Opening day…

Ever since I saw their fish tail banners hanging from the street lamps all over town and the gigantic picture of the gorgeous roast duck in them beckoning to me, I was waiting for the place to open so I could go and give it a try.

From the name, I found out that it is an Ipoh franchise so I did not get my hopes up high – we already have a couple of Ipoh franchises here and let’s say they have been somewhat disappointing. I shared the post on Facebook and my friend, Annie, in KL said it is very famous/a favourite in Ipoh. Hmmm…that sounded promising!

Well, it had its soft opening yesterday, 31st May, so we made our way there at 10.00 a.m., the instant it opened its doors. Today is Gawai Dayak, a public holiday and with the long weekend ahead (holidays will stretch till Monday), I was afraid that there would be a lot of people flocking there, long queues by the entrance (they have placed some chairs there) in the scorching heat we are experiencing these days. Besides, it’s the early bird that catches the worm, so they say!

They’ve renovated the place – formerly, they had this here and later, they changed the concept to this. It is a bit bigger – I think they extended it to include the space outside on the right and I must say that it is very simple, not much decor to shout about or at least, not like what it was like before or at some places around town. I guess they mean business – it is all about the food (and service), no need for all those distractions.

A very nice and friendly waiter came to show us the menu – yes, they have the regular physical menus, none of that scan-the-QR-code nonsense…and he was very friendly, very knowledgeable of everything they are serving and very proficient in English. I was beginning to like the place already…a lot!

We asked for the Grand Platter, small (RM68.00)…

…so we could hit three birds with one stone. We were there to try as much as we could and with this order, we had the very nice and tender signature roast duck and the gorgeous char siew (barbecued pork), so moist, so juicy…

…and on the other side, there was the siew yoke (roast pork)…

…that the ladies voted as their No. 1! It tasted really great and the skin was absolutely perfect, so nice and crispy.

These came with the platter…

– the usual chicken rice chili dip, the sour plum sauce and another one that looked like ginger or something. I did have the chili with the Hainanese rice (RM2.20)…

…but not with the meat – when they taste so good, I would want to savour and enjoy them without drowning them in all these sauces. The rice was all right, nicer than a lot around town but no, it will take a lot more than this to get me jumping with excitement.

My missus does not eat duck so I asked for their roasted chicken, lower quarter (RM15.00)…

…for her and at the same time, we were able to try that as well and these dips…

…came with it.

We did not want the vegetable of the day – lettuce but I did see it ordered by some customers at another table. It did not look like much, quite typical of vegetables served at chicken rice places, blanched and served with oyster sauce. Usually, it is that or taugeh (bean sprouts) fried with salted fish.

We agreed to try their soup of the day though – the pumpkin soup (RM5.00) and yes, it was very good. It tasted like some herbal soup but there wasn’t any pumpkin inside, just pork that was so well-simmered, fall-off-the-bone tender…

We never cooked pumpkin like this at home – if it’s a soup, it will be like those rich and creamy ones served at the western eateries. Perhaps we’ll give this a try one of these days.

I must say on the whole, the service was excellent, very polite and cordial and very prompt – there were quite a lot of people, almost but not full, and despite that, we did not have to wait very long. I did notice a whole lot of packed lunches all lined up on the counter waiting for the delivery people to come and take them away and a number of customers sitting on the chairs outside (initially, I thought they were in the queue) waiting for their tapao (takeaway) orders.

There was only one cashier so there was a queue there when I went to pay for our most delightful brunch but it did not matter though as the young guy was very efficient and everything went smoothly and he could speak English fluently too!!! The total altogether came up to RM112.30 (inclusive of our drinks) and yes, they do accept credit cards here.

Everyone was wondering all this while as to who bought the Ipoh franchise to run this place here. I googled and found a whole lot of outlets in Ipoh and one in Subang or somewhere and now, there is this one here in Sibu. Well, this was on the serviette provided and it turned out that the people with this chain of cafés and restaurants…

…around town are the ones behind it. No wonder I saw some of them promoting this place quite aggressively on Facebook.

We certainly got off on a good start – this place opens from 10.00 a.m. till 9.00 p.m. daily (no off day) and rest assured that I will be going back again soon to try whatever else they may have on their menu that we have not tried yet, like their pipa duck, for instance.

SUN YEONG WAI 新揚威 – Sibu 诗巫 (2.302891, 111.842997)…

…is located at Wisma Liberty, Lot 4047, Block 3, STD 15, Lorong Dr Wong Soon Kai 7.

I could tell…

Yes, I could tell that the fish I had (RM28.00)…

…that day was a different variety from the barracuda that they said they were using the last time I was here. That one, I could eat it just like that, no need for the tartar sauce – it was so very nice!

Of course when they asked me, I did not mince my words – whatever fish it was, I found it a bit bland, quite tasteless and I was thinking that perhaps they should add a little bit of seasoning, some salt or something. Even the texture was different. They said they did not know the variety their supplier sent them this time. That is very bad! I would change supplier if I were them. True blue fish connoisseurs enjoy very good fish on their own, no need for seasoning, no need for tartar sauce or mayonnaise. Otherwise, one might as well go for the cheap frozen fish fillets at the supermarkets…or dory! Duh!!! Next time, I shall have to ask what fish they are using before ordering!!!

Anyway, we did not drop by for lunch that day for the fish and chips. We heard from my sister who heard it from a friend that their grilled pork chop (RM32.00)…

…was very nice so we wanted to give it a try. I ordered that to share…despite the price tag but it was well worth it. They were very generous with the servings – two huge perfectly-grilled, very tender slabs with green salad and potato salad by the side and the sauce that came with it was so so good, a little spicy but we loved it! It was just RM4.00 more than the disappointing fish and chips – I most certainly would go for this next time if they are not too sure the fish they have been supplied with is really good or not.

I saw their photo of their pumpkin soup (RM15.00)…

…which was not on the menu, on Facebook – they only had mushroom soup (which was good, the last time we had that). I asked the waitress and she confirmed it was available so we decided to give it a try. I would say it was nice but my missus can do a lot better, thicker and richer. This was somewhat diluted and given a choice, I would stick to their mushroom…

I had ordered the three aforementioned dishes to share but my girl said she wanted to try their spaghetti (spelt wrongly on their menu) bolognese (RM25.00)…

…so she had that as well. They had their own bolognese sauce, not anything from the bottle or packet that would be more like tomato ketchup. My girl said that it was the same sauce they had for the lasagna that she had twice before…

…just that they had spaghetti in this one instead of the lasagna sheets.

I guess my missus did not hear that we would be sharing my orders and seeing that my girl has ordered something for herself, she wanted her own fish and chips as well. Of course, we could not finish – there was about half left of each order so we asked for that to be packed for us to take home.

The ladies had iced fresh watermelon juice (RM8.00) while I asked for this cup of lemon/lime (RM8.00)…

It was VERY sour and bitter too as they blended the skin together – I read somewhere that this is very good for health so I obediently finished the whole cup. LOL!!!

That was a pleasant and delightful enough lunch, give and take a bit here and there but the total came up to a whooping RM152.00. Ah well! As long as we enjoyed ourselves, I guess that was all that mattered!

LONDON CAFE & BISTRO (2.257899, 111.844136)…

…is located at No. 36, Lorong Pulau Li Hua 2 among the shops to your right after the bridge just before you reach the security check point.

Stuffed…

The other morning, my missus came home from the shops in the next lane (Jalan Ruby) from my house with one big mackerel (ikan tenggiri). She said that there was a guy there selling fish at a temporary stall – he said that he would be there if there were fishing boats coming in (bringing a whole lot of fish).

So far, I never saw any big mackerels at the stall that I usually frequented, the one at the supermarket not far from my house. At best, there might be some small ones and no, I did not bother to buy those. You cannot even cut across the fish to get a big enough slice to fry. I can’t remember how much my missus paid for the one she bought – RM30 a kilo, I think. She did say there were even bigger ones but those would cost even more.

Well, she got down to work right away and filletted the fish to scrape out the meat to make fish paste to stuff some vegetables and cook with black bean sauce for this yong tofu dish…

There were some bitter gourd…

…and brinjal…

…and ladies’ fingers…

You can imagine how much work and what a chore that was!

Yes, she did make some fish balls too…

…and she boiled the unwanted parts of the fish – the head, the bones and everything…

…to get the stock for the broth for the fish ball soup…

Of course, it was very nice, so very sweet, bursting with flavours but all that work to come out with the two dishes stretched till almost lunch time! Actually, I expected her to throw all the stuffed vegetables into the soup as well but she had ideas of her own. I sure would not go through all that trouble, thank you very much!

Different size…

I did mention in my blogpost the other day that I do enjoy eating the ikan kembong…

…and the other varieties of similar sizes such as the mak chik…

…for instance.

I do not know their names but there are others like these…

…or these…

For one thing, they’re cheap, all in the region of around RM10.00 a kilo, more or less. Of course, if I buy a kilo or two, there will be quite a number of them but the boy at my regular fish stall near my house will clean them for me, no problem at all.

Unfortunately, they do not get a lot of these – every day, there will be a lot of ikan bawal hitam/or chio (black pomfret) or kim chio (gold pomfret) or those from the lakes at the Batang Ai Hydro-electric Dams – the tilapia, the barramundi (ikan siakap) or the ikan sultan but those do not come cheap. The big ones can fetch around RM30.00 a kilo! I would have to go to the main wet markets to get these small ones but I have not set foot at those places ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I love how they will cook these small fish at the Malay nasi campur (mixed rice) stalls and shops. Some will deep-fry them coated with some kind of kunyit (turmeric) batter…

…and I love the ones at one place here, served with their very delicious black sauce or they may cook my favourite asam fish dish (with tamarind – for their fish curry, they usually use the much bigger ikan tenggiri…

…or the ikan tongkol, the tuna, that is or the ikan bawal hitam) with them like what my missus came out with the other day…

She said she did not add any belacan (dried prawn paste) for its flavour and sweetness because at the moment, I am recovering from my terrible skin affliction so we are avoiding all those things that I should not eat lest I will end up scratching all night long. That was why she did not fry the ladies fingers with hay bee/udang kering (dried prawns) either…

…that day and substituted those with ikan bilis (dried anchovies) instead.

If you go to the Chinese chap fan (mixed rice) places, you may get these fishes in their selection too but they will just deep fry them like that, take it or leave it! I guess they do not have the time to be that creative about how they will serve their fish or they couldn’t be bothered at all.

At one time, at our favourite Indian/Indonesian restaurant here, they had the ikan kembong sumbat (stuffed ikan kembong), see 1st picture above. My missus loved it so much and would order it everytime. They would take out all the bones in the fish and stuff it with their very nice filling…

…before deep frying it to perfection and serving it.

I guess as they always say, size does not matter and as long as I enjoy eating these smaller varieties of fish and the price is right, you can bet I shall not hesitate to buy them anytime when I happen to see them.

Why bother?…

There are people who take pride in their culinary skills and are very fastidious in their cooking – the Peranakans or the nyonyas, for instance. They will go through all the trouble to make sure that what they dish out is simply the best, second to none and woe betide you if they get to sample one of your half-baked efforts in cooking one of their traditional dishes. They will not mince their words, I assure you, when they tear your pride and joy to shreds.

On the other hand, there are people like me! I am all for taking shortcuts, the easy way out, the simpler the better as long as the end result is nice. Yes, I would insist on that – being just edible sure is not good enough, I’m afraid.

In an earlier post on using that very nice A1 Mountain Globe instant paste for cooking curry, I mentioned that at one time, I could buy curry gravy in a can, Yeo’s brand and I used that to cook sardines, rinsed to get rid of the tomato sauce, to come out with my own fish curry. I quite enjoyed it but the older folks in my family were not impressed – they did not like the “canned smell” that we would usually encounter in tinned stuff.

I never tried but I do think it would be good to use that to cook a bowl of vegetable curry – just throw in some ladies’ fingers, long beans, brinjal and so on…or egg curry by adding a few hardboiled eggs to it. The gravy would go well with rice, I’m sure…but unfortunately, I do not seem to see it in the shops anymore these days. Perhaps, it did not sell very well so the company has stopped its production.

I did mention in that aforementioned post another shortcut that we used to resort to when cooking one of our favourite dishes – wee’s satay sauce to cook our satay meat dish…

We would use that to cook beef (usually) and serve it during festivals and at our home parties/dinners…

It was very nice and something everyone would look forward to. For reasons unknown, they stopped production – one fine day, we found that it was no longer available in the shops despite the fact that the other products from that same company were still available.

My mum switched to Ayam Brand but theirs was yellow in colour, nothing like the peanut sauce they give you when you go and eat satay at the stalls or shops. She added a bit of tomato sauce so it would look nicer and for a time, we had to be happy with that.

Finally, at long last, this came out…

…on the shelves and it was as good as wee’s – the taste, the colour, everything so of course, if you take a peek into our pantry, you will find a few cans of this stocked up for use anytime we feel like having satay at home.

Of course, I am off beef and all red meat these days so we would not be cooking those anymore. When I was in Kuching a few years ago, at this place called Lao Eya Keng along Carpenter Street, the pork satay…

…was a crowd puller but I thought it was just all right – it sure did not get me jumping with delight. I love lamb but that too is red meat so left with no choice, we would use the satay sauce to cook pork…

…too. We already have too many chicken dishes so we are not all that keen to use poultry for the dish.

We’ve never tried but I do feel that another shortcut we can take is to use this satay sauce to come out with our own Indonesian gado-gado…

…or rojak Kassim/tambi…

I’m pretty sure that would be very nice.

This…

…seemed to have disappeared off the shelves at the shops and supermarkets as well. It used to be another shortcut that I used to take to cook my own sharks’ fins soup minus the unmentionables, the offensive stuff…

It was so very nice, just like the real thing that they served at wedding banquets. Everyone enjoyed it so much and would never fail to lick the pot clean everytime I cooked it. It was so easy – I could get it ready in minutes, I tell you!

Well, talking about soups, we had this fish maw soup…

…the other day. My missus cooked that and no, she’s not one who will resort to taking shortcuts when she’s cooking. She even went and bought some quail eggs to boil and peel and throw into the soup – my girl loves those eggs (Funny how she is not a fan of hardboiled eggs though – I would have to eat her share everytime!). Ah well! I guess it takes all kinds to make the world – we are all different in our own ways, right?

Things do change…

Looking back at my old blogpost, the last time I was here was in the middle of 2018 but for the same reason – I was craving for the awesome roast lamb….

…that they served here.

When we entered the restaurant, the very old boss was sitting by the side splitting the stems of the paku (wild jungle fern) like what I keep telling people they should do when cooking it. I noticed that there was a whole lot of those ferns and I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “Gee!!! Business must be really very good if they can sell that much in a day!”

Of course, we ordered that, their paku santan (wild jungle fern with coconut milk), one of their signature dishes (RM15.00)…

I dare say that here in Sibu, they do it best – nobody can hold a candle to theirs!

I looked around the place – it looked like nothing had changed at all. The (fake) flowers…

…on the counter were faded/discoloured and covered with dust (even though they seemed all right in the photograph) and I do think they should replace the very old menus…

…instead of desperately trying to salvage them using cellophane tape. Thankfully though, they had stuck to these physical menus instead of resorting to that scan-the-QR-code nonsense at those supposedly more canggih places.

The pictures and decor were minimal, not that anybody would notice and yes, the place was still carpetted…which isn’t very usual for a restaurant! They might have done a thorough spring cleaning though and that prompted my missus to comment that she could not detect the unpleasant moist/damp smell that used to put us off everytime we came here.

Yes, I did mention this before – that they should get rid of the ancient window unit air conditioners and buy some new power-saving ones. That would help them save a bundle on the electricity plus the place would be a whole lot cooler. It was always hot in here, never mind how many fans they placed at strategic places all over the restaurant…and at long last, that was what they did! I saw a few new ones here and there all over the place!

I must say that I liked how they had fine table linen (table cloth) covering all their tables, giving it a touch of class and they used ceramic crockery, no less…

This was their very nice sea cucumber soup (RM24.00) that tasted like sharks’ fins soup minus the offensive stuff and their rice (RM3.00 a bowl). Yes, I felt the pinch when I saw the latter in the bill but I thought it was very nice, most likely that highland Bario rice from the mountains of Sarawak.

I never noticed this here before but it seemed that now, they would fold the paper serviette for the fork and spoon…

…that way I always do when I have dinner parties at home.

The aforementioned old boss was assisted by his equally old wife and there was an even older lady helping them with the serving and what not. I was wondering how they would be able to cope when they had a full house – there was just one table that afternoon, us…and things were a bit slow but it was fine by us. We were not in a hurry to go anywhere.

I also ordered the umai, the Melanau sashimi or raw fish (RM20.00) and it turned out that they used the black pomfret (ikan bawal hitam/or chio)…

…and it was very very good, anytime a whole lot nicer than the ones at the Malay shops and stalls where they use the cheap frozen fish fillet from the supermarkets and vinegar instead of calamansi lime juice!

My missus asked for their cuttlefish with dried chili (RM20.00)…

…something we had never tried before and yes, it was very good too.

Of course, the star of the show was the roast lamb (RM46.00)…

…served with their lovely mint sauce and chopped garlic and what not, the main reason why we decided to drop by there that day. I was taken by surprise when it was served – the presentation on a wooden chopping board was so well done, so impressive and nicer than anything I had seen at those supposedly classier western cafés and restaurants.

We asked for two slabs of the meat only because my missus was not into lamb and that works out to around RM20.00 a slab – not that expensive, I must say, compared to the prices of those thin and not very nice lamb chops here, there and everywhere. This was so very good – so tender, so juicy, so succulent, so very nicely done, a perfect 10! I was so tempted to order more but I am supposed to stay off red meat, doctor’s advice.

The overall total for all that we had came up to RM139.00 (inclusive of drinks), a little bit more than what I would have to fork out at the Chinese chu char (cook & fry) places these days, mainly because of the lamb but it was so worth it! We certainly would love to go back there again a lot more often now.

FISHERMAN RESTAURANT (2.287413, 111.826648)…

…telephone no. 084-316888, is located at No 4, Jalan Chew Geok Lin, the road that leads straight to the Tua Pek Kong Chinese temple in the Sibu town centre with the seven-storey pagoda.

Stay where you are…

I have said many times that I would not go to the other side of the world/town to buy something to enjoy, never mind how nice it may be. I would grab some and eat if I happen to be where they are selling some of those nice stuff but no, don’t expect me to go through all that trouble to appease my craving.

These days, however, it looks like there is some truth in the old English proverb, “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.”

In the case of these curry puffs…

…they are now available at the Ulu Sg Merah here so somebody in that densely populated housing area would not need to go all the way to the Medan Mall shops to buy – they are now available at the shops on the left once you turn in that direction from the traffic lights junction. Many popular eateries have opened branches/outlets there e.g. Chopsticks Chicken Rice, Fish Culture, C & C Gallery and of course, they have their own nice places to go and eat there. One will be spoilt for choice, that’s for sure.

Of course, we have the convenience of all those food delivery services these days and have our orders sent to our doorstep and other than that, you get a whole lot of people promoting their own home-cooked/homemade stuff on social media – those traditional Foochow sio bee, sui jiao (dumplings), daging masak hitam, set meals…and here, even the celebrated Filipino Lechon or Crispy Pata! You just leave a message or call a number and place an order and when the times comes, you can go and collect or arrange for the seller to send it over.

The Chang Festival aka The Dumpling Festival (端午节 Duan Wu Jie), or Dragon Boat Festival is still a long way off – 22nd June this year but you get to see so many people making and selling them online. No, I did not bother to buy any because they certainly do not come cheap these days and I have no idea whatsoever which the good ones are that are value for money.

Well, the other day, my missus was in that aforementioned Ulu Sg Merah area and she bought these…

…from one of the shops there. The girl said that her mother made them at home and she was selling them there.

It seems that these coloured strings…

…are very popular these days for tying the dumplings. The dried grass/straw tends to break to easily so few would want to use that. Many use those raffia/nylon strings but I would not want to buy as I don’t know if that is safe for consumption or not after the vigorous boiling for hours while cooking the changs. Come to think of it, I don’t know how safe those dyes they use to colour the strings are actually either. To play it safe, I would just buy the one tied with straws…or to the most, with a white thread – those should be all right.

One of the two was supposed to have salted egg yolk inside but I don’t read Mandarin so I did not know which was which – I just had to open and eat to find out…

I must say that I was very impressed when I saw what was inside. These days, very often, you will pay through your nose for bak changs where you can hardly see the meat inside and when they tell you that they contain salted egg yolks, you may get a hint of the taste but you do not actually see any…

I am not really crazy about these Hokkien changs, unlike the nyonya ones that I love so much but these that my missus bought were very good, better than many that I have had all this while.

They were very generous with the filling and I even spotted a chestnut…

…in each of them – frankly, I have not seen those in changs for a very long time. I love those slices of pork fat but I wished they had used meat that was a bit less lean…

…There were many chunks of it, all lean meat but they were a little hard, or what we say in Hokkien, siap-siap and yes, there were dried shitake mushrooms too…

…soaked in water to soften.

My missus could not remember how much she paid for them but I dare say they would be over RM6.00 each (it was around RM4.50 a long time ago, with salted egg yolk), more or less the same as a plate of our Foochow fried noodles which would definitely be more filling and more satisfying. At least, these two were decently good, QUITE worth the money unlike many of the rest but I’d probably buy once in a very very long time in a moment of momentary insanity…or to observe the tradition when the festival comes around. My money does not grow on trees!!!

Too hot to handle…

I don’t remember ever using any instant pastes when it came to cooking curry in my younger days.

The closest we got to it would be when my mum would send me to a stall by the river/stream where the Sibu Central Market is today to buy the curry mix from some ladies there, right next to the celebrated ngor bee therng stall, a ringgit or fifty sen, perhaps – I don’t quite remember now. They would have all the pounded ingredients ready and when you told them you would like to cook curry, they would take a bit of this and a bit of that and wrap everything together for you. People in Kuching would go to that shop near the mosque to buy something like this – in fact, whenever I went to Kuching, my mum would ask me to go and buy and bring home to keep in the freezer till she wanted to use it.

I still had to do a lot of peeling and pounding at home though, all the shallots, garlic, chili and what have you. My mum would enlist my service to do all that that and being the typical nyonya, I could not do it anyhow – I had to keep on pounding till she was satisfied that I had done enough. Yes, that was such a lot of work and do not forget that those days you would have to buy your own live chicken and slaughter it yourself, remove all the feathers and everything and cut into pieces ready for cooking. My mum did all that, of course – that would scare the living daylights out of me!

No wonder we usually had it on special occasions only like Christmas or Chinese New Year and family and friends would come by the droves to enjoy my mum’s curry with slices of sandwich bread or roti bayi (some Indian shortcrust pastry bread that my mum made herself). Not many people could cook curry and not many could cook it well – I might have eaten the very diluted curry powder plus santan (coconut milk) ones from some restaurant in town, take it or leave it.

I do recall the not-too-bad curry gravy that came in tins, Yeo’s brand. I used to take a can of sardines, rinse away the tomato sauce and cook them in the curry gravy to serve as fish curry. I did cook for some members of the family but they were not impressed – they said it had the smell of canned foods but of course, as they say, beggars can’t be choosers. I have not seen that Yeo’s curry gravy in tins for a long time now – perhaps they did not sell well eventually and they have stopped production.

I do not remember when I first stumbled upon this A1 Mountain Globe instant curry sauce…

…and there had been no turning back since. This was in 2008 and this was in 2009 – I was still taking blurry snapshots with my handphone then for my blog. Perhaps it started around that time and we loved it so much that we started telling everyone in the family and everyone ran to the shops to buy and take home to try. The verdict? Yes, everyone loved it! They said it was not the same as when cooking curry from scratch but when one was craving for curry, this was more than good enough!

Come Christmas or Chinese New Year, we would cook chicken curry using instant paste, this brand no less…

…and beef satay using wee’s satay sauce…

…which incidentally is no longer in production – these days, we use Sunstar, another one of our shortcuts to great dishes minus all the work and the hassle.

Gee! That sure is a very very long time and after all these years, we still enjoy it as much as when we tried it for the very first time. Yes, I did try some other brands but no, none of them measured up and of course, there was never a second time. Then, for reasons unknown, this particular instant paste got spicier and spicier till it was way too hot to handle. We are notorious for our ability to eat very spicy stuff but it seems that here, we have met our match. I told my missus not to use the paste anymore after that.

We did try a few more of the other brands – the Ayam Brand Thai ones are pretty good, but NOT hot at all and they are different as far as the tastes of the curries went.

In the end, I suggested to my missus to either use less of the instant paste or cook double the amount of chicken and this was what she came out with…

*2023*

She cooked a lot more than usual and gave half to her brother – he always enjoyed her curry. The colour looked a bit different than before…

*2021*

…as other than the santan (coconut milk), she added evaporated milk in the hope of reducing the spiciness. Thankfully, it did not affect the taste – it was still as nice as ever!

So, was it still spicy? I would say it was but not unbearably so. It was within our threshold so we could sit down and enjoy it like before. I guess we shall just stick to this same brand for the time being.

Steamy…

We love steamed fish!

These days, we would go for the barramundi (ikan siakap) from gigantic lakes at the hydro-electricity plant at Batang Ai…

– very fresh and sweet and no fishy smell and the meat is so smooth and soft plus it is comparatively cheaper/more affordable as it is a farmed fish, all of a standard size of 600 gms each..

In the past, we used to opt for the white pomfret (ikan bawal putih/pek chio) sometimes…

…when it came to steaming fish but these days, the price has shot up so much that it is way beyond our means. Anyway, it is a mild-tasting fish, not really nice, I must say and the meat is not that thick (unlike the black ones, the or chio), not quite enough to go round. A lot of people would go for the kim chio, a very much cheaper variety, instead but for some reason or other, I am not fond of it – perhaps it has a certain smell that puts me off and I am not fond of the texture either!

No, we do not go for the rest such as the very popular tapah or the patin and so on – perhaps we would order those once in a blue moon at the restaurants. I would prefer the lajong…

…though at one of our favourite restaurants in town, since closed down.

One fish that we used to buy long ago would be the ikan jelawat, better known as ikan sultan…

I read somewhere that it was thus called because the Sultan of Pahang loved eating it so much and everyone started calling it ikan sultan and the name got stuck.

Eventually, I stopped buying this fish because of the terrible mud smell – it was a very popular farmed fish but those from the ponds where the water does not run continuously (unlike the ones at Batang Ai) would be so smelly, not palatable at all. I did manage to get hold of some very good natural ones once in a long while but I was not that keen on taking the chance so I never bought any again altogether.

Well, the other morning, my missus came home with this…

…one of the farmed ones from Batang Ai and she got it ready to be steamed. I used to steam fish before a long time ago but mine was very very simple. Just sprinkle some chopped spring onions and garlic and strips of ginger and chili on top of the fish, pour oyster sauce over it and put in the steamer to steam till cooked. As they say, boys will be boys, I guess.

When I watched my missus doing it that morning, it sure looked like a lot of work – I wouldn’t want to do all that! I thought she would use the steam fish sauce…

…that Eric gave me the other day but she said she had a lot of unfinished sauces and she would like to finish all of them first. I saw her adding some Kikkoman sauce, some of our traditional Foochow red wine…

…some salt and some sugar and dunno what else – my limited concentration did not last that long! LOL!!! There were slices of garlic and ginger, strips of spring onions here, there and everywhere and when it was ready, she placed the fish in the steamer and steamed it till it was done…

…and ready to be served but that was after she had sprinkled some fried sliced shallots and finely chopped garlic and whatever else on top!

Yes, it was very very good and I particularly liked how this variety from Batang Ai did not have many bones. At times, when eating fish with a lot of bones, that would take away quite a lot of the enjoyment.

That’s the way it goes…

Well, it certainly looks like it these days – the prices at the unpretentious chu char (cook &fry) Chinese eateries have been going up by leaps and bounds, easily over RM100.00 for a simple meal for three, just a few dishes, nothing fancy. In the past, it used to be around half the amount, RM50.00 and you would not need to spend so much unless you go to one of those classier western restaurants and places like those.

Of course, I am fine with it as long as the food served is top notch, consistently good, like this place where we went for dinner the other evening. You may recall that lately, we had had some dishes at a few places here that were not something we would want to go for again and again.

My girl wanted her favourite – the lemon chicken…

…and yes, I do enjoy it too even though I may have a soft spot for their pek chang kay (poached/steamed chicken). I would say that these two dishes of theirs are the best in town and many would not disagree.

We also had our old-time favourite, their sweet and sour fish fillet…

…and yes, it was as good as we’ve always remembered it.

The Four Heavenly Kings (four types of beans in a plate), ching chao or fried plain…

…won praises from the ladies the instant it was placed on the table because of its very nice wok hei fragrance and the creamy sweet corn plus egg soup…

…that I ordered for a change from the usual was very good too! My girl sure enjoyed it!

I was tempted to order their braised too kha (pork trotters) even though I wouldn’t say theirs was anything to get excited about and thankfully, I didn’t. The bill for the four dishes we had, inclusive of rice, came up to RM92.00!!! I asked how much the food was and the lady boss said RM70 something. Good grief!!! I had a glass of their own made barley, no sugar and my girl had their lemon juice while the mum asked for a can of 100Plus…and that worked out to around RM20.00??? Next time, we shall refrain from ordering any drink – let them charge RM1.00 like one coffee shop in Penang if they want. At least, that will work out to only RM3.00! Tsk! Tsk!!!

Well, the next day, my missus took it upon herself to cook her Hokkien-style braised five spice (phak lor) pork leg…

…the way her mum and also my mum used to cook it before and it was so so so good! After the whole day of simmering, it certainly was fall-off-the-bone tender and the fat simply melted in the mouth. That definitely would win hands down over the pretty popular one at the aforementioned restaurant.

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.