Tom Yam Fish Rice Vermecilli @ Yong Chuan Fish Noodles House

It is never being easy to acquire a decent Tom Yam dish in Sibu as the cuisine is not on the top favorite's list among the people of Swan City.

However, there are still some eateries who specialized in Tom Yam based dishes which get quite positive response from the locals. One of them is this one called "Yong Chuan Fish Noodles House" near Jaya Li Hua Commercial Center, Jalan Pahlawan area, behind Good Happiness Restaurant building, just beside Wikitea Sibu.

Just as its shop's name, this eatery is specializing in fish based noodles. I had been hearing about their Tom Yam soup base fish noodles which happened to be "delicious" quite few years ago, but only today I have a chance to go and try it out.

I heard that the eatery is flooded with patrons most of the time who are craving for their fish noodles variants, until a point that at peak hours, customers have to practice self-service as in fast food restaurants where they have to queue up to order the foods, then carry their own foods to their table before start eating.

I also heard about the unfriendliness and arrogant attitude of the owner which after I experienced it myself, it happens to be quite true as when I ordered the food directly from the taokenio (the lady boss), she gave me a very cold and unfriendly facial expression and response. But who care? Normally this kind of situation frequently heard on those eateries with overwhelmed business, but their business (money) still never stop flowing in. So attitude is not always a problem, isn't it?

About the self-service stuff, I discovered it is quite true also since at the time of my visit where it was still early with not many customers around, some of the patrons ordered and carried the foods bowl by bowl all by themselves without been served. Bet those are the regular customers who clearly aware the culture of the eatery while the first timer like me just sit there reading newspaper while waiting for the food to reach my table! :p

I ordered a bowl of Tom Yam fish rice vermicelli which is consider a signature dish there. Actually their main dish is not noodles, but the wider version of rice vermicelli or local Foochow called it "Hung Ngang". See their advertisement in the shop, all the fish-base serving is about Hung Ngang and not the Mee. Of course if you are not too favor about rice vermicelli, you can opt for Mee... I presume! ;)

The Tom Yam soup has a very strong lemon grass smell, not too spicy nor sour which I believe it will be lacking of some "kicks" for the die hard Tom Yam fans out there and may be considered as not thick enough, but for average eaters, it should be something more acceptable with Tom Yam taste to satisfy their taste buds.

I am not sure what is the exact fish used in the dish, it's like some "white fish" texture, but definitely they're boneless, lightly fried to the golden and don't have bad smell. Besides fish fillets, the oval shape stuffs are actually some homemade porky meat paste which are very sweet and fresh, and they're quite tasty yet a little salty.

One bowl of regular Tom Yam fish rice vermicelli is RM6 which is "highlighted" on the display board with paper tape. Oh... it's so because of inflation's fault lah... whereby before this I heard it is just RM5 per bowl.

You can order the version with big prawns, but I am not sure at all about the price.

If you like Tom Yam, you should go and give it a try since you don't have much choice of the dish in Sibu. If there is any chances for revisiting in the future, I think I would like to try the "Foochow style marinated vege + fish rice vermicelli" a.k.a. "zhou cai hung ngang", which I saw some customer ordered and I could smell the strong Chinese red wine! Yummy!

“Raw Meat Noodles" @ Wan Li Sheng Rou Mee Sibu

I realized that it has been a while since my last update of this blog. Perhaps this is my first post of the year of horse!! Bear in mind... I never give up to update this blog yet even though the frequencies might have been cut down..... yeah.... a lot! :p

So this post is about the latest food I tried. I am not sure what is its proper term in English, but if direct translate from its Chinese name 生肉面, it's acceptable to call it "Raw Meat Noodles".

Raw meat?? Are you serious?? Well... actually the meat or to be more precise it is the pork are not raw at all. They're well cooked! The cuisine is from Sabah (if I'm not mistaken).

Now, Sibu has an eatery selling the cuisine. The shop is called Wan Li Sheng Rou Mee located at Medan Commercial Center area, the shoplot behind Junction Cafe.  It has been quite a while they opened for business, but this is my first trial to the pretty much shared and discussed food among my friends on social media.

The noodles come with 2 variants. The wet and the dry. I opted for the dry version which consists of a bowl of dry-toss noodles and a separate bowl of pork broth. As for local adaptation and favors, the dry-toss noodles is actually the Sibu locals most favorite food - the Kampua Mee!

As for the noodles part, I have not much comment since I have plenty of choices for a better Kampua serving in town, such as Sing Hin Corner! The specialty and selling point of the "Raw meat noodles" a.k.a. Sheng Rou Mian is actually on the thinly sliced pork and also its broth.

The pork is something that surprised my taste buds. They're so thin, smooth and soft until a point that they can be easily torn apart without any chewing effort! Frankly this is my first time having pork with such feeling. I am wondering if they just pour the hot and boiled soup onto the thinly sliced raw meats which make them just nice to be cooked with such soft texture, and that's where the name "raw meat noodles" came from?? If someone can enlighten me on this.... emmm...

The fresh pork's broth supposed to be sweet and tasty with some green vege been added in it, but I am not sure why the one served on my table has not much taste with some herb taste. The one I bought home is totally different and much more tastier! I am wondering if Ajinomoto is the culprit?? :p

I personally not in favor of the own-made free flow sour sauce they supplied which is made by whole lime including its rind. It's too sour and not spicy, my opinion.

One thing I like about this coffee shop is that the environment is clean with foods and beverages price been displayed big and clear on the wall. This is an added point to the shop and indirectly it can prevent some "miscalculation issue" that sometimes did happened at some eateries. Furthermore, it also gives a clear direction to the customers where their every single cent had been spent. Thumbs up for this!!

However, the con is that serving speed is a little slow, slightly below Sibu standard relative to the customers visiting the eatery as per time but still acceptable if you're not rushing for time.

One more thing I would like to complain is that the cook is not generous at all at giving the broth. See the one I ordered which only half full with such small bowl size. But the one I bought home seems to be more generous. Perhaps the eatery should improve on the standard!

Oh ya... for those who is looking for a comfortable and cold environment, this is just a normal coffee shop style without air-cond, but they have sufficient electric fans hanging on wall. The place is quite cool if you visit in the morning.

A set of Sheng Rou Mian either it is dry or wet version priced at RM5 respectively. You can order its special version for RM8. 

If you never being to Sabah before and you heard much about the Sheng Rou Mian, perhaps this is currently the only place to try it out in Sibu! Cheers and Happy Labours Day to all my readers!