Food: Banana Leaf BBQ Stingray, Squids, Fried Kampua and Stir-fried Local Snails.
Location: Bandung Cafe, Bandong Foodcourt Sibu.

Bandong Foodcourt has always been my favorite supper heaven in Sibu. Located nearby the Malay village area, Bandong is famous for its BBQ seafood. Although over the years the popularity in Bandong has declined dramatically due to the establishment of other newer eating places in town, I actually prefer the now more quieter Bandong. For me, this is still the best place to eat reasonable good food with affordable price.

We arrived today after 8pm for a late dinner.

There are many cafe-stalls in Bandong but basically offering rather similar menus. So I was never choosy over which stall to eat. Tonight, we chosen the one located conveniently in front of the entrance called Bandong Cafe.

We ordered what almost everyone would; the BBQ Stingray, BBQ Squids, Fried Kampua and Stir-Fried Local Snails.

Our Ice Bandung and Special Teh-C-Peng arrived. Just okay. Tasted better before.

The BBQ Stingray arrived first. Not much point scored for the presentation. The BBQ sauce was dark and dull, surrounded with a layer of oil. Not sure if I like that.

What I like about Stingray is that you can eat the whole thing and I especially like the edible crunchy soft bones. But speaking of the dish, I guessed the deciding factor was really in the BBQ sauce. Similar to the BBQ Squids that arrived later, I couldn’t guarantee whether the seafood were fresh enough. The strong intensed sauce used to cook the seafood had over-powered everything. The fish was a bit flaky and the squids were a bit rubbery and over-cooked.

I would suggest to side request few more limes and really drenched the whole dish in order to cut through the excessive grease besides adding a sharp fresh sourness to the spicy BBQ sauce. I thought the limes really completed the BBQ sauce.

Kampua noodle was first invented in tossed noodle dishes. Not sure who and when did someone come out with the idea to fried the Kampua noodle. And it actually works. I thought it was nice.

But my favorite was the Stir-fried Local Snails cooked in Gong Bao’s way. I thought the thick-sweet-spicy-gravy coating the snails, cooked with dried chillis, onions and sweet oyster sauce was really delicious and flavorful. In order to eat these local snails, you need to suck out the flesh from the shell’s opening. Just remember to spit out the menbrane attached. The snails were crunchy and tasted really good with the gravy.

I’m not sure if there’s any season for better snails. But what we had were rather small and to be frank, nothing much to eat. Its more of Beer food.
But I did enjoy the dish the most.

Both BBQ seafood and Fried Kampua deserve 3 stars each.There were flaws here and there, but the rich flavors were not to be denied.

The Stir-fried Local Snails get 3 stars as well.
So I guess Bandong Cafe’s food were rather consistent in the quality.

Bandung Area, Coffee Shop, Malay Specialty, News, Sea Food

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