Before we leave

We spent 2 nights in Sibu. On the day before we were leaving for Kuching, we dropped by this old corner coffee shop for breakfast.

Wan Cafe (across the road from Premier) where an old couple busy preparing and serving their regular customers and anyone  waiting patiently enough to be served.

It was Sunday but maybe we were early or lady luck really was on our side. Not only we were able find a decent parking in front of Niichi boutique, but we were able to find good table at the crowded coffee shop. Strategic spot to watch the twosome doing their cooking.

My sil did the ordering and she recommended its lovely, warming Foochow-styled fish ball soup. 

Definitely could detect the fragrant Foochow red wine in the soup and I loved the hand-made fish balls. Not round like what we have outside.

Everyone except me had their white kampua. Big serving of the noodle. And I love that they used the ceramic crockery to serve customers.

As for yours truly, this Foochow stir-fried noodle was nice but I did have trouble finishing the whole plate of it.

After our delicious breakfast, we drove to the town centre to buy some kompia and goodies home. Don't ask me where, I forgot the name but it was the one at backlane of the old shops in Tiong Hua road.

Freshly baked kompia with sesame seeds topping but not enough for us to order so we drove over to Rejang Park to get some more of the plain, sweet type and with butter on top.

With full tummies and after bought all these goodies, we brought my sil and her daughter home, collected our luggages and headed back to Kuching.

We used the Sadong route where we needed to take 2 ferries (Batang Saribas, Pusa and Batang Lupar). Actually we spent an hour waiting for the ferries but overall, the driving only took us slightly over 5 hours to reach our destination.

A long journey but everyone enjoyed the time we had in Sibu. Don't know when we would be coming back.

New Capital

We had a sumptuous dinner in this old, retro-like but well-known restaurant in town, New Capital Restaurant on Saturday night. Suituapui did posted on this restaurant and its specialty dishes few times, and lady luck was with me in this trip. An uncle of hubby invited us to dinner in this restaurant in the town centre.

It was hard to find parking and we were lost at first as unfamiliar with the route but we managed to find parking in front of Ambank and took a short walk to the restaurant.

Uncle has ordered the dishes firsthand so when we were seated, we were served with this delicious white and black fungus appetizer. It was delicious and it was easy to prepare. I believed they used the sesame dressing such as Kewpie for the dressing to the fungus. Maybe I could prepare it at home one day.

Their oil rice was unusual from what we usually served in Chinese restaurants. Fragrant and fluffy; we enjoyed it.

Their roasted pork belly was surprisingly good. But I enjoyed its stir Foochow fried noodle the most.

Their fried rice was equally tasty; well cooked with generous ingredients in it.

By this time, we were already half full but more food came to our table. I don't know what soup was this but I would named it the mushroom corn soup. Something like sea cucumber soup but I didn't find any sea cucumber in my soup and what we had was milder in taste.

Another amazing specialty dish of this restaurant was the deep-fried white pomfret. Crispy deep-fried flesh with sweet sour dressing.  It was so easy to eat as they have pre-cut the flesh.

And to balance all the carb and protein, we had 2 vegetable dishes. One was mixed vegetables (at back of the deep fried fish) that I didn't managed to take photo of. Another was this bean curds, mushrooms and green dish.

The soft bean curds was fried first before been added to the mushrooms and vegetable. I could only take one toufu as by now, I was too full to digest anymore.

I couldn't guess how much was our dinner but thanks to hubby's uncle for picking up the tab. It was totally an enjoyable feast. The restaurant itself was nostalgic, eluded the change of time. The food? Simply good.

Late lunch

I used to buy my lunch from this eatery during our 1.5 year stay in Sibu from 2013 to 2014. Sibu Thomson Corner in Jalan Pedada.

After our hearty kampua and mixed pork soup breakfast, we rested and spent few hours in my sil's house while hubby went out to "yam cha" with few old classmates of his. By the time he was back, it was almost 12 noon. But no one complained of hunger (because the kids were busy with gadgets), so we only decided to go out for a very late lunch around 2pm.

Thomson Corner came to our mind as we were sure that most eateries would close around 2pm.  And we wanted something fast as we would be having an early dinner that evening.

There was a crowd in Thomson Corner but we were still able to find a table in the shop for lunch. 

Hubby and sil each had its nasi lemak special (RM6.20 per plate).

I noticed a new dish on the menu. Sambal nasi ikan pattaya (RM8.00) so I picked that as my lunch. The sambal and fried rice pattaya were nice enough but nothing fancy abut the fried fish fillet.

My girl had its nasi ikan pattaya (RM6.20).

First day of SST implementation but luckily no tax in this eatery.

The next morning

First night, we went to Hong Fu for Filipino crispy pata as my girl missed it. We had few dishes that evening including this tasty stir fried crabs with eggs.

Crispy pata

Crabs!

The next morning, it was raining in Sibu so we only looked for our breakfast when the rain has slowed down. We drove all the way to this Best Harvest Cafe in Lanang road for kampua.

My sil directed us to this coffee shop and she commented it served nice kampua and mixed pork soup.

So I had this white kampua and the lovely soup. The noodle was just right for me. Not too oily and the noodle texture was firm. So, for someone who never fond of Foochow kampua, you could say that I gave this place a thumb up for its kampua.

The fragrant wine in the soup was good enough to warm the body in such cold morning.  Everyone was enjoying the balls in the soup. Livers? No for me.

Weekend In Sibu

We spent our last weekend in Sibu. We drove all the way there on 31/8. It was actually decided less than 2 weeks ago that we would be spending a weekend there.

Hubby had a class reunion dinner in Island Club on the 31/8, and since it was a 3-days weekend, we took the opportunity to be back for a short holiday.

Since we moved back to Kuching in 2014, this was the first time that we really stayed in this town for a couple of days. And a quick time to visit my hubby's side of family.

The kids' first meeting with their cousin (1+ yo). My sister-in-law's baby girl. And my MIL also came over from Kapit and had a one night stay with us.

We started our drive at 6am after a quick breakfast in McD's. Once we reached Sibu around 1pm, we went to this restaurant for  local and one-of-the-kind lunch.

We were served with crackers before our dishes arrived on our table.

We had its signature deep-fried lokan that was stuffed with meats.

Tasty and sweet but somehow it tasted sweeter than before. Anyway it was more  of a sweet rather than savoury dish.

The paku lemak was good like I remembered it to be; spicy and tasty. Ate a lot of it with my rice.

We loved its fish umai, so fresh, tasty, spicy, sour, with onion and everything.

Last was its grilled lamb. Somehow it wasn't as nice as I could remembered. The lamb was alright, not that tough or dry. However the dipping sauce wasn't right. I used to love its mint sauce. This time, the sauce was too sweet. No mint hint in it. Maybe they changed the recipe of the dressing, I wasn't sure.

Overall our lunch plus drink was RM130. With full tummies, we headed to my sil's house for an afternoon nap and settled in before picking up my mil from the wharf and dinner afterward.

Remember when

We went back to Kapit for Ching Ming this year. Our 1st time gone back to hubby's hometown for the festival.

So last Sunday morning we took the earliest flight into Sibu. Since we had the whole morning in Sibu before our express departing time (1230pm), we were free on our own.

As neither of us had breakfast, we decided to get the taxi to drop us in Good Happiness Restaurant for its morning dim sum. We remember when we used to stay in Sibu few years ago that how much we enjoyed the sumptious dim sum here, we decided firsthand to come back here last weekend.

Our delicious and BIG dim sum. We forgot how big the dim sum was though. We had hard time finishing them all. Lol.

Hubby had this pork intestine which I did not touch at all.

But I enjoyed the tender and flavourful pork ribs very much.

The egg tart was good as well.

The boys had this kampua.

And a bowl of wanton soup.

Our breakfast receipt.

By the time we were done, it was around 930am and the place was packed with morning patrons.

Satisfyingly delicious breakfast that last us till we reached Kapit around 4pm.

Miscellaneous Picture #47: holiday photos diary

Warning!  Photo-overloaded.  *wink*

Sibu

The icon of the City of Swan

Kampua Special (RM5) in Kenyalang Cafe (next to Public Library)

Our express to Kapit

Welfie in the express

Killing times in the express

Kapit

The clock tower in Kapit town

Spotted one mural 

Had a tasty Hokkien noodle (added fried lard bits) in the evening after church service

Had my MIL's special Mee Brunei almost every morning

The boys were happy roaming in the canteen

Black olive (dabai) in season

Up the mountain to see the big river in Selirik

One of the long houses along the way

Steepy road

Another long house

Logging camp

Down a steepy road overlooking a mighty high-tide river flow

View of the river's buzz

Long boats are important mean of transport in rural areas

Kapit express boat terminal

One of the first few shop houses built opposite the terminal in Kapit. Rebuilt (except the corner coffee shop) after they were burnt down many years ago

Kapit District Council but now is JPJ office

Fort Sylvia still standing strongly; used to defend Kapit during the old days against headhunters and rebels

Sibu

The little one curiously looking out the window of the express

Sibu from our express view

Sibu market

Our early dinner in Sugarbun, Sibu Airport

Mural in the check-in hall

Flying home