What a difference a day makes…

All throughout my school days, school would always reopen on the first Monday in January every year. I do not remember when they changed that and fixed it on the 2nd of January, right after New Year’s Day. To be honest, I do not see what difference those few days would make, not that it would miraculously turn the pupils/students into geniuses.

The way it is, teachers would have to go back to their schools way ahead of time – many in the jungle or in the other states, far away from their home sweet home, away from the warmth and love of their respective families. They would hold their staff meeting right after Christmas, some before…and set aside a date for the kids to report…and on the 2nd of January, they would start teaching right away, no dilly-dallying. Obviously, that would mean that there would be no celebration of any kind for those poor teachers concerned to usher in the new year, none at all. After all that talk about family values, it is sad, isn’t it?

Well, we can console ourselves to some extent as it isn’t as bad as one year when some smart fella, the Minister of Education at the time, thought he could beat God at his game and started the academic year in December…to push the public examinations earlier to avoid the perennial floods in the east coast of the peninsula. Unfortunately, time and tide waits for no man and the floods came earlier so the problem remained and there were a lot of unhappy people at the time. Thankfully, they did away with that silly idea and switched back to January.

I mentioned in my previous post that we sent our girl back to her school in the jungle on New Year’s Eve for their staff meeting and she had to stay back there to register the kids in her class the following day, New Year’s Day and that was why she did not want to come back after the meeting (which dragged on till late, around 1.00 p.m.)…and that was why we had nothing planned, nothing on New Year’s Eve, nothing on New Year’s Day.

I had a pleasant surprise that afternoon, New Year’s Day, when Peter and Andy contacted me and invited me and my missus out to dinner…

…here. They close every year on New Year’s Day and on Labour Day, May the 1st – just two days in a year so they were free that day. We went very early, at around 5 something to make sure that we did not have to queue and wait for a table.

I ordered this so-called munchy platter…

…that I had seen people enjoying before. However, we could not order that even though my girl would love the fried calamari…

…and the chicken popcorn…

…as being coated with batter, they would not be gluten-free.

I thought both the aforementioned were really very good and went well with the special chili dip that came in the platter but this…

…stole the show. We could not figure out what it was – it looked like sausage cut into bite-size bits, pierced through with a skewer and grilled. I did ask one of the waiting staff members but she said she did not know and I did not bother to pursue the matter after that. It tasted something like ham or bacon and we all loved it!

The mixed grill platter did not look very big in the menu, served on something like one of those regular round dinner plates so I ordered that as well and when it was served, we were stunned by the size…

There was another one of that sausage-like thing on a  skewer and we liked the beef…

…very much, very tender and very tastily done. The lamb was all right – I sure did not get all excited over it and the grilled chicken chop was nice too.

I wished they would not use those canned sweet corn for the sides though – it made the dish look kind of cheap. I imagine that with one can, there would be enough corn kernels for 10 plates, at least. If they had used corn-on-the-cob instead, that certainly would push up the dish to a whole new level and give it a lot more class.

Andy wanted the cheesey chicken…

…which turned out to be just the grilled chicken like the one in the mixed grill platter with a layer of cheese on top. I would prefer this, I think – the added cheese on top sure helped make it taste a lot better. Perhaps my girl would like to give it a try for a change on our next visit instead of going for the grilled lamb everytime.

We also had their Hawaiian pizza…

…thin crust and what we got sure was different from what all of us would be more familiar with. Yes, there were pineapples but instead of the ham or bacon, they had bits of freshly grilled chicken instead…and besides, I thought it could do with a  lot more cheese. Personally, I would prefer their pepperoni that I had once on an earlier visit.

We all agreed that the food was really very nice but there is just so much of western cuisine that one can have especially when the servings are so huge so after a while, the law of diminishing returns started to set in and we all felt that we had had enough. Of course we could not finish everything, the four of us, so we got them to pack the leftovers for us to take home.

Thank you so much, Peter and Andy, for the invitation and for the delightful New Year dinner treat. We certainly had a lovely New Year’s Day, after all. Once again, a Happy and Prosperous New Year and may you all enjoy yet another successful one in the year ahead, 2019. Cheers!!!

WOW WOW WEST Sibu (2.296407, 111.885216) is 24 & 26, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman – on your left along 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.

A good year…

On the eve of New Year’s Eve, Melissa’s coursemate and his family dropped by my house to pass me this really awesome serunding daging (beef floss)…

…that he had just brought back from Terengganu after the long school holidays back home. Yes, it was very nice and very spicy too which made us love it all the more, thank you so much, Bubu. It is always so nice and thoughtful of you to bring us a little something whenever you go back home.

These came in on New Year’s Eve…

…just in time for the New Year, bringing my total for the year to 5, thank you so much to Merryn and family and also to Ozzie, my friend in Singapore, who sent hers all the way from Hokkaido in Japan while on holiday there.

That morning, we left the house at dawn to go to my girl’s school in the jungle. The road was pretty much the same, for better or for worse – some parts were a bit better, other parts were worse than the condition they were in over a month ago. When we got there, my girl had to go for their staff meeting so the mum and I spent the time cleaning her quarters from top to bottom. In keeping with our Chinese/Foochow custom, I cooked our traditional Foochow red wine chicken soup to bring along and eat with mee sua (longevity noodles) for lunch – my girl had it with bihun (rice vermicelli) instead.

We left around mid-afternoon and had the misfortune of having to go through torrential rain all the way on the horrendous Pain-Borneo Highway. We got home rather late and I had to rush to the car wash…and wash the engine when I got back so I did not get the chance to rest or have my forty-winks. That was why I did not go for the Thanksgiving Service and Fellowship/Pot Luck Gathering at our regular church that night – I might dose off halfway and I went to the one in the morning instead…and they had a little ceremony after the service to usher in the New Year 2019…

After that, I decided to go in search of some very nice mee sua in town even though I already had that the day before. I did not bother to go back here as my favourite is no longer available and the substitute is not all that great and I don’t know if this one has moved some place or not after that coffee shop closed down. The one here was a tad too sour for my liking the last time I had it so I went here…

…in the end as I could remember I did have some nice mee sua here a long time ago – I forgot that the last time I had it, I was somewhat disappointed.

Well, the kopi-o-peng (RM1.80)…

…wasn’t great – it was just so-so. There are a lot of places in town that serve very much nicer coffee at that same price or less.

The mee sua (RM7.00)…

…has gone up in price by a ringgit and the instant it was served, I knew right away that it would not be to my liking.

The soup was what we say in Hokkien, lor-lor (murky) and yes, there was enough red wine in it just that it wasn’t the top quality kind that we would get to enjoy here. The chicken was well-marinated and tender enough and there was one whole hard-boiled egg and a shitake mushroom…

I keep telling my friend, Peter, the boss of Payung to serve it as a special…say, for lunch on Saturdays, like their lei cha on Fridays and because their red wine is absolutely the best, made by his sister, approved by his mum – the matriarch in the family and since they use the more expensive pua-chai kay (I bought one for our mee sua that day, RM60 a bird), they can give two pieces of the meat and more noodles and soup in a  bigger bowl and charge double, RM15.00 perhaps. Because it is so very nice, I, for one, would keep going for it and there will be others, I’m sure…and their friends who may not be thus inclined can always order something else from their regular menu. How about that for a business proposal, eh?

As for this one that I had, at best, I would say it was all right…and at least, I had mee sua on New Year’s Eve and also on New Year’s Day in the hope that I would be blessed with longevity and a good year ahead. I must say, however, that despite what I felt about it, it certainly seemed very popular as there was quite a crowd and many were having this same thing. It would be such a shame if there isn’t a place right here in Sibu, basically a Foochow town, where one can get really very good Foochow longevity noodles or mee sua.

UNCLE BAKERY (2.304785, 111.849142) is located along Lorong Pahlawan 7B/3, directly facing the Sibu Bus Terminal, a few doors to the right of Medan Hotel/Bus Terminal Food Court.

This Christmas day…

We did not have any plans for Christmas this year, other than going for the church service on the night of Christmas Eve. See if you can spot me in this video clip! LOL!!!

My girl made this gluten-free chocolate brownie with chocolate icing…

…using the cake mix that my cousin from Brisbane, Australia gave her earlier this year. Yes, it was very nice – the cake was rich and moist but like most/all cakes in western countries, it was very sweet. I had to refrain from having more than one or to the most, two slices in one sitting.

We got an invitation from my cousin to join her family and some of our other relatives here for lunch…

…on Christmas day so of course, we did not not want to miss it, not at all! Hmmm…that cushion sure came in handy, don’t you think? LOL!!!

Her daughter, Jessica, and Conelius got married at the end of 2014 and are blessed with two kids now, a boy and a girl which, of course, means that my cousin and her hubby are proud and happy grandparents now. The photographs that I took of the dishes in the buffet spread did not turn out too well so all I’ve got to share is this one of the celebrated Sarawak kek lapis (layer cake)…

That night, I suggested going for a western dinner and when we were here not too long ago, I did say that I would be looking out for their Christmas menu and would drop by if we thought it would be worth the while and that was why we went back there again that evening.

When we entered, we caught a whiff of the very delightful coffee fragrance, whatever they were brewing at that point in time and being unable to resist, my missus ordered their flat white (RM10.90)…

…and my girl had their latte (RM10.90)…

…and yes, they loved their picks though my missus insisted that hers was nicer. As for me, I stuck faithfully to my glass of plain water.

We had their classic Australian rib eye (RM79.90)…

…which was, at best, quite all right to us but then again, we are not really fans of beef – we prefer lamb. It was not tender enough but went very well with the special sauce/gravy that came with it.

They probably had quite a crowd the night before for they were out of their rack of lamb that we wanted. No, we did not want their curry lamb shank as we wanted to go entirely western and that spicy dish did not fit the bill and we could not order their hot and crispy lamb shoulder as it would not be gluten-free with the coating of bread crumbs. In the end, we just ordered their roasted chicken whole leg (RM25.90)…

…and that turned out to be a really wise choice on our part. It was so very nice and we loved the orange sauce in the dish. That certainly was a consolation for the fact that we did not get to enjoy any turkey this year. Sobsss!!!

They were out of Ceasar salad too so they suggested a replacement instead – potato salad (RM13.90)…

…and of course, we jumped at it – we certainly would prefer that but it was not on the Christmas menu and for reasons unknown, the sesame salad dressing was served separately…

…which was a good thing as that particular range of Kewpie salad dressing is  not gluten-free and my girl did not mind it one bit as she enjoyed the lightly-fried potato cubes and bits of bacon and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on their own.

She also wanted the mushroom soup (RM10.90)…

*Archive photo*

…that we had on our last visit again as she did enjoy it very much.

We certainly were caught by surprise when this King prawn aglio-olio spaghetti…

…was served to our table, a special Christmas treat from my ex-student, John, whose sister and brother-in-law run the place. Goodness gracious me!!! I don’t know how much that costs but if you go for a bowl/plate of noodles with those three gigantic prawns at a coffee shop outside, it would set you back by around RM60-100, I’m sure. I asked John to put it on the bill – after all, he already gave me a treat on our last visit here but no, he insisted that it would be on him, that sweet boy!

My girl could not eat the pasta as it was not gluten-free but it was really very nice – I absolutely loved it…and the prawns were awesome too – we had one each and we sure enjoyed it to the max.

I went to pay the bill and the total, not including the prawn pasta dish, came up to RM152.90 and I got a further discount – I think it was 5% so the nett total was RM145.25 and John waived the 25 sen and collected RM145.00 only from me. My! My! With this kind of privileged treatment, no price for guessing whether I would be coming back again especially when we like the food plus the service is great, prompt and efficient and everybody is very nice and friendly…and yes, they speak English very fluently here too.

My girl was immensely pleased with that most delightful dinner and could not contain her happiness and of course, when she is happy, the father would be very happy too! Though unplanned, it sure turned out that we had a very lovely and joyous Christmas celebration, after all.

LADOREE CAFE & EVENTS (2.302891, 111.842997) is located at Wisma Liberty, Lot 4047, Block 3, Jalan Pedada (now Jalan Dr. Wong Soon Kai).

You gotta try…

My paternal cousin comes home every year from Sydney, Australia around Christmas to visit the mum and this year, he had another reason to do so – to attend his younger brother’s daughter’s wedding. Of course, each year, we would meet some place for some of the best in town like in 2016, for instance, we were here…and here in 2017.

Yes, he comes but once a year but no, he’s no Santa Claus or at least, he definitely isn’t shaped like that but yes, he does bring gifts, without fail, and this year, he got me this…

…thank you so much, Alister!

He has been to a number of other places in town – his brothers and other cousins would bring him around as well, some he loved, some not quite but he had never been here so I insisted that he gave it a try.

He loved the fried mee sua…

…which was something new to him – he had not heard of it done this way, much less eaten it and after his initial surprise upon finding out that it was mee sua (Foochow longevity noodles) and not bihun (rice vermecelli), he tried it and loved it!

Of course I ordered all our favourites here including their salted egg spare ribs…

…but even though he loved it with the curry leaves in the dish, it did not seem to excite him as much as the mango Thai-style chicken…

…which he absolutely enjoyed.

The Foochow tofu soup with canned oysters was so good that day but I did not take a photograph of it as the waitress distributed it into individual bowls and served and we also had our must-eat-in-Sibu fried midin (wild jungle fern)…

…and I would say that the sweet potato leaves here…

…is the best n town, so very young and so easy to chew unlike some that I have had the displeasure of eating elsewhere.

I confirmed that there was no soy sauce in their pandan chicken…

…one dish that we had not ordered for a long time as I was afraid it might not be gluten free. After being reassured that it was all right, we went for it…

– one each and it certainly swept my cousin off his feet. He loved it! I would say the ones here are different from those you will get at a Thai or Malay restaurant and I have yet to come across any anywhere that is nicer.

I did ask my sister to join us that day so there were five of us altogether and the food alone came up to RM84.00 for 6 dishes, RM104.00 altogether inclusive of rice and drinks and the nice boss rounded it all up to RM100.

There are other very nice dishes here but I just could not possibly order everything at one go. Well, seeing how my cousin enjoyed all the dishes at our lunch that day, I am pretty sure he will be back!

RUBY RESTAURANT  is located at No. 71, Jalan Kampung Nyabor right next to HOME COOK CORNER  (2.292756, 111.825335) with the AmBank Tunku Osman branch in the very next block.

I remember her…

Do you remember her? Stephanie, my ex-student in my English language tuition class a long time ago. She used to make those awesome mushroom pies and cheese tarts and chicken pies and also the lovely cupcakes and she would always make it a point to send some over to my house for me to try. That was when she had graduated and was waiting for her posting whilst pursuing her post-graduate studies. Well, she has been teaching at a school in Kapit, a town upriver, for sometime now and on Tuesday this week, she tied the knot with Andrew, lucky guy, at the cathedral here…

Of course I was at the service – I always consider that to be the most important part of any wedding though usually, you would see a lot more people showing up for the banquet…

…held at one of the grand ballrooms at one of the leading hotels in town…

I made it a point to go early for fear of not being able to find a parking space…

…but I think many did not have that same idea in mind so the guests trickled in rather slowly…

…and it was way over an hour after the time stated in the invitation card when the event…

…started. I guess that was not too bad – I hear that in places like KL, if it says 7.00 p.m., one should expect it to start at around 9.00 p.m. even. Good grief!!!

Dinner was good…

…but after the first two dishes, the rest…

…took quite a while to be served…

…and I did not take any photographs of those that came when I went out to stretch my legs. Hehehehe!!!

Yes, like the last time I had dinner here, they were pretty efficient where the serving of the food…

…was concerned albeit a bit staggered, probably the fault of the people in the kitchen but yes, like that previous time too, the “wallflowers” were quite happy to hang around the drink stations instead of going round to refill everyone’s glasses as and when necessary. Note how in the 2nd photograph above, there was not a single one of them in sight.

This time, I was seated right beside one of those stations and it was very convenient for me to go and help myself. There was one guy at my table who sat there, his glass empty, for quite a long time and in the end, he too had to get up and go to get his drink himself…and there was one at the next table who went and got the drinks for himself and his female partners at his table. I even spotted one guy at another table raising an empty glass during the toast!

Well, there was something else that made me tell off one of the waitresses and she did not look too happy with this grumpy old man for the rest of the evening but I shall not elaborate on that. However, I do think those who intend to host their receptions here should insist on better service when negotiating with the F&B or Banquet Manager. In my opinion, unlike the ones here or here, they badly need a lot more training and supervision.

Congratulations once again, Stephanie & Andrew!…

May God bless the two of you with endless love and abundant happiness in the years ahead and congratulations to the proud and happy parents too – thank you so much for the invitation. Cheers!!!

THE RINWOOD BALLROOM (2.2832589,111.8327029) is located on the 5th floor of the Kingwood Hotel at No. 12. Lorong Lanang 4.

Thank you, next…

I did mention in my post the other day that it’s the season for people to get married and  last Saturday night, I was invited to the wedding reception of another ex-student of mine, Alan, who tied the knot with his lovely bride, Eileen, that day…

…at the Jasmine Ballroom…

…at this hotel…

…in the town centre.

It so happened that it coincided with the Annual Christmas Procession here starting at the Sibu Town Square, right behind the hotel, that same evening around the same time. For fear of not being able to find a place to park the car, I went very early and since I was extra early, I went for a shampoo at a salon in the vicinity so if you think that my hair looked kind of different in this photo…

…you are absolutely right. Good grief! With the mousse and the hair spray used, it was as hard as a rock, so hard that I was pretty sure it would not budge, not even a bit, if I had walked through a typhoon. LOL!!!

With me in the photograph were Moses and Jacky, Alan’s classmates and another one came later but I did notice a lot of empty seats at so many tables – probably many could not find a place to park their cars for the aforementioned reason and decided to just go home.

People kept saying that the food at this hotel was not very nice but what we were served that night were pretty decent, starting with this sio pua (hot dish)…

…and yes, there were more than four in the so-called Four Seasons dish.

The lights were kind of dim and for reasons unknown, at times they would turn the lights down and it would get quite dark and at other times, they would turn the lights up. For this reason, I was too lazy to take the chance and snap photographs of all the dishes but this fish…

..sure deserved special mention. No, it was not curry and yes, there were a lot of herbs used in the cooking – I could detect the whiff of the fragrance as soon as it was served, something like that of Penang assam laksa and everyone enjoyed it very much. I must say it was a welcome change from the usual curry fish or curry fish head.

This was their roast chicken and duck combo…

…and I enjoyed their or nee (yam paste)…

…that we had for dessert at the end of the dinner and the mochi by the side was good too.

Service was great and for once, I was glad that the waiter did not come and fill my glass of iced water with Sprite – quite a few at my table was having that. It had happened before where they would just come with a jug of that fizzy drink and they would just randomly fill all the clear-looking glasses with it.

Thank you so much, Alan and Eileen…

…for the invitation. Congratulations once again and may God bless you two with years and years of endless joy and love ahead…and yes, it was great seeing my boys again albeit only a few of them. Ok, who’s next? I guess you will find out soon enough…in the next few days.

No plans…

I did not have any plans to do anything or go anywhere on the day of my birthday as the ladies were out of town and I was home alone.

That morning, I got a call from my good friend, Lim’s wife, asking me if I was at home. They will always remember my birthday without fail each passing year and I knew what they were up to so I said, “Yes, but don’t come!” but they showed up at my gate, nonetheless, to pass me these…

Lim had just come back from KL and he bought this pork belly bak kua…

…and they gave me a whole pack of it. That sure was a timely gift, I thought – with the ladies out of town, I could have that for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The durian cheese cake…

…from that franchise cake shop was really good! Somebody did mention that to me once and now that I’ve tried it and enjoyed it so much, don’t be surprised to see me dropping by there for more of the same.

In the meantime, I also got a surprise phone call from my old friend, formerly known as ahkamkoko. I think the last time I saw him and his wife was way back in 2015 after which he left for his post-graduate studies in New York on a Fulbright scholarship. Well, he’s back now and is presently attached to a  school in Kuching and they were here over the weekend for a friend’s wedding and he asked if I was free for lunch that day. Well, of course I was and we arranged to meet here.

It was a blistering hot day so we went and sat upstairs in a very much nicer setting than the regular coffee shop kind of place on the ground floor – the air-conditioning certainly was a welcomed relief…and of course, I had to order my favourite fish maw soup (RM11.00) for them to try. It was all right that day but I thought it could do with a little less msg and a bit more quality control.

I also ordered the ngor hiang (RM8.00)…

…and they enjoyed it very much. I thought it tasted slightly different that day – maybe it was because of the lokan (clams) used in the minced filling, I wouldn’t know but I liked it a lot better on previous occasions. They said that there would not be any extra charge to go and dine upstairs but I do recall this dish being a little bit less, RM7.80, when we had it downstairs but never mind, as it wasn’t much of a difference.

The waitress came and informed us that the cook had made a mistake with our order for their honey pork ribs and had cooked a sweet and sour version of the meat instead but we could cancel the order, if we so wished. We said that we did not mind and would have it all the same (18.00)…

…and yes, I rather liked it even though it was not what I had in mind initially.

We had the bitter gourd omelette with lap cheang (Chinese sausage) – RM13.00…

…but the cook or whoever did not beat the egg well so there were parts where the salt had not completely dissolved so it was very salty and that sure affected our enjoyment of the dish.

Thankfully, the stewed pork leg served on a bed of fried cangkuk manis with egg (RM17.00)…

…plus two stewed eggs by the side was great, as always.

The total came up to RM74.00 altogether (inclusive of rice and drinks) and of course, I insisted on picking up the tab – my birthday and a welcome-home treat for my friends.

After lunch, we dropped by here for the gelato and sat there to chit chat and catch up with one another’s lives.

It seemed that my friend’s wife, Michelle, a West Malaysian, had never been to Payung before so I insisted that we went there for dinner that night. Unfortunately, my friend absentmindedly locked his keys inside his car and had to call somebody to pick the lock and open it at around 6 something and that took a good one hour or so and that held us up and we only got to the café past 7.30 or just before 8.

Peter, the boss, had gone home as he had had a long day with his gardening contracts and what not – that is why they are closed on Sundays and will only open after 5 for dinner – plus he has to be home at night to keep his old mum (almost 95, I think) company (the others in the family would take turns and come during the day to do that). I bought a cake from this bakery for everybody to share and they insisted that I cut it and they all sang the Happy Birthday song…

Gee! That sure was sweet of them!

No, I did not take any photograph of what we had that night, not in the dim evening lighting and anyway, I have had photographs of everything on the menu here in my previous posts on the place but Michelle was bowled over by the herbs salad and the tempoyak and the otak-otak fish and the belimbing prawns – she does not eat prawns usually but after having tasted the delightful soup/sauce, she could not resist two or maybe, three. They were out of their green curry chicken that night so we had the Payung fish (ikan keli) and yes, I also ordered the pomelo salad (the papaya salad was not available either). All in all, I would say they enjoyed the dinner a whole lot more than the lunch we had earlier in the day and Michelle, especially, kept singing praises of what we had  that night.

I don’t know how much the dinner was – we got their durian ice cream on the house as it was my birthday – because my friend quietly went to pay when I went some place for a while for a bit of fresh air. Thank you so much, Jarod & Michelle for the treat – it sure was nice seeing the two of you again and good luck, God bless with the little one, coming real soon!

Well, it sure looked like I did have a great birthday after all, don’t you think? LOL!!!

A-PLUS FOOD CENTRE/RESTAURANT (2.293355, 111.823653) is located among the shops along Jalan Kampung Datu behind the block of shops (where Fair Price Supermarket is) near the traffic lights at its junction with Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg and Jalan Kampung Nyabor while NICA GELATERIA (2.302620, 111.842988) is located at Wisma Liberty/Wisma Sri Minyak at No. 14, Block 3, Jalan Pedada – on your left, past the Jalan Ulu Oya Road traffic lights if you are coming from town and PAYUNG CAFÉ (2.284049, 111.833014) is located at No.20F, Lanang Road, Sibu, Malaysia, back to back with the multi-storey car park of the Kingwood Hotel which faces the majestic Rejang River.