Food: Roasted Chicken Rice
DateLocation: Oasis Elim Cafe, Floor 5, Wisma Sanyan.

I’m not a Christian, didn’t have any intention to be one soon. I don’t like shopping and have had some horrible experience eating in a shopping complex. And by the way, chicken rice is easily my least favorite dish. Period.

So why was I eating a chicken rice in a Christian cafe located inside a shopping complex?

I wished I knew.

Oasis Elim Cafe is located on the fifth floor of Wisma Sanyan. The moment I walked in, had to admit, I felt relaxed. Away from the crowd outside, I felt free. It’s a wonderfully good calming experience. Perhaps its the soothing music and perhaps its the huge window panels that allowed me to take a good view of the city below me.

I ordered the Roasted Chicken Rice. Because the menu stated its 100% Charcoal! Anything charcoal roasted gotta taste good.

And I was not to be disappointed. The chicken meat was really tender and juicy. The meat just fell apart from its bone effortlessly. The sauce was flavorful, a bit sweet and savoury at the same time. The pickled cucumbers were okay. The rice had good lemon-grass aroma and flavor, but was way over-cooked. Too soft for my preference. But again the chicken was really nice.

Maybe there is some good food in shopping complex after all. Maybe I should try more chicken rice from now on. Maybe I can become a good Christian.

Food for thought indeed.

Roasted Chicken Rice in Oasis Elim Cafe gets 3 stars.

Cafe And Restaurant, News, Sanyan Plaza Area

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Location: Siong Kee Kampua Stall at Emas Corner 2002

Everyone knows that Sibu is famous for its Kampua Mee. You can find Kampua Mee almost everywhere and anytime you want. And everyone seems to have their own favorite Kampua Mee stall. But I was told that Siong Kee’s Kampua is perhaps one of the most well-known and authentic of all.

I was born and raised in Sibu. I don’t know how Siong Kee’s Kampua taste like and I don’t know what’s the meaning of “Most Authentic”. This morning I went to find up both.

Located inside the Emas Corner 2002 Cafe next to Wisma Sanyan, Siong Kee was probably the heartbeat of the establishment. I went in and saw almost everyone was having their Kampuas. You could spot their staffs wearing their trademark white caps, white T-shirts and red aprons.

I ordered the plain Kampua. That’s all. I found an empty table outside the cafe, in a small side-alley. I didn’t mind. Actually I loved it.

Soon my Kampua Mee arrived. You know I was told by some people that Kuching’s Kolok Mee is served in a bowl while all Kampua Mee is served in a flat plate. Well, the most famous and authentic Sibu Kampua was served in a tiny bowl. The end of the myth.

I tasted the steaming soup first. And I thought even the simple plain soup tasted really nice. It was lightly seasoned, had warming and clean taste. I was delighted. I was more ready now for my Kampua.

Forget about the meat, dry and tough.

And how should I describe the Kampua Mee? It’s not too salty or oily to start with. You could really taste the lard working into the flavor. The noodle was soft. It’s pretty average to be honest but I thought this Kampua Mee retained the old-flavor. This was exactly how Kampua tasted like when I was a kid. Maybe that’s why many call it “Most Authentic”. You can find better Kampua in Sibu. But if you ever wondered how Kampua tasted in the past, Siong Kee is the place to go.

Well, I finished the soup. The Kampua was not bad, but no WOW.

Siong Kee, I think, deserves 2 1/2 Stars for carry on the taste of the tradition.

Chinese specialty, Coffee Shop, News, Sanyan Plaza Area

Location: Manna Cafe Gallery, Floor 5, Wisma Sanyan.

Let’s put it this way. When Manna Cafe Gallery was first opened and established themselves as a Korean restaurant, I thought that was just another public gimmick. I was almost sure that there’s no way they could persuade the stuborn locals to substantially try and fall for their food. There were many similarly themed restaurants (Korean, Taiwan, Japanese, Vietnam etc) beforehand, either needed to localize their menus or forced to close down after few months of business.

The main reason is that the food prepared was suprisingly in low standard and ridiculously overpriced. Reason two is that I think the Foochows are simply too proud of their own food and reluctant to open to new culinary experience.

To be perfectly honest, I have little expectation with Manna Cafe Gallery. Over the years, I was so reluctant to try their food despite I hangout regularly in Wisma Sanyan. Not to mention I admit to have preconcieved prejudice against shopping centre’s food.

And I don’t like Korean drama.

This afternoon, I finally decided to take a quick brunch there with my two other friends. The decor is fairly relaxing and comfortable. The environment is relaxing with soothing gentle music. It’s not like a typical restaurant where you are expected to come in and feed and leave. We actually wandered around gracefully and studied the many decor and artifacts before we were ready for meal. After all, it is a cafe gallery.

Manna has a rather elaborate menus offering many Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Western and even local delights such as Eight Herbal Mee Sua. I thought that was quite local friendly.

We ordered Manna’s specialty such as Korean Mix Stone Rice, Manna’s Special Fried Noodle and cutely name Auntie Miao’s Oyakadum. The staff asked me whether I mind to wait for 20 minutes of cooking time for the Korean Mix Stone Rice. I didn’t mind, I told her. But it better be good, I thought silently.

We ordered two drinks. One was the Jujube and another was sort of red date tea. Served in plastic glass. Point loss. For a restaurant of this stature, you just couldn’t understand why they didn’t invest on their glass better.

The Manna Special Fried Noodle arrived first. The presentation was really attractive with radiant red. Basically it was a ketchup fried noodle but with a twist. its noodle was deep-fried until golden crispy before drenching with thick intensed color ketchup sauce. There were small prawns, fishballs, squids and a melting egg to further thicken the sauce. It had a strong sweet and sour taste. The prawns and squids were lightly overcooked. The fishballs were okay. But I thought it was the combination of crispy noodle and the flavorful gooey sauce really made the dish worked. For my preferrence, perhaps the sauce was a bit too rich, overpowered bascially all the other ingredients. There is a similar noodle dish using a thinner noodle called Ee Mian. But I just thought theirs was much better. Priced at RM 7.90, I thought it’s not a bad value. Should be popular among children as well.

The Oyakadum is a famous Japanese rice dish cooked with chicken and egg. Auntie Miao’s Oyakadum was indeed another colorful dish with the golden yellow egg omelet, decorated with red carrot, green onions and black dried seaweed. Its really looking very appertizing. I thought the egg omelete was cooked to good standard. Its not fully cooked, still had the smooth and sight slimy texture which gave the rice a good moist and bound all the flavors together. The egg was smooth and flavorful. The chicken meat was from the thigh, thus juicy and crunchy. The rice used was not the best, but certainly not the worst I had tried. No point lost there. For personally, I found dish slightly too salty and overseasoned. Priced at RM 8, I would come back for this dish again.

And finally, the Korean Mix Stone Rice arrived. In many Korean restaurants, this is a make or break dish. If you can’t even make this dish well, your very existence would be a shame. I always thought so. Imagine a Malay restaurant can’t even make good Nasi Lemak or Chinese Restaurant can’t make good Fried Rice.

The female staff sprinkled a handsful of dried seaweed and poured some sesame seed oil onto the dish before leaving. The nutty aromatic smell from the sesame seed instantly being released and it was really enticing. But where is the stone pot? Aren’t we suppose to expect this dish to be served in a stoneware or anything. I wondered silently. Again.

On the presentation, I just thought since all the sprouts, cucumber, red carrot were julianed in similar sized strips, perhaps they should follow the same treatment for the dried seaweed and mince meat to match the overall theme and texture.

We used the spoon to mix the rice with the ingredients well. The key was to mix the red Korean chilli sauce evenly to all the rice and ingredients. That was where all the flavors came from. We begun tasting the signature dish.

I thought this dish was more about texture than flavor. The rice was soft, the carrot and cucumber were crunchy, the seaweeds too offered another chewy texture and the bottom rice crust was crispy. But I couldn’t taste much of the flavor especially the Korean red chilli sauce. Then again, this could be caused by the intensed sweet and sour noodle dish. By this time, my tastebuds were probably a bit exhausted.

The Korean Mix Stone Rice came with 4 mini plates namely the Miso white carrot Soup and pickled seaweeds with sesame seeds as appertizers, Kimchi as side dish and sweet jelly as dessert. The Kimchi wasn’t very nice.

But overall I thought I really enjoyed the dish. It’s delicious and healthy too I reckoned. In fact, this was my favorite dish of the whole meal.

I was quite impressed with what we had. I thought this restaurant did a pretty good job on the food.

The Manna Special Fried Noodle gets a 3 1/2 Star. The sauce was a bit too much. Can score higher I reckoned with some improvisation.

The Korean Mix Stone Rice gets a 3 1/2 Star. I really liked it.

The Oyakadum was nice too. Deserved 3 1/2 Stars as well. Don’t overseason any egg dish. Use good chicken and good egg and better rice.

I take my word back. Manna Cafe Gallery is no gimmick.

I like this restaurant and its potential.

And I would like to see more creativity in the food, both in flavor and presentation.

Cafe And Restaurant, Foreign Specialty, News, Sanyan Plaza Area

Food: Beef Noodle
Location: Aho Mee Sapi Nasi Ayam

I was never a big beef noodle fan. But everytime I’m about to leave Sanyan Shopping Complex, I always notice that this cafe is always packed with crowds. This morning, I thought want to give it a try. But to be honest, I went with pure scepticism.

I walked towards the stall and studied the menus. I didn’t know how to order. Caused I really didn’t know what to eat. Maybe I didn’t want to eat at all. Maybe I should leave. But the stall owner kindly recommended me to try the Dry Beef Noodle that comes with a beef soup. I smiled and nodded lightly like a friendly puppy.

I took the smallest seat near the roadside and marvelled at the Sanyan Shopping Complex just across the road. For your infomation, Sanyan is the tallest building in Sibu and the whole of Sarawak.

The beef noodle arrived. The Dry Noodle was tossed in Chilli and Soy sauce, garnished with generous sprinkles of fried and green onions. It had good color and looked very tasty already.
The Beef Soup on the other hand had intensed dark rich color, with generous cuts of beef, tripes, tendon and sprouts. Typical ingredients for Beef Noodle. But I thought so far, the colors on both the Kampua mee and the beef soup were really gorgeous.

I tried the Dry Noodle first. It’s curly texture was a crossover between Kolok Mee and instant noodle. It’s very moist and to an extent, a bit sticky. It tasted salty and a bit hot, from the chilli sauce I reckoned. The onions really made this simple noodle a bit special. The crispy-caramelised fried onions and crunchy sweet green onions really added whole lots of textures and flavors. I actually thought the dry noodle was pretty nice on its own.

The soup on the other hand had a stong beefy and herby aroma. The soup was salty but not the usual boring flat saltiness from soy sauce or salt. I couldn’t say that the taste was complicated, but I would certainly say that the soup was unique. At least it didn’s taste like any of the beef soup that I have tried before.

The beef slices were really thin and tender. The tripes were thick and chewy, in a good way. The beef tendon was jelly-like, melting in my mouth effortlessly. So far, I thought the beef soup was really well-cooked. But the real surprise and my favorite part, was actually the humbled looking sprouts. On outer apprearence, the sprouts did not look like those generic sprouts. It had extra lightness, crunchiness and refreshing sweetness. And it really matched the strong beefy soup perfectly. I was really taken surprised by the sprouts.

And sooner than I thought, I emptied the whole thing. I thought this meal was really better than I expected. Priced at RM 4.50, I thought it really worth the value. I think beef lovers will appreaciate this dish more than I do.

I was never a big fan of Beef Noodle. But after today, I might even start to become one myself.

Aho’s Beef Noodle gets 3 1/2 stars from me. I will definitely come back again to see if they deserve another half star.

Aftertaste: I was told by a foodie friend in Sibu that Aho uses Borvil Beef Stock as the base of their beef soup. That explained the complexity of the wonderfully riched flavor.

Coffee Shop, Sanyan Plaza Area