.
She did not take snapshots of all that she ate though – she’s not like the dad but she did send me one of this awesome plate of char kway teow with see ham (cockles)…
That sure was a lot of cockles but it did not come cheap, RM12.00 a plate, if I am not mistaken.
She and my sister did walk over to Hon Hin along Abell Road, round the corner from the hotel where they were staying. We’ve heard a lot about this place and I’ve seen people sharing on Facebook all the things that they ate there. Needless to say, it was very crowded and they actually had to queue to go there and eat.
She had their Kuching kolo mee…
…and the special soup…
…but she said they were just so-so. They did not get her all excited, it seemed.
I did not intend to hold a celebration on my birthday last Saturday. Usually, we would just go out for dinner somewhere and be done with it but I heard that my cousin, Liz, and Alfred would be coming from Kuching that weekend so of course, I would want to invite them to join us that evening and spend some time together. When I was ill and house-bound, the two of them did drop by my house to see me.
I also asked my sister to join us and my brother-in-law and his wife and I invited my good friend/ex-classmate, Robert, and his wife, Angela, as well to make up a table of 10. We were here the previous Saturday and we thought the food was really good. That was why we chose to come here again.
We started off with the cutting of the birthday cake…
…no prize for guessing what I wished for…
The fried longevity noodles, the mee sua, served with the lightly-fried golden eggs (RM40.00)…
followed next. I thought it was very nice but some of us complained that it was not salty. I did feel that to a certain extent too but I didn’t really mind because the dish as a whole was flavourful and tasty enough.
We felt that the dishes we had that week earlier were so very nice so I asked for them again. The Mongolian pork ribs (RM30.00)…
…got everybody’s approval and they also liked the Thai-style mango crispy chicken (RM28.00)…
…which I thought was nicer that previous time because the sauce was a bit milder then. This time around, it was a bit too strong but the rest did not complain so I guess as far as they were concerned, it was all right.
The nyonya assam steamed fish, tilapia (RM50.00)…
…stole the show that night. The sauce was similar to what was in the chicken dish but it was perfectly done, not as strong. Everyone loved it! Actually, I heard that the nyonya fish curry was very nice but I decided to go for this one instead – perhaps we’ll try the former the next time we drop by here.
The bitter gourd fried with egg (RM18.00)…
…and the homemade tofu (RM23.00) took a mighty long time to come out. I guess they were too busy as the place was packed to the brim, a full house.
The photograph of the tofu came out blur so I am not including it in this post and I did not take one of the fish maw soup (RM25.00) either. It was the clear soup version even though I asked for the thick sharks’ fins soup style – this was stated in the cashier’s receipt but somehow, they got it wrong. Thankfully, it was very nice so we did not kick up a fuss.
I did not forget to order the triple egg omelette (RM19.00)…
…too for my brother-in-law. He enjoys the ones served in the restaurants a lot. I did try a bit but I thought they did it better here or here or here – this one was a bit too thick for my liking.
It certainly was a delightful evening – we all enjoyed the dinner and the company and the total (inclusive of drinks) came up to only RM261.00. My girl insisted on picking up the tab to give me a special treat on my birthday, thanks to her and thank you to everybody for coming and for the lovely gifts you all brought along for me. I pray that my birthday wish will be granted – that the good Lord will bless us all with good health and lots of happiness in the days ahead.
NICE HOUSE RESTAURANT (2.29201,111.82739)…
…is located in the vicinity of the Tunku Osman shops, opposite Rejang Bookstore.
I guess everybody would know that I celebrated my 71st birthday yesterday, Saturday the 2nd of December and though I did not hold anything grand, I felt immensely grateful, so thankful, praise the Lord, that I had made it through the rain, those difficult days these past years when I was unwell and in terribly bad shape and I thought I was about to leave this world for good.
I told my missus not to cook, not even the usual longevity mee sua (noodles) that we would have without fail every year. We just took the easy way out and went here to have that (RM10.90)…
…for lunch.
My girl is not particularly fond of mee sua so I told her she could order something else – after all, we would be having mee sua again at our dinner that evening. She had her favourite here, their claypot chicken rice (RM9.90)…
After our lunch, we went home and this beautiful box…
…of assorted fruits…
…came via special delivery for my birthday from my cousin, Pauline, in Bintulu and her sister, Siaw Ling, in Melbourne, Australia (the one who sent me the Cliff Richard and Elton John t-shirts), thank you so much to the two of them.
I was filled with mixed feelings when I received that. Of course, I was pleasantly delighted that the ladies had gone through all that trouble to arrange all that and have it delivered to my door but I was, at the same time, feeling very sad because all this while, there were always the three of them including their eldest sister, Teresa, in Brisbane, Australia.
…when she was here. She was as fit as a fiddle, very cheerful and happy to get together with all of us. I was the one who was quite weak and sickly then. I even had difficulty climbing up the staircase to get to the first floor of the restaurant – that just about showed that I was not in very good shape at the time. I actually thought that between the two of us, I would be the one to go first.
It happened so suddenly on the 27th of July this year. She had to go for surgery (for something which did not sound all that serious) and was under general anaesthetic but she never regained consciousness after that and eventually, they just had to let her go. Of course. all of us were shocked and so devastated because she was such a wonderful lady, such a nice person to all that she knew.
I couldn’t help but think of her when I received the present and it sure served as a reminder that we should cherish every moment that we are alive and well, try and do all the good we can, spread our love and share our joy each passing day the best we can. We will never know when our time will come.
Later that afternoon, we had to go to Marcus’ house to collect the cake…
…that we had ordered, the fruits special…
to bring to the restaurant for my birthday dinner that evening. Incidentally, if anyone is interested, MARCUS’ CAKE RECREATION CENTRE is a home-based bakery business at his house at 6B, Lane 3, Delta Estate (2.305337, 111.826342), telephone number 084-311333.
You’ll stick around for my blogpost on the dinner, won’t you?
LE CLAYPOT KITCHEN (2.296123, 111.839810)…
…is located at Lorong Pedada 2 among the shops at Pusat Tanahwang across the road from Sacred Heart Secondary School.
We had not been here for a month or two not because the food served had been deteriorating but because I felt that at times, it could be a lot more expensive than at the other places that we would frequent and besides, we would usually order those same few favourite dishes of ours so I would be blogging about them over and over again. and bore everybody to kingdom come.
Anyway, last Sunday, we did not go out for lunch because it was raining so we just had a simple lunch at home eating the leftovers including those from the night before and that evening, my sister suggested that we could all go out for dinner and I said we could come here. She said that she had not been here for long time too so she seconded the motion straight away.
My girl wanted the nam yu (南乳) pork belly…
…currently her favourite and a dish she would want to order, never mind where. Well, the one here would rank among the best in town so of course, the rest of us had no objection. Too bad it did not come with that cincaluk (fermented shrimp) chili dip – the two would go so well together!
Yes, my girl simply would not want to miss her lemon chicken…
I’ve always said that theirs is the best in town, second to none.
As for the vegetable dishes here, she had grown so fond of the kangkong (water spinach) fried with bak eu phok (crusty fried lard)…
…so we had that that evening and also the tauhu tear (Foochow tofu soup with canned oysters). I did not take a photograph of the latter.
When we were halfway through our dinner, in came our friends, Lawrence and his wife, Annie. We met them once at another restaurant and they quietly went and paid our bill for us. As a matter of fact, we did meet them here before when my sister and I stopped by for breakfast and yes, they took care of our bill then as well. That was why this time around, I ate VERY quickly and made my way to the counter to pay for our dinner and for what Lawrence and Annie were having too to reciprocate. Much to my dismay, the lady boss told me that they had already paid for our bills. WHAT? Oh dear!!!
Thank you so much once again, Lawrence and Annie, for the treat. Next time, you MUST let me pay, ok?
Y2K CAFE (2.294220, 111.825753)…
…is located in the Tunku Osman area, 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.
My girl had a meeting in school that afternoon and I was out and about very early – it wasn’t time yet to go and pick her and bring her home.
Since I had a bit of time to kill, I decided to stop by here to see if there was anything I could have for afternoon tea. Most of the stalls were closed except for a few isolated ones. In the end, I asked for the bubur buang panas (ngor bee th’ng)…
…from this stall…
…on the left hand side of the food court with the much nicer tables and chairs…
Other than that one, there was a Malay stall in that section but it was not open and yet another one was open for rent.
Actually, I wanted the ang tao peng (iced red bean) but when I asked the guy at the stall, he was so unfriendly and seemed most unwilling to answer my questions and it did not help one bit that he spoke only Mandarin. All I wanted to know was whether he used gula Melaka in his ang tao peng or not and from what I could make out of his response, I think he only used sugar syrup.
I bet it is very obvious that the instant the bubur buang panas was served, my heart sank. It did not even look nice, a far cry from the one I had here recently and both were RM4.50 each! Except for the barley and the jelly, there was so very little of the dried red dates…
…and there were bits of the dried winter melon as well, that’s all. There were only FOUR when in fact, traditionally, there should be five ingredients in the drink. That other one I had even had basil seeds, SIX altogether! The last straw was the fact that it was extremely sweet – I could imagine my sugar rush that day shooting through my head!
I also ordered the white toast with cold butter and kaya (RM2.50)…
…which was very nicely toasted and tasted o.k. but I was expecting those thick toast slices like the one I had for my western breakfast the other morning. Here, they just used the ordinary sandwich bread.
There are a few stalls there that I have yet to try – they were all closed at that time in the afternoon. I guess I shall have to drop by there again to see what they have in store.
Incidentally, I have a friend here in Sibu. not a blogger but she goes around all over town to enjoy the food and share the photographs on Facebook. She is very good at making our local delights like sio bee (meat dumplings), or koi (Chinese steamed yam cake) and the other day, she made this kim kua koi (Chinese steamed pumpkin cake)…
I did see her photogrpahs on Facebook and before I knew it, she was at my gate – she was sending me some to let me enjoy for my afternoon tea. Just one look at it and you know it was really very good. Thank you so much, Teresa – that is so very kind and sweet of you!
YIFU CORNER (2.301777, 111.843215)…
…is located along Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada) somewhere opposite Wisma Liberty and Wisma Sri Minyak.Kim Hock Supermarket is in the next block of shops to the right in that area.
I was at a loss for words that morning and you would be too if you were in my shoes.
Sometime ago, I received word from my faithful reader/follower, Teck, all the way in Perth, Australia. He wanted to know if we could buy this…
…and these…
…in Sibu. I asked my girl and she said that they might be available at Ta Kiong’s Korean shop in the town centre. I told her that my friend wanted to know as he wanted to buy them for her and she told me to tell him not to do that. She always grumbles whenever I get a whole lot of stuff from family and friends all over the world.
Teck said that he had bought them already and he also bought me these…
…for me. Well, I guess if that was the case, there wasn’t anything that I could do.
He finally dropped by my house the other morning to pass me the things aforementioned and I could not believe my eyes at the bags of things that he had brought all the way home from Perth to give to me. There were these chocolate and cookies…
…as well and two cans of SPAM…
I bet I would love these Thai delights…
…and yes, these lovely medjool dates…
… from the US too. My! My! They’re huge, compared to the ones we can buy here during Ramadan.
What would you do if you were in my shoes? I did not know what to say other than a simple “thank you” and I do hope that he and his family will enjoy all the local culinary delights, things that they grew up eating and loved so well, throughout their two-week stay here in good ol’ Sibu town.
For what is a man, what has he got? Some of you may recognise these two lines from Frank Sinatra’s hit song, “My Way“, composed by Paul Anka. Well, I guess it is quite obvious why they call this roti (canai) jantan (RM5.00)…
jantan in Malay is a reference to the male gender, a man.
When we were here for lunch not too long ago, we walked over to the food court/coffee shop a few doors away to see what they had in store. I did drop by once last year and I loved the kampua mee and the beef tripe soup from the stall there but I had not been back there since.
Well, that day, I saw that there was a roti canai stall…
…on the other side of the kampua mee stall and of course, I made up my mind there and then that I would drop by one day to give it a try and that was exactly what I did the other morning.
I was a bit disappointed when it was served…
…because it did not look as nice as what I had here. Thankfully, it tasted all right.
It turned to be a piece of roti telur (roti canai with egg added)…
…buried under two fried eggs, sunny side up and drowned with the very nice curry gravy plus a bit of sambal on top. I saw on the menu in front of the stall that the roti telur is RM3.00 each so I guess the extra eggs are a ringgit each, making up the total of RM5.00 for the roti (canai) jantan.
On the whole, I would say it was all right, not something to get excited about but I would consider having it again should I happen to be around those parts of the woods again.
Incidentally, the Mooncake Festival is this coming Friday, the 29th of September and the other day, I received a message from my ex-student in Chung Hua Middle School (I was there from 1983 till 1991), Jack (Yew Ming). He did drop by to see me around this same time when I wasn’t doing too well and yes, he was back in town again. This time around, he just stopped at my house briefly to pass me these lovely Shanghai mooncakes…
…that his wife made. He did give me a few too last year. Isn’t that so sweet and thoughtful of him? Thank you so much, Yew Ming! It sure was good to see you again!
SEPTEMBER CAFE (2.303400, 111.849111)…
…is located at No. 65, Lorong Pahlawan 9, a few doors to the left of Secret Recipe, the Sibu Bus Terminal outlet here.
We went to the early morning service in our regular church that morning because there was a storm here on Saturday evening and we could not go to the novena and sunset service that we would usually attend. After that, we stopped by this food court here for the Foochow traditional longevity noodles (RM7.00)…
…the mee sua (string/thread noodles) in the traditional Foochow red wine and ginger chicken soup.
Come noon time that day, we went out for lunch. She wanted to go for the Indian dishes here and of course, her wish was my command. She had the mutton masala biryani (RM27.00)…
…that came with one piece of pappadum (RM1.00)…
…by the side and two slices each of cucumber and carrot.
I had the tandoori chicken biryani (RM21.00)…
…and I also had the piece of pappadum (RM1.00) and the slices of cucumber and carrot. I never eat the carrot though – I am not into that raw. Other than those, I also got a bit of raita…
…and some curry gravy…
…to go with the rice.
My girl asked my sister, her godmother, to join us and she had the butter chicken (RM21.00)…
…with a special request for biryani rice…
…instead of the plain white basmati rice (for an extra charge of RM1.00). For reasons unknown, she did not get any of the sides, not even the slices of cucumber and carrot.
We also ordered their garlic naan (RM6.00)…
…to share.
That certainly was a delightful lunch. We all enjoyed our orders very much. My tandoori chicken was perfectly done, so tender and juicy. All in all, the bill came up to RM96.00, including the fruit juices that we ordered.
That afternoon, my girl’s good friend, Dayang, dropped by the house to give her this awesome-looking fruit bowl…
…plus chocolates and nuts (from Amazing Graze) for her birthday. It’s so very sweet of her to remember the date every year!
23 FOOD COURT (2.297349, 111.824644)…
…is located among the shops opposite Kin Orient Plaza (where the “old’ Sing Kwong Supermarket is) along Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg, further in from C&C Gallery, their halal outlet, two doors away from Towermas Hotel and The CAFE IND (2.290813, 111.829294)…
…is located along Laichee Lane, right behind one block of shops facing the main road (Jalan Kampung Nyabor) where the Bank Simpanan Nasional, Sibu branch (2.290561, 111.829071), is.
That night at the double celebration dinner, I invited my niece and my in-laws (her parents) here for another dinner the following night. After all, she would invite us out to eat everytime she came home and other than that, she would buy a whole lot of things for us from Singapore too so I would like to reciprocate in some small way.
She has a few of her favourites in town but I noticed that she had never been to this one before so I asked her why. She said that she walked by once and saw there wasn’t anybody inside and it looked kind of dark so she just assumed that the food there was not good. That was exactly what an ex-student of mine said but nonetheless, he went in to give it a try as he had read all my blogposts on this place and yes, he loved it…a lot.
Of course I ordered my girl’s favourite, the lemon chicken…
…also the favourite of many in town and we also had the nam yu pork belly (炸南乳花腩)…
…which is definitely a lot nicer than some elsewhere.
The thing is they do not give you the cincaluk (fermented shrimp) dip here so I went to the fruit and vegetable grocery store in the next lane from my house and grabbed two red chilies and half a dozen calamansi lime. I asked the young guy how much that was and he said quite flippantly, “One ringgit!” My! My! That was so cheap! I took that home and my missus made the dip…
…with the most delightful cincaluk from my Bintulu brother-in-law and we brought it together with us to the restaurant that night. My in-laws enjoyed it so much; my sister-in-law who usually eats very little and can never finish her rice, ate one plate full that night! LOL!!!
We had chicken already but I could not resist ordering their pek chang kay (poached/steamed chicken)…
…the best in town!
I asked for their sweet and sour fish fillet but they came and, unlike the people here who would not admit their mistake, they apologised for getting it wrong and they had cooked this plate of sweet and sour spare ribs…
…instead. Well, of course, we did not mind as actually, this is one of our favourites here, just that I already had a pork dish and I did not want another one.
For our vegetable dishes, we had the kangkong fried with pork fat crusts…
As for the soup, we had the chao chai/糟菜 (preserved mustard green) with freshwater fish…
My niece had a sip and started singing its praises – she loved it…a lot! In fact, she and her parents all enjoyed the food that night so much; I sure was pleased with myself at my choice of venue for our dinner that night.
Now, what did not go according to plan? When I got there that evening, my ex-student, Edward, now a pharmacist, was having dinner at that same restaurant and when he went to pay, he also paid for ours as well! I was stunned!!! I was supposed to be giving my niece and her parents a treat that night and if it had been say, a bowl of kampua mee, that would be perfectly all right. Later, I went and asked the lady boss the total and she told me it was RM232.00, inclusive of rice and drinks! *faints* Thank you so much, Edward! That was so very sweet and generous of you! Thank you, thank you!!!
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.
My niece, the one working in Singapore, came home and last Saturday night, she invited us all out to dinner here to celebrate her birthday in advance – it is actually on the 14th of September. Of course, she went and ordered a cake for herself from Marcus…
…and much to our surprise, when we got to the restaurant, we found out that she had ordered another cake…
…also from Marcus to celebrate my girl’s birthday on the 17th, the two of them…
…simultaneously.
We had their Thai-style crispy pork belly…
…a number of times already and yes, we had it again that night since we all liked it very much.
My niece asked them to come out with a dish of prawns fried with egg…
…the way they cooked crab at one restaurant here but no, I don’t think they got it quite right. I suppose it was all right but I did not try it myself – I’m staying away from prawns, no matter what.
I had the oatmeal chicken…
…once before and it was very nice so they ordered that as well. Well, everybody said it was good so I guess the next time we drop by here, we would be having that again.
Their signature tofu…
…was very nice and my niece specially asked for this omelette with chai po (菜脯蛋) or preserved radish…
…for my brother-in-law. He insists on having omelette, never mind what style, when we have dinner outside. He says that somehow, it is not so nice when they fry their own at home.
Everybody loved the butter baby kai lan…
…that we also had before but it sure looked like they were not very generous with the green vegetable.
The Thai-style midin (wild jungle fern)…
…kerabu-style, was very nice and I was glad that there were no thin strips of ginger in theirs so I did not have to go through the chore of removing them one by one like what I did here.
We had their sea cucumber soup…
…which was very nice, just that there wasn’t much sea cucumber in it.
I asked my niece and she said that the bill came up to over RM140.00, inclusive of rice and drinks. I must say that it was very cheap for the 8 dishes for the 6 of us and I was very impressed by the waiting staff members here. It was a full house but they were able to cope with all the requests, the serving and everything so efficiently and they were so very polite at all times. I must say that they were trained really well…unlike some that we may find around here.
Thank you so much, Mary, for the dinner and the cake. As always, it was great getting together and catching up. We sure are looking forward to the next time you’ll be coming home so we can do this again.
BBQ HOUSE (2.313146, 111.847093)…
…is located at No. 94, (Ground Floor and 1st Floor), Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (facing Jalan Gambir), right next door to Mei Le Cafe.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 