Junction Cafe & Restaurant @ Medan Commercial Center

Cafe style restaurants springing up like mushrooms in the town of Swan recently. Today I gonna introduce to you the one that I recently visited. Located at one of the Sibu hottest commercial spot, Medan Commercial Center, somewhere near the newly developed shop houses at Medan Mall area, same row with 100 Yen shop, Junction Cafe & Restaurant is its name.

This eatery just started its business around May this year. It's still consider quite a new eating spot to be explored. The place offers various kind of cuisine, from eastern to western.

The shop is using partial open kitchen concept where bar to prepare beverages is located parallel with the tables where customers enjoy their meals. Therefore while you are waiting for your orders to be served, if you are seated at a right spot, you can probably spend your vacant time enjoying the scenery of the handsome "bartender" preparing the beverages. Honestly, why not employ a pretty "bartender"? Otherwise it'll definitely get an extra credit from me... and... I believe from many of the "wolves" out there as well!! :p

The ambient lighting as well as the modern and adventurous combination colors of shop interior have contributed to a relaxing and modern environment. However, the shop space is rather limited where it can only accommodate 7 tables inside the premises. Tables are placed in linear arrangement where 5 of the tables in one line, one after another with a small gap in between and 2 more at another corner. Therefore, it's definitely not a good choice when privacy is your priority but an ideal place for large group gathering!

Talking about the foods, there is one on the menu that specifically attracted my attention - the Fish Head Bee Hoon or rice vermicelli. This is not a common dish that one can find anywhere. I only had it once in KL some ages ago which I had recorded it in this blog titled "Fish Head Noodles @ Woo Pin Taman Desa" and it was fabulous and surprised my taste buds!! I didn't think twice but to order the food directly after seeing it on the menu in this Cafe!

The serving didn't disappoint me! Although it was not as milky as the one I had in KL, but overall the Fish Head Bee Hoon served here satisfied my taste buds enough! It was a bit pricy, RM8.90 a bowl, but the serving portion is relatively generous, especially the fish!

There is no bad smell of the fish, most of the fish are boneless but you gotta be careful when consume them as you may still get some "surprise". The fish was deep fried before been cooked in the broth. The broth is tasty and is cooked with some tomatoes, salted vege, gingers and evaporated milk which made the taste so special, a little sour yet little sweet and milky! I personally recommend this dish!

There are still wide range of foods you can order from in this eatery. Here are some that been tried out during the visiting...

Fish rice in your selected sauce.... and this one is honey black pepper sauce for RM 6.90. Quite generous portion of fish.

Fried Tomato Silky Egg Kueh Tiao RM 7.90. The plate is big but just a normal Fried Kueh Tiao in tomato sauce. Taste ok too..

Creamy Prawn Spaghetti RM 12. Not sure about the taste as I didn't try it but the presentation looks good!

There are various choices of snacks too if you not prefer heavy meal...

• Soft Shell Crab RM 12
• Fried Mushroom RM 6.90
• Mexican Pan Cake RM 12
• Cheesy Chicken RM 8

For beverages, if you are there for breakfast, I would recommend its coffee. It is thick and creamy but bit pricy... RM3.50 per cup.

If you prefer cooling drink, perhaps you can try this, ice blended Oreo!! Really refreshing! RM6.90.

As conclusion, I like this place and the foods served. WiFi service is available, but not always switch on and you may need to request for it. One added point is that near every meal table, there is a wall socket which I believe is for the customers to re-power the devices that believed to have changed human behavior forever! ;) 

If you need more information about this eatery, you can visit their Facebook fan page here:
https://www.facebook.com/JunctionCafeRestaurant

Dinner @ OhYa! Cafe

If you are out of idea where to have/treat your friends or relatives a decent dinner in Sibu, perhaps you can consider this cafe (restaurant) called OhYa! Cafe which is situated at Jaya Li Hua Commercial Centre (or Siburian more favorably called it Bus Terminal area) at Jalan Pahlawan, just next to Baba & Siam Cafe and Lounge.

This is a rather low profile eatery where at the moment of my writing, there are still not many have mention about it or highlight it on blogs, neither checked in and tagged on social medias. Perhaps it is still quite new and not widely known among the Siburian yet. I believe pretty many still not even aware of its existence.

Me too just came across the cafe some times ago through the hottest social media Facebook. A friend of mine had brought me to the place last night to have a simple dinner.The menu is simple... typical local dinner dishes where you can get them in any dinner oriented restaurants throughout Sibu.

However the ambience and the internal design of the shop have make it different from a typical restaurant. The use of indirect lighting and the dark grey painted wall have add up to the modern feel of the shop's design. Most importantly it is fully air-cond!

As I mentioned the foods and beverages served are pretty decent. Different kind of vege, meats, fish, prawn, eggs, soups and etc, you name it, most of the time you will got it! The price also very affordable and reasonable!

We have tried few dishes, the small Kailan stir fried with butter, bitter gourd fried with "3-color eggs", sizzling plate Japanese bean curds, pork with salted fish and sea cucumber soup. All foods we tried are tasty enough but don't have extra surprise. The pork with salted fish dish worth a thumb up to go with white rice!!

The bill came out including beverages is around RM 70 for 4 of us. Reasonable? Yes??

I was just too busy eating until forget to shoot the internal view of the restaurant. Sorry to all the readers! 

I personally like the environment, but it'll be better if there is free WiFi service available. Perhaps it'll also be a good place for a tea and chit chatting session among friends or family after the dinner if the cafe can play some nice music at the background. Hope I am not too demanding! :p

The Inferno Aftermath @ Kampung Dato Sibu

The inferno on 19th June 2013 (Wed) at Kampung Dato and Kampung Hilir Sibu had razed around 100 wooden houses.  There are total of 653 people from 107 families had been registered as fire victims in the tragedy which was believed to have started from a vacant house in Kampung Hilir. The inferno then spread towards the direction of Paramount Hotel with the "help" of strong winds.

[Photo taken from Borneo Post Online]

I visited the place on the 3rd day after the destructing event and discovered that Kampung Dato's scenery which I believe all Siburians are so used to see almost entirely erased from the view!

The aftermath from the disaster is really horrible and sad!!

There were still some smoke could be seen even after 3 days of the tragedy.

More photos on the inferno:
1. Inferno razes 100 Sibu houses

The New Permanent Stage @ Sibu Town Square

Sibu Town Square now has a new, grand and permanent center stage that costs almost 2 millions of Ringgit Malaysia.

According to state's Minister of Local Government and Community Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, the new stage was built to replace the general stage that has no facilities. Over the past years, Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) had to spend over RM100,000 to construct the temporary structure every time if there is any major event held on the place.

According to a report in New Sarawak Tribune website,  the stage is 40m in width and 24m in breadth, covers a total of 900 square meters floor area. The construction started on 1st October last year and completed on 30th May this year.

Facilities being incorporated into the stage are male and female's changing rooms with toilet facilities, audio video control room and distribution panels, utility room, VVIP restroom, the backstage and a large stage floor.

 

The stage will be equipped with the latest state of art lighting technologies with hydraulic operating system as well as excellent acoustics system.

Some said the stage looks like a Swan spreading her wings, what say you? Well... for me... I personally feel if you insist to relate the stage with a swan as Sibu is called "the town of swan", ok... that's accepted.

Anyhow, the new stage will be playing its role for the first time during the upcoming Borneo Cultural Festival which will be held in less than 2 weeks time from now, 28th June - 7th July 2013.

Reference:
1. New Sarawak Tribune: Sibu Town Square will have new stage in May
2. The Borneo Post: Town square’s centre stage 84 pct completed

Sibu Town Square Phase 2 Riverside Park Demolished

The riverside park located at Sibu Town Square Phase 2 had been demolished recently to give way to Sibu Town Square Development project by Fullyard Sdn. Bhd. According to the information, the development project will include two blocks of 25-storey high-end condominium, an eight-storey budget hotel, a six-storey office tower and plenty of shop houses which estimated to be completed in 3 years time.

I bet most of the Siburians are not aware/expecting about this demolition until recently they went to the place that they used to go for recreational activities and only discovered the beautiful park is in the process of clearing.

I believe that before this most people only aware that the mega project will involve the river fillings area in front of the riverside park and never expecting the park to be sacrificed.

In my archive, some of the beautiful scenery of the park (taken in 2009) and it'll soon be a history!

If you are interested to know more about the development, please try your luck with the following links:
1. http://sibutownsquare.com/
2. https://www.facebook.com/fullyardsb