One more for the road…

My niece, the one working in Singapore, was home for around one week for Chinese New Year but I hardly got to see her as she was working from home all day but the night before she left, she invited us all out for dinner here – her dad had never been here, she said so she would like him to go and give it a try.

I quickly browsed through my blogposts on what we had at that place to refresh my memory as to what we should or should not order. I remember we loved the babi tuno…

…so we had that again. Yes, it was good – not as nice as the babi bakar here and a bit too fat that night but it was very good.

The lokan was good so we had it…

…again. My girl loved it – she liked that raw seafood taste…

…but I had one and that was it! LOL!!!

The umai (our Sarawak Melanau sashimi)…

…was my favourite. They used ikan perang here and many would tell you that that is the best fish for this dish. Yes, it is raw, raw fish skillfully filleted and deboned before they cut it into strips and slices and add lots of calamansi lime juice (the acidity would cook the fish), chili and sliced Bombay onions. I believe they add tuak (ethnic Iban rice wine) to the one here too…and it was so so so good, great with rice!

The midin (wild jungle fern)…

…was good too. According to the menu, there was langkau in the dish – that’s another ethnic rice wine and it’s supposed to be stronger, a lot more potent than tuak but somehow or other, I could not detect all that alcohol in the dishes here. If I am not wrong, it evaporates in the process of cooking so if you want to get the kick, you should add some more upon serving, prior to eating…like our mee sua in traditional red wine & ginger chicken soup or the super-intoxicating kacang ma chicken here.

The brinjal…

…was served whole in the photo and looked a lot better. It was, to me, all right but my girl loved it – she loves brinjal!

I do think the one we had here was very much nicer.

My missus suggested ordering their kasam ensabi buah kepayang but of course, I stopped her right away.

We had that once and it was extremely sour, almost inedible! I thought their daun ubi gosok, the mashed tapioca leaves, was too green – not cooked enough so we did not order that either…and yes, we stayed away from their extra-sour tempoyak (fermented durian) as well.

This…

…is a typical ethnic/Dayak dish – pork belly with pig’s intestines, tongue and all the rest, fried with dried chili and soy sauce and yes, they do it really well here. I certainly would order it again the next time we come here.

These barbecued chicken wings…

…are a must at any Dayak barbecue alongside the pork (babi tuno) and everything else. My sister-in-law was talking about barbecued chicken wings marinated with gula apong – I wonder where she got to eat those. I loved those at a stall at Simpang Tiga here but they are no longer doing it there. Perhaps they are selling them at the pasar malam (night market) or some place else.

All in all, the bill for the 6 of us that night came up to RM139.00, pretty reasonable for the delightful dinner, very much to everyone’s satisfaction, thank you so much, Mary, for the treat! I certainly wouldn’t mind coming here again – I had stopped after the disappointment that last time.

MAK BORNEO (2.301301, 111.843548)…

…is located at No, 21, Ground Floor in the block of shops behind Nam Heong Ipoh/Kim Hock Premier Food Court, Lorong 4D, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada).