Local food: June 2008 Archives

There is a popular Foochow concoction over here called pek tin yok which is translated literally as "eight herb soup". I haven't had much contact with this particular broth while growing up, being rather adverse to soup dishes in general. I've had it a couple of times at my maternal grandmother's house (who is a Foochow) and didn't particularly like it.



Faye is a bit of a traditional Foochow in the stuff she eats. She actually loves "8 herb soup" and has cravings for it from time to time. There is an eating establishment here that doesn't have a signboards so the locals just all it "xiao yu shang" (Little Umbrella) from the seating arrangements outside which has a huge beach umbrella covering it from the rain (since the place is not open in the morning, it can't be the sun).



Little Umbrella is supposed to have the best pek tin yok in town and props should be given to the proprietor for attempting to install some fittings in the interior that makes the place look more upscale. There are glass tables inside and artsy fartsy chairs made out of real tree branches. Unfortunately, the clash of the old and new styles contrasts too garishly. A for effort, F for execution.



The place serves a bowl of Eight Herb Soup for RM 7. Eight Herb Soup is a concoction brewed in 8 different types of herbs and spices with pork leg. It's considered to be a traditional nutritional supplement of sorts and is often force fed to overactive little children. At least, that's what my mom used to do. ;)



Eight Herb Soup is served with a complimentary plate of rice in Little Umbrella. It's rather similar to bak kut teh in this sense, but the two dishes tastes totally different. Eight Herb soup tastes very "sweet" for a lack of a better descriptive adjective.



There are also other Foochow specialties in Little Umbrella - this is chicken feet cooked with peanuts and soy sauce. I don't mind eating chicken feet but it can be a bit of a bother at times coz of the little bones inside. I like the de-boned chicken feet in Kuching.

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Eight Herb Soup is brewed with chunks of pork meat. The meat is tender and juicy and absorbs much of the soup's flavors. It's eaten with soy sauce and rice and some people add a little bit of soup to the rice as well. I don't remember liking it when I was a kid, but I was force fed a couple of scoops of the stuff and found out that I actually kinda like it now. It's a little like vegetables - I hated the stuff when I was younger, but have started loving some kinds of vegetables now.



Don't make me hungry. You won't like me when I'm hungry. Feed me.

Bintangor is a town about 95 km away from Sibu. It was decided that an impromptu road trip be made to check out their rojak and orange juice - the two things Bintangor is famous for. Four of us went in my car on Sunday afternoon: 

Mary 

Clare aka KLM. :)
The secret is out, so she let me put the original photos up.

Huai Bin (me) and bengbeng

Bintangor isn't really far away from Sibu if you maintain a reasonable speed. It must have been the company of the two fine ladies coz we were there before we knew it. The "Welcome to Bintangor" signage is in the shape of the Bintangor orange. It's the symbol of the town and there's also a replica orange in front of the wharf - it makes for a good photo opportunity.

The famous Bintangor rojak stall is called Wong Hung Ping and the rojak (a local fruit salad) is so renowned that Sibu people have been known to drive down just to eat the rojak during the weekends. They also sell the rojak sauce (which is the crucial ingredient that makes or breaks the dish).

The bottles of rojak sauce goes for RM 7, which was up from the previous RM 5. That's just about in line with the oft quoted 40% price increase. ;)

The proprietor of the Bintangor Rojak Stall used to be a nice, old lady. This is her daughter manning the stall. She's the one managing the stall nowadays due to the advanced chronological age of her mother. I like her as well, she's friendly, like her mom.

Rojak is made by chopping up pineapples, tofu, cucumbers and miscellaneous other items...

...before mixing it with the special Bintangor rojak sauce.

It is then dished out and eaten with forks. It's really a simple dish to prepare, it's the special rojak sauce that makes it taste good. Bintangor is famous for their rojak due to the excellent rojak sauce that they make...at least in this stall.

This is the Bintangor rojak that we drove all this way for. Rojak is a communal dish, you'll be hard pressed to find someone eating a plate all by himself.

Here's a closer look at the Bintangor rojak. The money shot, if you will. ;)

The stall also serves Bintangor orange juice. Bintangor orange juice is not made with Sunkist oranges (which was what they accidentally served us the first time) but from Bintangor oranges. It comes in a brighter shade than regular orange juice.

These are what Bintangor oranges look like - it's also the official produce of Bintangor. It's sweet and tangy, with sour hints. It's smaller in size than regular oranges. 

The Sibu blogger contingent at Bintangor.

True to blogger tradition, we did the camwhoring thing at the Bintangor wharf. This is me taking a pole up the ass while Mary looks on with mirth. Boy, I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

It was a fun road trip with the Sibu bloggers to Bintangor. I had wanted to go there for ages to take photos of the famous Bintangor rojak and Bintangor orange juice and the company was great! Cheers! :)

I have been told by Will that there's a famous place serving Big Prawn Mee at Jakar so I made a road trip down there with Katherine during the weekend. Jakar is a small town about an hour's drive away from Sibu. Jakar is apparently famous for their Sarawak pepper cultivation, as can be seen by their official mascot (?). It doesn't really help that Jakar sounds exactly like the Malay word for penis with their phallic looking emblem.



Peking Restaurant in Jakar is the place to go for the Jakar Big Prawn Noodles. Jakar is located to your right as you drive into the Kuching highway and Peking Restaurant is near the pepper tree ornament. I took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there due to a couple of wrong turns but only 59 minutes to get back - and that was maintaining a constant 120 km/h with a lowest speed of 80 km/h and reaching a highest speed of 150 km/h.



Katherine and I both ordered the Jakar Big Prawn Mee (RM 15). The waitress asked us if we wanted the "special" Jakar Big Prawn Noodles (which contains the large "antlers" of the prawn) and we replied in the affirmative. This is her bowl of the noodles.



This is my bowl of the Jakar Big Prawn Mee. There is no difference between the two - we both ordered the same thing, it's just here for...er, illustrative purposes. ;)



The Jakar Big Prawn Noodles contains one (1) big prawn cut diagonally with the head and the "antlers" (would someone be kind enough to tell me what this is actually called?) included. The noodles are cooked Foochow style with the soup infused with the tasty prawn essence. It tastes delicious! I would rate this as better than Min Kong Big Prawn Noodles but the 1 hour drive there would make this a costlier dish due to the recent petrol price hike.



I heeded Will's advice and wore a T-shirt in a dark shade due to the splash damage I incurred during my previous expedition for the Sarikei Big Prawn Asam Tom Yam Noodles. Unfortunately, some splash damage did occur again, but Katherine claims it's inevitable with dishes like these. Oh well...



Nevertheless, it was a nice road trip to check out the famous Jakar Big Prawn Noodles. It's a long weekend since Saturday is a gazetted public holiday so there's time to drive around and do some Rural Adventuring (TM).



...and I just couldn't resist touching Jakar. ;)