Eating Dim Sum for breakfast had slowly become popular among people of Sibu, although it still far away from replacing the habit of eating Kampua among the local. This is proven by more and more eateries in the town start serving Dim Sum for breakfast and you'll see huge crowds flooding these places especially during weekends and holidays.
Recently I had a chance to visit one of the eatery at Medan Commercial area who serves Dim Sum. There are actually few shops at this new commercial area serving Dim Sum, but after some consideration, I finally decided to try out the one at "Fish Culture Cafe". Part of the reason I chose this and not others is that this coffee shop serves something called "Foochow Fishball" which received overwhelm response from the local as well as visitors during Borneo Culture Festival each year through its Foochow Fishball stall.
It was on Hari Raya public holiday so the place was flooded by patrons at the time of my visit around 8.30am. The Dim Sum were served on self-service basis, where you gonna choose the Dim Sum you like, then pay the money at the cashier counter only then you can enjoy the foods!
It's written clearly on the notice that one basket of any kind of Dim Sum costs RM4, but if you take 3 baskets of any flavors in one go, you get a cheaper treat of RM11, a very typical charge for eating Dim Sum in Sibu.
I went for 6 baskets since the serving portion of 3 baskets look like not that sufficient for 2 persons. As I was the first timer there, I just chose the Dim Sum variants randomly, which seems to be more eyes catchy to me. I couldn't find any Foochow Fishball in the Dim Sum baskets on the steamer which I thought it is not served as Dim Sum, but you can order some kind of Kueh Tiaw soup or Tang Hoon (transparent kind of rice vermicelli) soup which have the Foochow Fishball in them.
Actually I was wrong! After I did some survey and reading on the Internet, the Foochow Fishball is served as Dim Sum as well, but why the hell I didn't see them during my visit? Either I didn't notice and the staff never bother to recommend it to the customers or the demand is overtaken by the supply or the shop change its menu? Can somebody enlighten me?
Here are the variants I chose. Not sure about their specific name, but I know there was a basket of Yong Tao Foo (Stuffed fried bean curd), a basket of meatball, ham's roll (with preserved egg in it), fish paste rolls and curry fish ball. The curry fish balls are quite nice to eat with very bouncy and chewy fish balls. Others are average, no special surprise.
The most thing surprised me when dining at this shop is not the main dishes, but it was the sambal paste which really caught my taste buds! It was not just a sauce to dip in when eating the Dim Sum, but it was really a very delicious sambal paste full of dried shrimp taste to go along with the foods! Absolutely yummy and thumbs up for the paste!
Another good thing is the coffee served here is thick and nice! It says that the coffee beans are grind on the spot.
One bad thing about the eatery is that WiFi connection is detected in the premise with SSID "Fish Culture Cafe", which I thought is opened for customers but it is not! I asked the password from the staff, but they refused to give. When I asked if the WiFi is not open for public use, the cashier smile to me and say "yes". Ok... I know this is not a big deal, but I believe this can be improved since they get good business. WiFi service is a cheapest way you get free promotion of your shop in these modern days! Either you open the WiFi for your customers, or if you are not ready for that, please hide the SSID to avoid misunderstanding.
