My girl did not get the day off last Saturday because they had to go back to school to conduct replacement lessons. They will have to do that again another time in February so they could have two extra days off during the Chinese New Year holidays to enable them to enjoy a week-long stretch instead of going back before the following weekend. Well, we always go out for lunch every Saturday and we were not going to let this stop us from doing just that.
My missus and I picked her up after school at around 1.00 p.m. and we had our lunch here…
Yes, the Chinese New Year decorations…
…were up but unlike in previous years, things were somewhat toned down.
We did not bother to go elsewhere as many of the stalls in the coffee shops in Sibu would call it a day by noon and many cafés and restaurants close at 2.00 p.m. and will open again at 6.00 p.m. in the evening. Here, they open at around 10.00 a.m. and stay open till 9.00 p.m. or later, if there are customers around.
Of course, my missus wanted their kacangma chicken with rice (RM16.00)…
…and my girl wanted the ikan keli, their Payung fish (RM15.00)…
I asked for a serving of rice and helped myself to a bit of the two dishes that the ladies had ordered.
We also had the pomelo salad (RM9.00)…
…that day.
My girl wanted their coconut milk shake (RM9.00) but I did not take a photograph of it. I noticed that there was a sprinkling of crushed peanut in the drink and they loved it…a lot! I did not see anything like that before so I asked Andy about it and according to him, in India, where he came from, they would sprinkle crushed peanut, cashew nut or almond in their milkshakes.
It seemed that he blended too much so my girl got one tall glass of the milk shake and my missus got it in a regular glass, on the house. Of course, I did not touch a drop, not when I was on a no/less sugar diet. I had this…
…on another day though when I dropped by and Andy treated me to this special pomelo juice with mint and black salt added. It was very nice but I did feel it would be a lot more refreshing with crushed ice added to it. Andy said he did not add any as it seemed (from my croaking voice) that I had a sore throat so he decided against it.
Our bill for our lunch came up to only RM49.00 – I noticed that I was not charged for the rice I asked for and of course, they never insisted that I paid for the drinking water I would always order when I come here.
Later that same day, we went for the evening service at our regular church as usual and when it was through, at past 8.00 p.m., we went here for a very late dinner.
A friend of mine, a regular here, kept telling me about her favourite dish – the sweet and sour spare ribs…
…but on our previous visits, I kept forgetting to order that to try. Yes, it was VERY nice so now we have a new addition to our list of must-order dishes whenever we drop by here.
I asked for their fried kangkong (water spinach)…
…for a change from our usual midin (wild jungle fern) and cangkok manis fried with egg.
I remember those days in the early 70’s when we used to go dancing at the SRC (Sibu Recreation Club). When it all ended at 1.00 a.m., we would adjourn to the hawker centre on top of the Sibu market (opposite Palace Theatre at the time) for Teochew porridge. We would always order their fried kangkong and it tasted exactly the same as what we had here that night. What lovely memories of those good ol’ days!
They fried the kangkong with pork fat crusts and those sure brought the taste to a whole new level. It was so good! That’s another one going into our must-order list, that’s for sure!
For our soup that night, we had the sea cucumber…
…and even though I could hardly spot much of the coveted stuff in it, mostly egg, it tasted so good! I loved the fragrance of the black vinegar that they added to it – that sure made me enjoy it even more!
Coincidentally, the total for the food that night was the same as what I had paid for our lunch that afternoon – RM49.00 altogether. It sure looked like I was right when I said we could just order a meat dish, a vegetable and a soup here and the total would be very reasonable, not expensive and definitely worth it, value for money, especially when everything would be to our liking.
FOOTNOTE:
If anyone is home for the Chinese New Year holidays and would like to drop by Payung or is looking for a place to hang out with friends, it is open every day as usual from around 10.00 a.m. until 9.00 p.m. or later depending on whether there will be customers loitering around and chit-chatting away. Normal prices will apply (unlike at some coffee shops that may be open around this time.)
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 and 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.
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