Please don’t go away…

Well, I’ll be flying to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow in this Fokker aircraft…

…and then I’ll be getting on a Boeing 737…

…to Sandakan. And this is what I’ll be doing there…..

This photograph was taken sometime in late 2006…so by now, I would probably be older…and maybe bigger…or smaller. By the way, chris, do you recognise anybody in the photograph?

I hope I can go to the very unique English Tea House in Sandakan, not to have the English scones (Well, maybe that too!)…but to meet Tim, my friend from the now-terminated TraxxFm radio show – Pat and Mag in the afternoon. He is the chef there!!! I’ll post his photo when I get back…if I get to meet him there, that is.

So do take note, everybody, that I will be back by Tuesday. Please don’t go away but if you really really have to, do not stray too far as it will only be for a couple of days!!! I am sure I will have a lot to post once I get back! In the meantime, take care and be good…if you can!!! LOL!!!

This old house…

Yes, this is the old house where Chricaca used to live and she mentioned in one of her comments that she fell out of the window while playing hide and seek with her sisters…

Incidentally, this post is not going to be about anything specific in particular. I will just make some back references to a few things that had cropped up in the earlier posts. For instance, Gundot mentioned that the Sungai Merah chai pau (vegetable bun) is very nice, so the very next day, I went to buy some…

Ok, Bongkersz, I know! You don’t have to tell me what they look like! It’s mostly skin…which is a good thing as the skin is very nice, unlike the yellowish and rubbery traditional pau skin that is typical of those local Sibu ones…

As for the inside, it is mostly cabbage and carrots, not as nice as the homemade ones I had the other day…and there is so very little of it. And since I was in the Sungai Merah vicinity, I decided to stop for a bowl of kuih chap…

This is the “special” and it costs RM5.50 (A normal bowl would cost RM4.00) but it was very nice. The gravy has this rich fragrance of spices such as cinnamon sticks and of course, I enjoyed the generous serving of pig’s innards. However, I was quite disappointed that there wasn’t any liver though! Anyway, moving on, we were also talking about nyonya kuihs in that post about chai paus, remember? Well, I had some more the other day…

Those pulut (glutinous rice) kuihs with gula melaka flavoured coconut on top are very nice…and you get three for RM1.20 (or was it four? Can’t remember whether I popped one into my mouth while taking the photograph. LOL!!!).  Yesterday Clare sent me an sms to gloat about the Wednesday-only popiah she had at Handsome Court at Nanas Road in Kuching. I know it is very nice as I had had it before…and all right, all right! You do not have to tell me how EXTRA BIG it was. This one that I had was from the SRB Chung Hua canteen and at one time, people were praising it to the skies. I thought it was just ok but I felt the filling did not have enough chilli and ground peanuts… 

I prefer the ones sold in the mornings at Chopsticks at Pedada Commercial Centre. Of course, none can compare with Handsome Court’s. Drool! Drool! Are you going to post about it, Clare? Then everyone can see how BIG it is! ROTFLMAO!!!

So that’s about it for this post – just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Well, how has your week been so far? Good, I hope…..

So far away…

Normally, I do not venture very far from where I stay…even before the hike in the oil prices, but once a month, I would need to go to my bank on the other side of town. Initially, the branch was at Rejang Park, very near my house but they closed it down and moved to Cityvine in the Upper Lanang area…and since I was there, I decided to roam around the vicinity. This Sing Kwong Building has been opened for well over a year now…

There is the departmental store downstairs and upstairs, you have the supermarket. You can use the travelators to go up and down…

There are a few shops in the main wing as well, like Bata…and in the attached wing, there is the SOS shoe shop, one Pensonic outlet, a computer shop and lots of food outlets like KFC and Pizza Hut…

and a Sushi Tie Kiosk…

as well as a bakery…

…and they even have free wifi at the entire place!

There’s a food court at the back and darn!!! Now I’ve to go back there again one of these days! They’ve got salted fish claypot chicken rice!!! I haven’t had that for a long time…and I wonder if it is any good. I was there past lunchtime and most of the stalls were not open.

I left the place and went over to the other side where Farley Supermarket and Departmental Store is. I dropped by a shop in that area sometime in May and I saw this Swiss cabin-size baggage that I really liked so much…

I enquired about the price and was told that it would cost RM100 plus. Well, I am not an impulsive shopper so I did not buy it there and then. Instead, I went and tried to pull some strings to get it at a lower price. Eventually, I was told that I could have it for RM80. But the shop being so far away, I never went back until today…and when I asked the proprietor how much he was willing to sell it to me for, I almost fainted when he said RM50. I had to confirm with him several times to make sure that he was not selling it to me at a loss because of “the strings attached”…and finally, I paid him the money and left…feeling so very happy with the unbelievable bargain!!! Swiss, no less!!! Got class mah! ROTFLMAO!!! 

I knew you were waiting…

Truth be told, I did not know she was waiting for me but this afternoon, when I dropped by 3Q Fastfood Takeaway, the Q there was so excited to see me! She was so thrilled about the sudden surge in her business…and somebody told her that they had read about it here – at suituapui’s blog!!! Gee! The power of advertising! LOL!!!

Actually, I was coming down with a flu and I had to go to the EPF office to settle some “official matters”…so I was not in the mood to do any cooking. Thus, I decided to stop by to see what they had left over to buy for dinner. It was almost 3.00 p.m. so if there was anything good, it would have been sold out already. In the end, I asked for the rest of the long beans fried with minced meat and the pumpkin in sambal udang kering (dried prawns sambal)…

Then, I also wanted some of the meat cooked in cincaluk. Yummy!!!…

And I only had to pay RM10.00 for all that! I suspected she did not charge me for the veg…and that was not all. She wanted to give me a special treat and insisted that I waited for her Thai-style Mihun Special…

Now, what was that? There was mihun in some Thai-style sweet and sour sauce…and buah kenundung (a sour mango-like fruit), green apples, carrot, cucumber, cabbage all cut into thin strips plus fried ikan bilis (anchovies) and fried onions plus sambal buah petai.

I had it free, of course but according to the Q, she is selling that for RM3.00 but without the sambal buah petai, it is only RM2.50. Some of you may not like the pungent smell of the seeds…but I really really really love it! I think they have some medicinal value too, but you’ll just have to google for it yourself to find out. So what did it taste like?…..You would not want to miss it, I tell you! It was simply sinfully delicious!!! Don’t just take my word for it! Drop by today and get some to try for yourself! I’m sure you’ll love it too!!!

Pieces…

Thanks to rubberseeds, I’ve got something on food to post this week…or my reputation as a “flogger” would go down the drain. He sent me some photographs that he took at the Sunday Market at Jalan Pedada here…of “chai pia” (translation: vegetable cake).

Well, I’m not really into it…but my daughter loves them, especially those they fried on the pavement at the shop next to the Eon Bank, Rejang Park branch (that has since moved to Cityvine in Upper Lanang) until the directive came from the municipal council telling them they could not do so. Now they still sell them even though they do not fry them on the spot, but I don’t think they made those themselves because they’re not as nice anymore!

Anyway, all this while, I thought they’re called “chai kuih“…but then, those curry puff-shaped things with popiah kind of filling in translucent skin are also called “chai kuih“. Well, whatever they’re called, I prefer those similar ones with a prawn or two on top, but then, those would be called “hay pia” (Prawn cake). These, of course, are bigger and not so thick as the “hay pia” that people in Kuching can get at Peterson’s (Drool!!!) or Old Rex Tofu…

There were rumours going round that the people melt plastic bag or drinking straw in the oil so they will stay crispy, banana fritters included…but I think a local daily did a survey on this and the rumours seemed somewhat unfounded. Then they were saying that they buy the used cooking oil from Sugar Bun to fry the stuff. Well, there are always those kinds of things circulating…like there were people who claimed that the beef from Australia was actually kangaroo or they had human meat in those cans of VERY delicious luncheon meat from China. If you believe everything you hear, you’d probably starve yourself to death!

Anyway, back to what I was talking about, this is the photograph of the stall at the Sunday market…

Thanks for the photographs, rubberseeds. I know you sent me more, but I guess these are enough for the post. Anymore to spare? Hahahahaha!!! Anybody craving for some “chai pia” right now? Or are you a die-hard kampua person…

Have a nice day!!!

Come and get it…

I have mentioned this place before in an earlier post when I bought some umai from there and I said that the kacang ma was very delicious, a must-have, in fact. I dropped by the place today and I am doing them a favour by posting about it. This is the 3-Q Fast Food Takeaway… 

…located to the left on the ground floor of the middle block at the Sibu Medical Centre. The proprietresses are three sisters, and I have known two of them since the time when I was studying in Form 6 in Methodist Secondary School, both of them renowned athletes from Sibu. One of them, Q-Ee, was noted as “the girl who beat Marina Chin”, if I am not mistaken, in the SEA Games many, many years ago…but I don’t think most of you are old enough to know either of them. This is the logo of their shop…

You may notice through the glass panel that they do sell fruits and vegetables as well. They did not use to when they first started but it seems they have expanded their business. I think this is for the convenience of those people tied up with their sick next-of-kin admitted at the medical centre…and also working mothers stopping by to buy the fast food for lunch or dinner. It certainly would save them the trouble of making a trip to the market.

As for the fast food, you get a wide selection to choose from daily. One of the Q-sisters will cook at home and bring over at around 10 to 11 a.m. As I have said already, the kacang ma is a must-have and I also like the Black Vinegar Pork Leg. They sometimes have curry, rendang or kurma. The good thing is they change the menu every day so you do not have to eat the same stuff all the time unlike some of those economical fast food stalls in the coffee shops in the town. This was what they had today…

and this…

Ooo…what’s that? Fried daun bandung (tapioca leaves)! I bought that right away…as well as some chicken curry, and that came up to RM13.00, RM3.00 for the veg and RM10.00 for the curry – enough for two meals for two persons (one of them extra-large, of course). I was quite sceptical at first about the tapioca leaves as normally, I would pound them before cooking! Well, my fears were unfounded – they were VERY nice!!! And the best part was they cost only RM3.00!

According to the Q-sister, they will have kacang ma on Monday…but be forewarned that if you go after 12 noon or 12.30, there may not be much/any left. It would be wise to call first to book say, RM10.00 and collect it later. For that, you can get one big bowl, enough for two meals, at least! Their contact numbers are 019-8198852 or 016-8882524 or 016-8788584. Give it a try and if you like it, say you heard it from me! Bon appetit!!!

Happy together…

The other day, I went to the Rejang Park bazaar to send a letter at the post office branch there…and I spotted a stall selling the Sibu Foochow tee-piang. I enquired about the price and the lady told me that I could get 5 for RM1…

I thought that was reasonable, considering that they would need soya beans, cooking oil (which is getting expensive) to fry the tee-piang in and all that. Then I went round the corner to the kompia shop (the one facing the market, next to the back portion of Quality Cake Shop). Good grief! How they’ve shrunk!!!

And the price! Now, for RM1.00, you can get 4 only, believe it or not! I remember I used to buy at this same place – 7 for a ringgit! Gee! It’s just salted dough baked in a traditional open oven! I never really fancy that anyway, so you can bet that would be the last time I would eat kompia…

Loitering around the vicinity, I noticed that one coffee shop (I think they have at least 10 in that small “square”!!) seemed to be enjoying really good business… 

The name would probably send Huai Bin craving for his Heineken! LOL!!! If I’m not mistaken, the ownership of that cafe has changed hands a few times and I’ve eaten there before. Not too bad but nothing to shout about! It is probably under another new owner and now, it is just one shop lot left (Used to be two!) but that day, it was pretty crowded so I decided to check out what nice stuff they might have at the stalls. I met an ex-student (Now a teacher in a secondary school here, in spite of me! LOL!!!) ta-pauing something from the tom yam stall and she said it was very nice. However, I was not in the mood for something strong and spicy, so I settled for this stall… 

Now! Now! That sweet young thing was a customer, so don’t start insinuating that I chose to patronise that stall because of her! He he he!!! They had kampua at RM2.00 only and a whole lot of other things and in the end, I decided to try the mee sup perut sapi or gu tor mee therng (noodles in cow’s stomach soup) at RM3.50 but I wanted the extras for an additional RM1.00…

It was actually a bit darker than that but I think the colours must have been affected by the steam. They used the big yellow noodles and the soup was slightly brownish…and inside, there was a “golden” egg (deep fried hard-boiled egg) as well as slices of gu tor (cow’s stomach) and pork liver, along with some too tor (pig’s intestines) and a couple of meat and fish balls plus a bit of green vegetables. Was it nice? Well, the following photo says it all…

It was absolutely delicious, and perhaps because it was served in a claypot, the longer I took to finish it, the nicer it tasted! Given a choice between this and bak-kut teh where they’ll give you two pork bones to wrestle with, I would much rather go for this.

So, anybody would like to ask me out for breakfast? I can take you there anytime and we can be happy together… LOL!!!

UPDATE
Stella and Kpenyu were talking about this Kompia Ah Pek from long ago here in Sibu and rubberseeds have kindly emailed me a photograph of the man…

This was the message attached in the email…

I am sending you an old photo taken in late 1970s of the old Kompia Ah Pek. He was seen here walking home after finishing selling his popular Kompia. He should be staying in Hoe Ping Road near the Garden Hotel. The wooden box on his head contained the Kompia. The timber frame on his right shoulder was the legs for the wooden box. The basket on his left shoulder contained some dishes, plastic bags etc. I hope you can put this photo in your blog for your readers.

 

Best regards,

rubberseeds

Thanks a lot, rubberseeds…

Come Saturday morning…

Well, it’s Saturday morning and the weekend’s here…and most of you are probably getting up too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.  So what about some brunch then? Any idea what you think you would like have? Are you going to drive around (burning liquid gold) in search of some nice things to eat?

Now, if you’re in Sibu and you’re quite sick of the usual kampua and Foochow fried mee, you should give this one a try. Perhaps you would like to go for some Tom yam mihun for a change. I have featured that some time ago, so you can click on the link to have a look if you had missed it then or have forgotten what it looks like.

Anyway, first things first. This is the name of the coffee shop…

and this is the stall…

Where is it, you say? It’s at the Delta Commercial Centre area where the now-not-so-new Delta Mall is located, on the far end next to Sweet Smelling Bakery, facing Gambir Road. So Goolooloo’s shop is pretty close by and Zouk’s, Clare’s and Housefly’s homes as well. Other than the aforementioned Tom yam mihun, you can have porridge and maybe Sarawak laksa as well, if I’m not mistaken or you can have this…

It is actually clear soup with minced pork balls, green veg, black fungus and an egg plus other bits and pieces…and you can have noodles, mihun or kway teow in it. Actually, there’s also pig liver and other innards but I’m staying away from those temporarily. Just in case you’re wondering, that costs RM4.00 too…and it is nice though usually I would prefer something stronger and spicier like the Tom yam mihun that I had before.

Incidentally, if you love the barbecued char siew and pork ribs, the homemade Chinese sausages or roast pork belly, chicken or duck…and you think the best is at that stall opposite the Public Bank Tunku Osman branch in the town centre, they have a stall here too. Actually, the brother runs this one…and he definitely is more friendly and pleasant than that @#$%&*+%$ one in the town, and the workers are nice and efficient too. I usually tapau home because it is not served with chicken rice, but with plain rice instead.

There are other stalls as well – one selling kampua and other things and the one at the back serves Foochow fried mee and so on…but I do not know if they are any good as I have not tried them before. Maybe you can go and sample and let me know…???

If I were a carpenter…

Well, I’m not…and neither am I going to talk about carpenters, just Carpenter Street in Kuching. I wonder how it got its name…for I used to hang around there as early as the 70’s but I don’t recall seeing any carpenter or a lot of carpenter shops – maybe a couple selling local-made furniture, that was all.

What I remember about the street was that there was a wide open section among one of the shop blocks. It may still be there today and it used to double as a temple and on certain festivals, they would have the Chinese wayang (opera shows) there. At other times, there were food stalls though I won’t know whether it’s the same today. I loved the kolo mee there and also that at a coffee shop further down the road at a T-junction, Carpenter Street with either Bishopgate or Temple Street.

Gerrie sent me this photograph of the kolo mee at Kim Joo coffee shop along Carpenter Street…

I don’t know if it’s the same coffeeshop that I used to go to but I can recall they had liver and all the pig’s innards. It was really delicious and what impressed me most was the waiter. Though a mere kid, he was able to remember what everybody wanted or did not want even though there were 5 or 6 of us. He did not even have to write it down and he would get all the orders correct. These days, you get those dumbos…and even though they write it down, they still mess everything up!

If I am not mistaken, there was a very popular restuarant there – Ang Lee Restaurant or something. Well, it was definitely not named after the famous movie director, that’s for sure, for it existed long before that guy came into the limelight! I had dinners there a few times but I can’t exactly place a finger on what the specialty of the house was. I think it could be the char siew there that was nice, I’m not too sure.

Well, I used to go to Carpenter Street a lot because I had a lot of friends in that vicinity. I knew a girl at the first shop on the right behind the General Post Office, and I had a friend who ran a stall selling sweets, tidbits and so on in between two blocks of shop houses at one of the T-junctions. Then I had a friend at Bishopgate and one at Temple Street and more at Main Bazaar. Sigh!!! Time and tide waits for no man…and in a blink of an eye, all that remain are the sweet memories of the happy moments we shared a long, long time ago. I do not know where they are now; I only hope they are all doing fine and leading happy lives. Who knows, one day, we may meet…but I won’t know whether we can still recognise one another anymore. After all, that was some 30-40 years ago…

Just once…

This restaurant opened sometime early this year around the Chinese New Year period but so far, I have not heard anyone saying that they’ve been there, much less, anybody passing comments on the food. Ah yes! I forgot! Alex of jienster.com went with his family but it was full and they had to go some place else. It seems that they’ve taken over one of the upper floors where the Japanese restaurant used to be, so I reckoned they must be pretty good and they’re expanding their business. Well, Sophia was in town again and I took that as an opportunity for me to try out the place… 

The menu was completely in Mandarin…but thank goodness, the people there could speak Hokkien. We placed our orders, nothing fancy – no prawns, no exotic fish or meat, just this hu phio therng (Fish maw soup)…..

and fried asparagus…

and hot plate chicken…

and also this plate of braised pork ribs (3 pieces!!!)…

I would not say that the food did not taste nice; it was all right but somewhat mild (not bland)…and I would very much prefer what they serve at Ruby or Y2K. Furthermore, those little portions that they served certainly were not worth what they charged. The bill came up to over RM60 inclusive of Chinese tea (for three persons)! With that amount of money, we could have had a feast at Ruby! Agree, Clare? Or perhaps we could have gone for this instead…

This is the renowned ridiculously-priced prawn noodles at Min Kong. I have not been there for years but after seeing Huai Bin’s post on it, I made a mental note to drop by when the opportunity arose…and so the following night, I took Sophia there. That was RM20 a plate but they had generous servings of fresh water prawns (which today, are worth their weight in gold at the market)…and it had the authentic Foochow fried mee (with sauce) taste! Today, this Foochow dish is sold everywhere in the town but some are really disastrous efforts to pass off what they cook as “Foochow fried mee”. After all, I had not had it for a long, long time and it was worth it. Ooo…I can still feel that wonderful taste in my mouth! Slurpszzzz!!!!! LOL!!!!