Bangla Desh

My West Malaysian friends teaching in Sibu dropped by here…

…quite frequently on Fridays for the biryani kambing (mutton biryani rice) – they sure seemed to enjoy it a lot. I wouldn’t know, of course, as I never went to give it a try myself, Friday being my no-meat day. Incidentally, they only have biryani rice, kambing and ayam (mutton and chicken) once a week on Fridays, it seems.

Well, it so happened that I was driving past that area the other morning and I decided to stop by and check the place out. There was this guy there, making the roti canai…

…and a few Malay ladies doing the serving and the cooking. I asked him where he came from and he said Bangladesh to which I responded, “No wonder you chose that name for your shop!” For the uninitiated, Dhaka is the capital city of that country. He said that he married a local and I was impressed by how he was able to converse fluently in Malay, unlike our YB’s and wannabes around here. I cringed with embarrassment when I heard them speak in Malay (or English, for that matter) during their campaigning for the recent general election and to think that they have lived here all their lives!!! What a disgrace!

I ordered one roti canai, kosong (RM1.80)…

…to try and it was all right. I must say that I loved the curry gravy…

…that came with it. If the mutton curry that comes with the biryani rice is anything like this, I dare say it must be very good.

I did have a look at the dishes for the nasi campur (mixed rice) though but I was not impressed. They had nasi lemak too so I asked one of the ladies if it was very lemak. Unfortunately, she said it wasn’t, just a bit. I did see the guy at the next table having it and it sure looked good but if it is not lemak, I think I would just give it a pass. The lady with him had their Sarawak laksa but I did not get to see what it looked like. There wasn’t any fragrance that I could detect so it did not get me all excited either.

The couple were Chinese and so were most of the other customers there that morning even though there are a lot of coffee shops in the area and they could have gone to any one of them. I guess this one has its following and they would come back again and again.

I also asked for their mee goreng special (RM10.00)…

…and this was what I got.

The noodles were quite ordinary, not really nice and I wonder how they fried the egg to get it to look like that. Obviously, it was not done the traditional way with a lot of oil in a wok and it did not look like they used the ring either. The chicken was marinated with kunyit (turmeric) – I did not think it was great but this has got to be the worst, the calamansi lime…

…so withered and dry already. Luckily, it was still all right on the inside and I did manage to squeeze a bit of the juice out all over the noodles but no, I’m afraid it did not manage to save the day.

The only nice thing was the complimentary sup tulang (bone soup)…

…which was more or less like all the rest that they will give you at such Muslim-friendly eateries.

The final blow, of course, would be the price – RM10.00 for that is pushing it a bit too far. My favourite mee goreng special here is only RM6.50 a plate with one fried egg, done the way I love it and one very nice fried chicken wing plus a bit of the old lady’s very nice daging masak hitam. and her fried noodles are, without fail, so delicious everytime. Honestly, if I can get all those for so much less, I see no reason to make my way here for what they have to offer, not at all.

Dhaka Café & Catering (2.279303, 111.839490) is located along Jalan Aman, the first shop in the row of shops on your right if you are coming from Lanang Road or the last one if from Jalan Wong King Huo.

Darker…

Last Friday, my girl had a wedding reception to attend so we dropped her off at the hotel where the event was held and went round the corner to have our dinner here…

There was a girl there for the lei cha – they still serve that once a week, every Friday and it’s RM7.00 a set right now, so cheap!!!

It was around 6.00 p.m. and it wasn’t dark yet when we got there but it got darker and darker real quickly and it started pouring cats and dogs! Gosh!!! I was surprised that there were customers dropping by for dinner despite the raging storm and I don’t know if it was just me but I thought it wasn’t as dark before. Perhaps they feel the ambiance is nicer this way, more romantic and all but attempting to take great pictures under such conditions would be a real challenge!

Of course my missus wanted the kacang ma chicken…

…and of course, she loved it so much! Andy is getting to be quite an expert at cooking it these days, it seems. I saw somebody selling her homecooked version on Facebook but the kacangma (motherwort) leaves were very kasar, not well blended and on the whole, it looked so diluted – not that much kacangma leaves, not that much ginger either and I was quite sure unlike Andy’s, you would not be getting a lot of pek chiew thow (Chinese white wine) if you go for that one!

There were three huge chunks of chicken in it and my missus could only manage two so I helped her with the last one and the rest of the absolutely-out-of-this-world soup! Yes, it was good, very very good!

I had the Payung fish…

…myself. My girl and I love this a lot, the ikan keli but my missus would not touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Cleaning and preparing the fish for cooking is such a chore – my sister says it takes the whole morning just to do that, half an hour to cook and 5 minutes to eat it all up!!! For this reason alone, we never buy this fish ourselves to cook this way or in those other ways that my late mum used to cook it (e.g. masak kunyit) – we will just come here to eat or tapao home to enjoy.

One thing I’ve noticed is the fish skin is missing. Maybe it would be easier to clean it by just removing and getting rid of the skin, I wouldn’t know but I love the skin so so much! It simply isn’t quite the same without it. I must ask them one of these days.

We also had the one-of-a-kind Payung rojak…

…and as always, we enjoyed it to the max. I particularly loved the bunga kantan (torch ginger flower) petals and the green kedondong leaves.

I say it is one of a kind because unlike all the rest, there is no prawn paste (hay kor) in theirs! Peter once told me that he visited a prawn paste factory in Penang a long long time ago and after what he saw there, he never had prawn paste in his rojak or any of his dishes ever again. What they serve with their rojak here is his original creation, suitable for vegetarians.

Andy served us these…

…that according to him, were given to him by somebody for Deepavali, some murukku and Indian kuih ros aka kuih goyang.

The total for our dinner that night came up to RM42.00 only altogether and considering how much we enjoyed it, I would say that was truly value for money. We certainly would be back for more!

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.

Home for a while…

My niece, my brother-in-law’s daughter working in Singapore was home for a while. She used to make an effort to come home for everyone’s birthday but she had to miss a few because of the pandemic and everything. Last month (September), she could not be around for her mum’s birthday nor my girl’s – why, she could not come back to celebrate her own like what she used to do every year!

Of course, we all went out together for dinner, 7 of us altogether including her brother currently residing in Thailand, home to renew his travel documents and what not. Yes, we went to this restaurant that we went to not too long ago because everyone loved the food we had and yes, we ordered their signature ribs…

…again. There were only four pieces so I gave them a miss – let the kids enjoy them! I did get to try the pickled jellyfish though and yes, it was good. I did not to eat that the last time as it was all gone in no time at all.

This Thai crispy pork belly…

…did not look that enticing but just have a bit and get blown away! It was really very very nice. I’d KIV that as a must-order dish everytime I drop by here.

The lamb…

…was really nice too, just that I could only eat a bit since I have to stay away from red meat. Whatever that went into the making of the gravy sure stole the show, anytime a whole lot nicer than black pepper or Worcestershire or barbecue or whatever sauce they use when they cook lamb.

I never had Mongolian fish…

…elsewhere before and unfortunately, it did not sweep me off my feet. I had nicer Mongolian elsewhere…and usually, it was with meat.

I’m staying away from prawns too these days for fear that they may trigger off an allergy but I did try one of their butter prawns…

They certainly did a good job with the egg floss but I prefer the creamy version that we used to order elsewhere.

My brother-in-law ordered his favourite – an omelette…

He used to order that all the time but had not asked for that for a while now whenever we went out to eat. This was the tri-egg version with a bit of salted egg and century egg inside and yes, it was very nicely done. Everyone had a bit and it was gone in the blink of an eye.

The tauhu tear, our Foochow tofu soup…

…was very nice but if it is the authentic Foochow soup taste that you are looking for, it is best to try the one here – I feel that they do it a lot better with the taste and fragrance of the canned oysters used in the cooking.

My niece went to make the reservation and it looked like she forgot all about including some vegetable dishes. There was none other than the broccoli that came with the lamb. Instead, she asked for their tom yam soup but probably something was lost in translation and this Szechuan hot & sour soup…

…was what we got in the end. Generally, this is not my favoruite soup and anyway, I was already too full by then so I did not bother to give it a try.

Yes, generally, everyone enjoyed the food (and the company) and my missus insisted on picking up the tab this time around, her special treat for her niece and nephew. After all, they do not come home that often anymore these days. Surprisingly, the total came up to only RM210.00 for the food, 8 dishes for 7 people whereas we only had 6 dishes for 6 on our previous visit and it was RM220.00. I guess that was because we had steamed fish – that cod fish must have cost a bomb!

The GRAND WONDERFUL RESTAURANT is right beside the GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…

…to the left, in that same building where the GRAND WONDERFUL HOTEL 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.

James…

I did blog about this char siew sauce…

…before, more than once, perhaps because we have been using it ever since the first time we tried it and it turned out to be very much to our liking. Yes, we did try Lee Kum Kee and/or some brand from Cosway but no, they were not as nice.

Well, the other day, my missus took two slabs of meat, the tenderloin and marinated them in the sauce the whole day. Come evening time, just before dinner, she grilled them in the oven till they were nicely done…

She cut them up into slices…

…and served…

Yes, we sure enjoyed that and the next morning, since there was a bit left, I cooked a plate of The Kitchen Food – Sibu Instant Kampua – 厨艺食品, dark soy sauce and served that with a few slices of the char siew on top…

…like how they would do it outside.

That sure looked good, don’t you think so? You can grab a packet of the char siew sauce to try if you have yet to do so. It should be available at all leading supermarkets and grocery stores.

Something that I never had…

I saw my foodie friend sharing photographs of these noodles (RM7.00)…

…a few times on Facebook so of course, my curiosity was aroused. That was something I never saw, much less, had before so, of course, I simply had to make my way to the coffee shop to give it a try.

I could see something like Scotch eggs in it, salted egg yolk wrapped with meat…

…plus a whole lot of minced meat and the guy’s own-made…

…noodles…

…and a whole lot of those green vegetables that I am not a fan of.

The noodles tasted great – they went very well with whatever ingredients or sauce used to toss them and the minced meat was great too. I can’t say I was all that thrilled by the salted egg yolk wrapped in meat though – I thought it wasn’t anything to shout about.

I tried it with the chili sauce…

…provided but no, I did not think they were all that compatible. It tasted like what they will give you if you go to a chicken rice place and yes, it was very nice just that I did not think it went all that well with the noodles. The guy was selling it at RM7.00 a bottle but no, I did not bother getting one to take home.

ALOHA CORNER (2.293843, 111.827118)…

…is located at No. 48-52, Jalan Keranji.

Words…

I bought my car in 2018 so it is already 4 years old now but actually, it is literally brand new, having covered over 6,000 km. only after all this time plus I take very good care of it. That includes sending it for servicing every 6 months to make sure it is in tip top shape.

The service centre is on the other side of the world, so to speak…in that part of town that I hardly ever go to. Two years ago, when I was there, I had the kolo mee…

…at one of the stalls in this coffee shop…

You can see how crowded it was that morning even though it was so early – it sure looked like everyone was back with a vengeance, coming out in full force!!!

…right across the road from the centre and last year, I dropped by there again and had the same…

…another time.

This year, I got there a little early at 7.30 – I had made an appointment for 8.00 a.m.! As they say, it’s the early bird that catches the worm. It looked like I had enough time for a bite to eat so I stopped by the coffee shop to see what I could have. I did not want the kolo mee anymore and I was not enticed by anything from the other stalls there.

In the end, I asked for the sup perut babi campur from the kolo mee stall. Before I let you all see what I got in the end, let us look at the words in Malay. Sup, of course, is soup in English and perut babi is pig’s stomach. Yes, that is a very popular dish over in the peninsula – I had it once…

…in KL and my missus loved it – it was peppery and nice though I was not too sure if those were the stomach or the intestines. I asked one of the ladies if it was tu tor therng (pork intestine soup) and she said yes so I said I would like to have that.

Last but not least, the word campur in the name means mixed so I was expecting some stomach, intestines, liver, meatballs and so on and so forth all mixed together in a bowl of soup.

In the end, THIS…

…was what was served – liver, two tofu puffs and some green vegetables, NOTHING ELSE and liver is hati in Malay!

No, it was not the true blue traditional Foochow red wine and ginger liver soup…

…that we enjoy a lot – one of our favourites is the one here. What I got was just liver served in clear bone stock soup! Surely they did not hear me wrongly?

I don’t think they cooked the liver in it either as I could not detect the taste at all in the soup but thankfully, they did manage to cook the liver to perfection (RM7.00)…

The saving grace was it was not overcooked so it was soft and nice. If you overcook liver, it will become hard and will not be palatable at all. I must say that I enjoyed eating it dipped in the very nice chili sauce that they served with it…but there was so much of it that I was a little worried that I might end up with a gout attack. LOL!!!

They gave these…

…when they served my order. The one in the middle looked like red wine so I added a bit to the soup. It did not enhance the taste in any way so I decided to just leave the soup alone and enjoy it the way it was.

The next round of servicing is scheduled for November, 6 months from now and if I do stop by here again then, I think I shall just go back to the kolo mee.

CHANG LOK CHIU CAFE (2.277376, 111.850765) is located along Jalan Bukit Lima, just before the Bukit Lima roundabout, right across the road from the Proton Service Centre (NGU’S MOTOR SERVICE SDN BHD – PROTON 4S DEALER).

The very thought of you…

I thought I saw somebody mentioning that he or she was longing to have some beef noodles and that instantly triggered a craving in me. Well, you can’t blame me for this as the last time I had it was in May, 2020, almost two years ago!

I often drove into town early in the morning, around 7 something, before 8.00 a.m. and I would look to see if there was a crowd at the two-unit coffee shop and all this while, I would see a lot of cars parked in front so I did not bother to stop by. The other morning, however, much to my delight, there were only two cars, probably belonging to the people there and no customers…

I quickly parked my car beside the aforementioned two and took a seat at a table outside and placed my orders.

I had their kampua mee, kosong (no meat)…

…and their beef soup special, with a few pieces of tripe and tendon…

…added. Yes, I did notice that these days, they are using disposable chopsticks and spoons. Perhaps this is healthier than using those plastic chopsticks and spoons that you wash and reuse again and again.

The serving was huge, the noodles, especially but yes, I did manage to finish all of it and of course, I enjoyed the soup to the max and the beef, tripe and tendon went so very well with their own-made chili dip! That one sure is a show-stealer, so very very nice, indeed.

The combo is now RM14.00 a set…

…up by RM2.00 from RM12.00 two years ago. If you opt for the beef soup, regular, that is without the tripe and the tendon, with the kampua mee, it is a little bit cheaper, only RM9.00.

I would say that I did not mind the increase in price especially considering that I enjoyed it so much unlike what I had the other day and they are not charging something so unreasonably astronomical as at some places, like what I encountered here or here.

AH SIAN BEEF NOODLE CAFE (2.293063, 111.826106) is located along Jalan Tuanku Osman in the block of shops right in front of the Public Bank, Tuanku Osman branch, right before the tyre shop at the other end to its left. 

Greedy…

Last week, my girl told me that she and her mum had to go some place to do something late evening, Saturday and I told her that I could take them there and once they were done, we could go some place nice for dinner.

That was why we did not cook lunch that day but my girl did fry this very nice mee mamak…

…for brunch to tide us over till dinnertime.

For our dinner that day, we agreed to drop by here where we could sit at the tables at the covered pavement outside, all nicely spaced out for physical distancing and anyway, we were early so there were no other customers at the time. The boss was busy preparing some water chestnuts, probably for the drinks so his handsome young son took my orders.

My girl loved the fried own-made tofu that previous time we were here and we liked the prawn fritters too so we would like to have those again. We did not have the mini ngor hiang balls as it was a Friday that day so of course, this time around, I asked for the combination of all three for three persons (RM16.50)…

…and obviously, that meant three of each. The ngor hiang seemed a little bigger and yes, it was as good as ever!

Normally, that would do for our meat dish but I was feeling like having some stewed pork leg after seeing what Nancy’s hubby had that day so I asked for a smaller serving. The boy said that the minimum would be for two persons so I agreed to have that with two stewed eggs (RM22.00)…

…by the side. That was quite a lot – I didn’t expect that much actually and I loved how we were not given any of the trotters/hooves nor the very fat cuts, just the lean and the skin, all that collagen. I guess without the trotters, there were no tendons at all then.

I must have been feeling real hungry or was just being plain greedy especially when I had not eaten much the whole day and I thought I would want another meat dish. I remember I had some very nice pork ribs…

…here once, marinated in traditional Foochow red wine, a bit of ang chao (the residue from making the wine) and also tau joo (fermented bean curd) and then, deep fried. Unfortunately, the boy was conversant only in Mandarin and I could not make head or tail out of what he was talking about most of the time.

In the end, I settled for the sweet and sour pork (RM24.00)…

…which, in my girl’s humble opinion, came nowhere near the very nice sweet and sour dishes here and anyway, there was too much for us to eat so we hardly ate much of it and asked for it to be tapao-ed for us to take home and heat up for lunch the next day.

The fried midin, ching chao (fried plain)…

…was very nice, just as nice as the last time we had it but this was RM12.00 a plate and only RM10.00 when the dad (boss) took my orders and suggested having servings for two only and looking at that post, it looked like there was a whole lot more. Maybe this is because of the current rising prices of anything and everything and there seems to be shortage of fresh local vegetables lately, just a lot of those imported ones.

We did not eat much of the ladies’ fingers (RM12.00)…

…so we took most of it home. I liked how it was not sticky but I did not like how it tasted burnt. Maybe they burnt the belacan when they toasted the dried prawn paste, I wouldn’t know.

I missed their fish maw clear soup (RM25.00)…

…my favourite soup anywhere in town. It did taste vaguely similar but no, it did not look the same…

For one thing, the soup was cloudy, not clear. Truth be told, if this is how they are going to do it these days, I shall not be ordering it again, thank you very much.

The total came up to over RM100.00 but of course, that was because I over-ordered. We could have had more than enough to enjoy with two less meat dishes and one less vegetable, actually. I guess when you have been confined to the house for too long, the moment you get to go out, you would want to order everything and besides, we hardly ate much the whole day that day.

A-PLUS FOOD CENTRE/RESTAURANT (2.293355, 111.823653) is located among the shops along Jalan Kampung Datu behind the block of shops (where Fresh & Pay Supermarket is) near the traffic lights at its junction with Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg and Jalan Kampung Nyabor.

Listening to you…

I did mention a couple of times already that I could not get hold of any pek chio/ikan bawal putih (white/silver pomfret) for our Chap Goh Meh steamboat dinner and the nice lady at my favourite fish & seafood stall suggested buying the pek hu/ikan putih (white fish) that she had already filleted…

She said it would be great for fish soup or fish noodles and when she heard that I was planning to have steamboat that evening, she said this would be perfect for it. In the end, I just listened to her.

There was quite a lot from just one fish. We already ate half that night and there was still so much left, RM31.00 for all that altogether. I don’t know what it looks like but I guess it must have been quite big.

My girl was not that keen on having claypot yam with fish – she just asked for it to be sliced and deep-fried, coated with tempura batter, served with roast potatoes by the side…

…and that was what we had that day, Friday – our no-meat day.

Yes, it…

…was very nice, very fresh and sweet, with its lovely fish texture though it wasn’t as smooth as the pek chio, no bones since those had been removed already and best of all, no fishy smell, none at all!

We enjoyed the potatoes…

…too – that, of course, is a lot healthier than having deep-fried chips or fries.

The next time I see this fish at the stall, rest assured that I shall grab it and buy it again without any second thought.

The fish & seafood stall is located to the right of CCL FRESH MINI MARKET against the wall at the end of the block to the right of the Grand Wonderful Hotel (2.309601, 111.845163) along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan. Go straight ahead till you reach the place towards the end of that road on your left.

Things are different now…

I did mention in my reply to a comment the other day (or maybe I made a comment in a friend’s blog) that on Chinese New Year’s Eve, I dropped by the coffee shop in my neighbourhood to buy some noodles as we would not be having lunch because my missus would be busy in the kitchen preparing and cooking the dishes for our reunion dinner that evening. Unfortunately, the guy said he had too many orders waiting in line so I could not possibly wait for him to cook mine. In the end, I had no choice but to go home empty-handed.

On the 2nd Day of the New Year, I drove past and much to my surprise, the coffee shop was open but I saw that there were a lot of customers there that morning so I did not bother to buy anything that day.

The next morning, I went over real early, as soon as the sun was up and yes, the coffee shop was open and yes, there were quite a lot of people there already. It did not matter as I always go through the backdoor and talk to the guy directly from there (no need to go in and walk through the coffee shop). I noticed that one of the shops was open – in the past, they would close for at least one week. According to the guy at the coffee shop, the other mini-supermarket there would open in a day or two. Things sure are different now!

I bought the char pek koi (fried white rice cake)…

– my girl’s favourite here and she specifically asked for it…

I wanted the tomato kway teow (flat rice noodles)…

…the one here is one of my favourites in town, but the guy said that the people making the kway teow had not resumed business yet so he only had bihun (rice vermicelli) but no, that did not tickle my fancy.

In the end, I asked for the Foochow fried noodles, the moon version…

…for both my missus and I. She loves this…

…that I know!

What I bought that day came up to RM15.00 altogether, RM5.00 each. I remember paying RM5.00 not too long ago for the pek koi and obviously, the prices for the other fried noodles dishes around here have gone up too. I do not mind, actually, as long as they maintain the quality – if you go and eat at some classy café, a plate of fried noodles (some here have mee mamak on their menu) will set you back by at least RM12.00 and you may even give the waiter/waitress a generous tip and will never complain.

I hurried home quickly and all of us sat down to enjoy what I had bought for breakfast that morning while everything was still nice and hot.

AH KAU CAFE (2.316346, 111.839861) is located along Jalan Ruby, off Jalan Lim Han Swee, in the same block as Kim Tak Mini Supermarket, to the extreme left.