Wrapped Chicken as the 3rd Official Mural @ Sibu Central Market

Until this moment of writing, the town of Swan, Sibu has totally 3 official murals by the local council. The very 1st mural is a painting about wharf labourer at Jalan Khoo Peng Long and the 2nd one is a series of local delicacies of different ethnics located at Jalan Market.

The 3rd one is a mural located at the venue sort of "in between" the previous 2 murals and at one of the most lively and happening spot of Sibu town - Sibu Central Market @ Jalan Channel. It is about a very unique "scenery" that one can experience when visiting to one of the largest centralized market in the country which is the wrapped chickens and ducks.

This is how the hawkers here selling live chickens or ducks, by wrapping them in tube form using newspapers, then tied with nylon string to form sort of "handle" by leaving the birds' heads protruding at one end before putting them on shelves for selling.

Wrapping the birds in this way have few advantages:

1. the buyers can easily carry it away (time saving) just like carrying a handbag (that's why some people said it is a chicken "handbag")
2. sellers can display the birds on rack to let buyers to see, choose and feel the birds before buying them (harder to choose if put inside the cage)
3. can prevent droppings from messed up the floor, the road and the cloth
4. the birds are calm and more comfortable at such position (imagine if put the birds in plastic bag, they may suffocated)

To be honest, as a Siburian who grown up in this town, I never aware of the uniqueness of such method of wrapping the live chickens until I saw some reports/articles/blog posts highlight about this scenario. For me it is something that I used to see since I was a kid and it is just a norm but obviously it is not the same case in the eyes of the outsiders or foreign visitors.

This explained why the 3rd mural of SMC is about this wrapped chickens/ducks and located at the Central Market's building. It's because of its uniqueness in the eyes of tourists and became one of the "selling point" for visiting this large centralized market.

The painting is at the wall facing Jalan Bengkel, just opposite local corporate Pansar's office building. It consists of a long bench, with few wrapped chickens on and under the bench on the left and a wrapped duck on the right. Apart from these, there are 2 empty speech bubbles, one pointing to one of the chicken and another pointing to the empty bench area.

So, you can use your creativity and imagination how and what to pose with the painting to make it more "meaningful". However, I personally feel that it is not a good spot for the mural for following reasons:

1. The space in front of the mural always occupied and parked with motorcycles, thus the view always get blocked.
2. Some people used to take a rest at that area after shopping at central market while waiting for transport (especially during weekend), thus block the view and visitors may not be able to take photo with the mural.

6 Local Delicacies for 2nd Official Mural @ Jalan Market

The theme for the 2nd official mural street arts by the Sibu Municipal Council is a series of local delicacies from different ethnics and races in the Swan city of Sibu.

They are located at an alleyway at Jalan Market, which is one of the busiest and most lively old street witnessing the growth of Sibu town. Jalan Market was once the venue of Sibu centralized wet market but then been demolished in year 2002 for whatever purposes. It was also where the pasar malam (night market) is located before it was moved to the current location at butterfly's park.

The street art was painted on the side wall of Tai Kiong Emporium with the special permission from the owner. As mentioned earlier it is about a series of  local delicacies of Sibu from multi-racial society here which one should never miss when visiting the town. These local delicacies are: Kampua Mee, Diang Miang Ngu/ Dian Bian Hu, Kompia from Chinese ethnic, Pulut Panggang, Penyeram and Kuih Jala from Iban, Malay and Melanau.

Kampua Mee
Kampua is a dry-tossed noodles with lard, soya sauce and MSG or more commonly known as "Ajinomoto" then garnish with spring onion, deep fried shallots and also few slices of pork which have been dyeing red on the surface layer.

It is one of the most favorite food of Siburians and you can easily get it at any kopitiam in Sibu.... yes... I say any... because a kopitiam without the stall selling Kampua can hardly survive as it is always the top choice of Siburians for breakfast and supper.

If you wish to read more about this delicacy... you can refer to my previous posts about it:
1. Kampua @ Sing Hin Corner
2. Kampua @ Rasa Sayang Cafe
3. Curry Kampua @ Lane 13 Seafoods Coffee Shop (This stall was moved to some other places)



Diang Miang Ngu
Some translated it as Diang Bian Hu or Dian Bian Hu or whatever but the name is originated from Foochow accent.It actually means "the rice starch paste from the wok side" which is related to how this cuisine is been prepared.

The cooked rice starch paste are served in pork broth together with black fungus, fish balls, pork and squids, garnish with spring onion. This is one of the specialty delicacy of Sibu but it can only been found at few limited spots with the most authentic one located at an alleyway between the Blacksmith Road and Butterfly Park.

Related posts about Diang Miang Ngu on this blog:
1. Famous Sibu Diang Miang Ngu @ The Little Alleyway
2. Breakfast @ My Corner - Curry Diang Miang Ngu + Pan Mee


Kompia
Kompia is a bread product by Foochow ethnic which is made of simple ingredients such as flour, salt, water and baking soda. The prepared dough will be flatten to a disc shape, then a tiny hole is punched at the center of each bun before sesame seeds been spread over them. The buns will then been pasted into the wall of the clay oven heated with hot-burnt charcoal at its bottom.

Yes. It may sound simple yet it is unbelievably addictive especially when they're fresh from oven. Kompia texture is soft but very chewy. The side that pasted to the oven wall during the baking process is a little bit crunchy when they're still hot.

Kompia can be eaten plain for its original taste, or some people prefer to re-process it before serving to add more flavor such as stuff it with minced/stewed pork, fried it before add stuffing or soak it inside special made gravy.

Pulut Panggang
Pulut panggang is a well-known Malay pastry that is generally loved by most people regardless of races. It is made of glutinous rice which is cooked with coconut milk and little salt, then these rice are rolled and wrapped in a special banana leaf before they're grilled or barbequed on burning charcoal.

Pulut panggang in Sibu normally is the one without filling. However, the variant with shrimp floss as filling can also be found but rare. Pulut panggang is best be taken as breakfast or as snack during tea time.

Penyaram
Penyaram or Penyeram is a very unique pastry some said originated from Iban but some claimed it is from Malay. Its unique shape has giving it variety of nicknames. Some called it Mexican hat and some called it kuih UFO and I have friend who even said it looks like abalone!!

Ingredients for making penyaram is very simple, just flour, palm sugar and water. However, the production process is very challenging and requires high skills. You need to have a small wok which has deep dome shape at the middle because that's where the pastry get its shape later. Then you need to fry the batter one after another using slow heat and it is time consuming.

The texture of this pastry is also very unique. Middle part is soft and spongy with the edge is curly and crispy. It is not too sweet and with strong palm sugar aroma. Personally love this pastry a lot!

Kuih Jala
Jala means net in Malay or Iban language. So Kuih Jala can be literally translated as net pastry or the pastry that have netting structure.

It is an Iban's traditional snack and the process of producing this delicacy is kind of interesting and need the right tools and skills.

The flour mixture is poured through a mould made of halved coconut shell with tiny punched holes in it into the hot oil and make it a round shape until the right thickness. It'll then been fold half or quarter while still in the hot oil.

Kuih Jala is super crispy and sweet in taste. It is nice to eat as snacks during tea time. As the preparing and producing process aren't easy, thus it is harder to find on the market.

 (Photo taken from http://nyamaiamat.weebly.com/process.html)

1st Official Street Art Mural @ Jalan Khoo Peng Long Sibu

Since Penang street art mural received overwhelm respond from both local and foreign tourists, now there are more towns within the country starting to follow the step of Penang government as a method to boost their tourism industry.

One of them is my hometown, the town of Swan - Sibu. Recently Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) has kicked off the project of street mural painting at various selected venues. Differ from other places, these murals are done by engaging local artists and the theme for a series of murals are based on Sibu's cultures and lifestyle.

The 1st and the maiden mural been produced in the town was the one that illustrated a wharf coolie/labourer located at Jalan Khoo Peng Loong or currently known as Jalan Khoo Peng Long. This is one of the earliest main road in Sibu town center which is nearest to the mighty Rejang river - the longest river in the country.

When road transport was still in very poor stage in Sarawak in early days, water transport through the Rejang river was once the most important and busiest transportation method that connects various towns in the region. Jalan Khoo Peng Long is where all the wharfs to different parts of the region, such as Kapit, Kanowit, Bintangor, Sarikei and so on was located at those time.

These wharfs had become the transit point for goods and cargo between Sibu and other ports in sarawak, therefore wharf labourers were highly demanded at that time to carry weighty goods such as gunny sack of rice to/from/between cargo ships.

These labourers normally carry the weighty goods on their shoulder and they will bring along a red cloth which was used to cover their head and shoulder before placing the loads on them. This is to prevent direct contact between the rough fabrics with their skin and also as a way to prevent dirt.

There were time when the labourers not feel of using the red cloth, therefore they'll tie it across the waist so that it will not MIA (missing in action). Tying the red cloth hard around the waist somehow seems to give extra strength to the labourers to perform their duty which required plenty of energy. The red cloth also became the fabric to wipe off their sweat after hard works under the hot sun.

Wharf activities at Jalan Khoo Peng Long had slowly dwindled in 1990s following the development of road network which connects more and more towns within the region. Hence, most labourers were gone as well since there were not many job opportunity around anymore.

This is the brief story behind the 1st mural in Sibu town - the wharf coolie or labourer. There are more murals to come and hopefully I can/have motivation to cover each of them one after another. ;)
 

Breakfast @ My Corner - Curry Diang Miang Ngu + Pan Mee

Diang Miang Ngu - the Foochow style rice starch paste served normally in pork broth is one of the local delicacy that you can't miss when you visit to Sibu. For the most authentic Diang Miang Ngu in town, you can refer to my post Famous Sibu Diang Miang Ngu @ The Little Alleyway.

Recently I just found out there is a new variant of Diang Miang Ngu, which is served in curry broth, totally subvert the traditional way of serving the food. This variant can only be found at My Corner - a kopitiam that is located at Lorong Indah Timur.

The premises is a bit "hidden" from the main road. If you are driving from town to Bukit Aup / Jalan Teku direction, after passing by Woodland International School, you need to make a right turn when you see shop houses. You'll find a Petronas fuel station after the turn on your right. The kopitiam is just opposite.

Don't be surprised the place is flooded with patrons especially during weekend or public holidays despite its location was a little bit "remote" from the town center. Probably because many Siburians know there are something special at this shop.

The good thing about this area is it has ample parking space as there are no busy premises around. Thus, a worry less while enjoying your meals here.

There is a stall named Bean's Food Corner specialized in handmade flat noodles a.k.a. Pan Mee here. This is the main reason why I came all the way to this place to have my breakfast. Pan Mee is one of my favorite food I used to have in KL, but it is hardly found in Sibu.

Besides that, this stall currently getting its name boosted after its unique and daring creation serving a traditional Foochow cuisine in a non-traditional Henghua-way - the curry Diang Miang Ngu has been reported in local newspaper.

After I tried the curry Diang Miang Ngu myself, I found that it is something worth a try. The curry broth itself is thick enough and has strong curry spice smell. In fact, I personally feel it is a little bit too heavy in spice taste. However, the broth is just nicely cooked and not salty. That's the reason why I can finish off the entire bowl including the broth. A very refreshing taste.

The only thing is that I personally feel some of the rice starch paste are a little too thick. It is not a big deal after all since the curry broth itself is tasty enough to cover the tasteless pastes despite of their thickness.

There are plenty of Pan Mee variations here but I had tried the most original Pan Mee serving, which is in clear broth. An authentic Pan Mee soup (which I used to eat) should have the few ingredients: the deep fried ikan bilis, some sliced mushrooms, some cangkuk manis a.k.a. mani cai as well as minced pork to serve with handmade flat noodles in broth.

This stall has almost all except minced pork... another "not-a-big-deal“ since and they have substituted it with pork balls. The most important factor to determine the deliciousness of the food is still lay on its broth.

Yes, it is sweet and tasty and I can feel the squid taste in the broth. I am not sure if they have added squids when preparing the broth, anyway the conclusion is this bowl of Pan Mee passed my taste buds and it's almost the authentic taste!

A bowl of curry Diang Miang Ngu is RM 5.50 with quite big portion while the Pan Mee soup is RM 4.00.

There are many other variations of Pan Mee which worth for me to go back and try them up one day!

Eat Till You Drop @ King Kong BBQ Steamboat Sibu

Looking for an "Eat till you drop" yet affordable kind of feast in Sibu? Yes.. actually you have many choices, but what I'm going to share this time is a new (operated for roughly 6 months) eatery hidden at an unexpected building. I'm not sure how many Siburians have actually aware of its existence.

It is called "King Kong BBQ Steamboat". From the name itself, you would roughly know what kind of cuisine that are serving here. No! Definitely they didn't serve King Kong meat! What I mean is the "BBQ Steamboat"!

Located at the rooftop of 11th floor SMC Multi-storey Car Park of Sibu Central Market, the place is not easy to discover. However, the big red LED notice board placed at a higher place of the rooftop is somehow quite eyes-catchy and one can spotted it once you drive through Jalan Bengkel, from the direction of KTS group to Pansar Group office buildings.

I have a chance to try out feasting at the eatery about weeks ago with some friends. As it is inside the building of multi-storey car park, looking for parking space is not a problem at all. You can just drive all the way to the 10th floor of the carpark and with just stone throw distance of walking, you will reach the place. Just that bear in mind, parking is not free. you need to pay some bucks for parking inside the building as usual!

The moment stepped into the place is a shock! It's just like you found another world on the heaven!! (I mean an eating heaven!) As I went on weekend, the place was flooded by patrons. Even though the place is big enough, but it was almost full house!

6 of us in a group... we hardly found a table with good fengshui to sit down. After some search and pick... we finally got one. Upon sitting down, an usher came to us to record down how many of us in a group. Please bear in mind, there is a time limit for each entry. One have only 2 hours of eating time per entry and if exceed the time, a certain amount of charges will be applied per head basis. The time of entry will be recorded down by the usher.

This is a down point of the eatery, but with the charges of RM13.90 per head, you can't complain much. Another eatery with similar business model charged RM20 per head with unlimited eating time.

Another thing surprised me a bit is that they're actually using charcoal as the heating medium instead of gas-powered cooking stove or electronic stove. Is it because charcoal is more cost effective or it is just a matter of choice of cooking method, it is up to you to judge. But what I am sure is that using charcoal definitely involve more tedious and hard works to prepare and the proprietor has "specialists" doing that. I think we just waited for around 5 minutes or so for the BBQ steamboat tools to reach our table.

The 1st impression I had on the BBQ steamboat pans when they're served onto our table is that they look like Korean BBQ style where the BBQ part is at the rounded protruding surface at the center of the pan and the broth part is at the sunken surface on the edge. It is some sort like an "upside down" version of the BBQ Steamboat that I had at another eatery before where the center is for steamboat and the grill is at the side.

As for the foods... for BBQ and steamboat purposes, there are variety of raw foods for you to choose ranging from marinated pork, chicken, beef  to limited seafood, variety of cold storage processed foods such as sausages, fish balls as well as fresh vegetables, bean curds, eggs and all those "standard" steamboat ingredients. Take as many as you can... but the only condition is make sure you can finish them! Wasting of foods is subject to extra charges!

If you are hungry and couldn't wait for the grilled foods to be cooked, there are ready foods such as fried rice, fried noodles, fried kway tiaw and fried beehoon - the 4 kings of foods ready for you. You can fill your stomach while taking your time enjoy the process of food grilling, a.k.a. BBQ!

As for the steamboat part.. the area to contain the broth is rather shallow and narrow, therefore is up to your creativity how you gonna boil the foods with bigger size in the broth. The structural design of the steamboat pan causing the sauces from the marinated meats to drip into the broth when doing the grilling, thus will cause the broth's salty level to be increased linearly over time.

There are free flow beverages as well but it is in a D-I-Y style where ingredients such as red beans, green beans, cendol, jellies, basil seeds a.k.a. the frog eggs, coconut milk, syrup and etc etc to produce the beverages are places in several big bowls. Yes... again... use your creativity to produce a drinking mixture and you can give the beverage whatever name you like! Free flow ice cream are available as dessert.

As a conclusion, if you are looking for a good place to "eat till you drop" yet not "hurt" your purse too much, perhaps this King Kong BBQ Steamboat can be a good consideration. The open air environment and its location on the rooftop provides natural cool air ventilation thus the place is not too hot even without air-conditioners besides you can see part of Sibu's scenery from a higher altitude.

The only few things that not favored me are the slow refilling frequent of foods as well as the insufficient way of beverage been served and also the 2-hour time limit. 

Oh ya... forgot to mention just now... if you need that little bit of private space, perhaps there are minor parts of the eatery been designed for the purpose.

For more information you can visit there Facebook fanpage. The operating hours is only from 5.30pm-10.30pm.

Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka @ Jalan Pedada, Sibu

Been out of idea where to have a decent lunch during the Merdeka afternoon. After hearing some advices and recommendation from friends, finally decided to try out this one called "Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka" located at Jalan Pedada, the building just next to Shell petrol station opposite Delta Mall Sibu.

It is still consider quite a new eating place in Sibu. Before this, it was called FeFe Cafe & Zakka which I heard was operated by a different owner. But somehow for whatever reasons, after some short period operating, the eatery stopped its business and it was taken over by a new owner who changed the name FeFe to Honey Lemon.

Until this point, have you ever wonder what "Zakka" actually means? After I Google about it, only I found out that the word "Zakka" is actually come from a Japanese word zak-ka which brings the meaning of many things. According to Wikipedia, the term refers to everything and anything that improves your home, life and appearance.

That explain why at a front corner of the shop, there is a shelf where many "little" things been placed on it. I am not sure if the owner rented out the shelf just like the concept of those "Pigeon Holes Shop" which is a trendy business concept in Sibu nowadays or it was used by the restaurant owner to sell those "little things" himself. Perhaps I should find it out if there is a chance for the next visit.

Once you stepped into the restaurant, you will notice it actually divided into two sections. The one on the right is painted ocean blue, which uses antiques and Sibu's old days photos as its main decoration. This section of restaurant should be inherited from the previous owner. It brings back a lot of nostalgia feeling dining here.

Another section on the left side of the restaurant appeared to be more cheering feel where the wall has been painted bright yellow-lemon color which suits the theme of the restaurant! At a corner of this section there is an artistic wooden chair with a huge lemon tree picture as background where customers can take photos as a remembrance while dining at the restaurant. A good idea indeed for customers to remember this restaurant.

Enough about the appearance of the restaurant. Now we talk about the most important part - the foods serving. In fact, I was there to try out their signature chicken burger after I heard some good recommendation from a friend about this "VERY BIG portion burger with 3 layers of meats plus sausages"!

However, when I try to place order, the staff told me they're temporarily halt the serving of all the western cuisine on their menu for an unknown reasons, properly is because out of some ingredient according to her. A major disappointment!!

As such, I have to opted for other "non-western" foods. The Chicken Cheese Baked Rice on the menu somehow caught my eyes as I am a cheese lover. Although it is grouped under western cuisine, but surprisingly this dish is available!

The food is served in a boat-shape ceramic bowl instead of in rattan steamer (a more common way of serving this dish in my food hunting experience) but it doesn't bother me much as this is just a presentation matter. Personally feel the taste is OK, but will be better if the cook can apply thicker cheese and let it melts into the rice. The deep fried chicken topping the rice is a little too dry but the portion is quite generous. With RM10.90, it is consider quite cheap if compare to other restaurants in town who serving the similar dish but improvement needed to make it more value added to the customers.

The nasi lemak is something I will recommend as far as the "non-western" cuisine is concern in the shop. The rice has a strong coconut milk fragrance which is actually a must for a good serving of nasi lemak but it's hardly found nowadays since the coconut milk price keep increasing. The sambal taste mixed well with the nasi lemak, but personally i prefer to have more sambal given probably because I am a huge fan of sambal!

Besides the nasi lemak's standard side ingredients, such as ikan masin (salted fish), peanuts and cucumber slices, the plate also comes with 2 fried chickens, one sausage and some keropok (snacks) which make the RM8.90 spent worth the money. If you have nothing better to choose, perhaps this will be a good choice.

The "zhou cai hung ngang" (rice vermicelli cooked with foochow style marinated vege) comes in big portion, but mom who is the huge fan of this dish commented that it is over-sour due to the use of cooking vinegar in the serving.

I strongly agree with that. Zhou cai hung ngang tastes nice and original with a bit of "natural sourness" from the marinated vege but the taste will spoil when "artificial sourness" been added such as using the vinegar to boost the odor. The fish added to the dish also not that tasty. Despite the 2 imperfectness in this traditional Foochow cuisine, it is still consider as a decent zhou cai hung ngang that worth eating. RM7.90 is the price and you can choose either to add fish or prawns.

I also ordered a side dish, the stir fried bitter gourd with salted eggs. Not bad at all in term of taste and presentation, but personally feel it lacks of salted eggs. RM6.90 per serving and it is enough for 3 people.

As for the beverages, I went for the Six Tastes Iced priced RM4.90. The "Six tastes" ingredients include lemon slice, dried red dates, grass jellies, longan, Nata de coco and some other jellies. It is a very refreshing and cooling drink which I highly recommend. However, personally feel the cup used is a bit too small and I had a hard time trying to mix and melt the shaved ice in the beginning.

The red bean ice doesn't have too much surprise in term of taste, a typical red bean ice but it comes in a big glass and generous portion of red beans. RM4.90 is the price and it is consider reasonable since the amount of volume given is more than a typical serving, at least from the size of the glass used, I have this feeling.

All in all, Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka is a good place to have a decent meal with friends or families. The ample parking space as well as the relaxing ambiance of its interior have left me with a good impression towards the restaurant. However, the variation of foods need further improvement to give wider choice to the customers and most importantly, ensure their returns.

I'll definitely plan for 2nd visit to try out other foods in their menu, especially the western cuisine.


Honey Lemon Cafe & Zakka
3&5, G/F, Lane 16,
Jalan Pedada,
96000 Sibu.
Tel: 084 312 517

Business Hours:
8.00am - 10.30pm
Off on Monday