This is one of my favorite places to eat in Sibu. I guess you can call it a dai chow place but over here we just call it “choo chiak” which is literally Hokkien for “cooking food”. I met up with Arthur a couple of hours after we touched down and headed over to this restaurant for lunch.
Ruby Restaurant has a surprisingly rapid turnover for a weekday lunch. I remember eating rice with cooked dishes for lunch when I was working for a short stint in Sibu. You can actually do that, and in fact, a lot of people do. There was a huge group of all-females in office attire occupying a huge table when we were there.
Anyway, when you go to Ruby’s (the Chinese characters for the restaurant apparently means “red ruby”) with Arthur, you’ll be remiss if you didn’t order their coffee. It is made to the exact specifications of Arthur, a bit of a regular here, and it’s really good, thick coffee.
You can actually watch it turn from milky brown to black as the coffee seeps up.
This is midin – a local fern. I can’t find it outside of Sarawak so it’s a must-have dish whenever I go back home. It actually grows in the wild and locals pick and sell it in the local market. It’s crunchy to the bite and very nice when you get it right. That means it should be in the wok for just a short amount of time.
The other vegetable dish that we ordered is what we called mani chai. This leafy vegetable is defoliated from its stalk before cooking – only the leaves are eaten. It’s usually fried with eggs and it’s one of the few vegetable dishes I would eat as a kid…mostly coz of the egg. 😉
Arthur also asked about specials and the chef informed us that they just cooked up a batch of beef curry so ordered that too. It came out in a bowl and the beef curry isn’t overflowing with thin gravy like most Chinese style curry dishes but sat in a thicker, clingy gravy like rendang. I loved it, the beef pieces were tender and the curry is flavorful. There’s even bits of potatoes inside, which goes very well with the curry.
This is the butter cheese prawns and the main reason I like going to Ruby. It’s not dry with sprinkles of deep fried butter on top, but made with a creamy butter sauce that’s heavenly sweet. I have really missed this dish – no one does it better than Ruby, IMHO. The prawns are battered and deep fried before being cooked in butter, resulting in a sweet, rather than salty dish. *drools
It was great to meet up with Arthur again – we had quite a long lunch before he had to go fix his car and it hardly felt more than 30 minutes. Time just flies when you’re catching up with old friends. Thanks for the lunch, Arthur! 🙂
HB, wow Butter Cheese sound and look good. Is the cheese mix in the batter for the prawn? There no where in San Francisco that serve this special dish so I will try to create one to serve to friends get together. Fiddlehead fern is hard to find at time too People like it for it taste like asparagus found sometime in chic restaurants. Korea known as bracken sometime they dried it to sell.
HB, just found recipe on web and is easy to make too. I will try it out and see friends for this weekend late Moon Festival with mooncakes and other things for desserts too.
Good luck!
I’ll love to see how it goes! 🙂
Yeah, it’s delicious!
I’ve never had butter prawns as good as the ones in Ruby.
They’re my favorite!
Fiddlehead ferns! I finally have a name for it – thanks Vickie! 🙂
I’m not sure why I can’t find it in KL though.
Eyewwwwww….our pic! It looks like we were caught in the act…in the middle of doing something. Muahahahahaha!!!
It was great seeing you again and I certainly enjoyed our “lunch date”. Certainly looking forward to doing this again. Give me a tinkle when you’re ever coming this way; I’ll do that if ever I’m ever passing by yours. Cheers, mate.
HAHAHA
I liked the photo bro – it’s good to meet up with you. 🙂
I totally enjoyed our lunch bro, it was too short, let us have a longer one next time k?
Sure thing, I’ll buzz you when I’m in Sibu and you do the same when you’re in KL! 😀
the coffee looks really good!
It is excellent Michelle!
…better than the franchise chains anytime. This is the type of coffee made by hand roasting the beans with sugar and butter to caramelize it in the morning. 🙂
suddenly miss the food and drinks at Ruby Restaurant … your fault HB !! LOL !!
Come to Sibu again, ahlost! Pick a weekend when I’ll be around…
Yeah, it would be fun eh, Arthur? 🙂
You’re the expert in Sibu food, I’ll tag along when you bring them around for the best of the best in Sibu.
P/S – I still think Aho mee sapi is nice, I eat there every time I go back. Haha!
Hehehehe.. alright Arthur.. I hope to make a trip there soon somewhere this year. We’ve been planning but always can’t get the right weekend cos one or two would be busy when a weekend was chosen. Hmph..
Hey Rose, did you try Aho mee sapi when you were in Sibu? It’s just opposite your hotel, the dry version is really good.
It can’t beat kampua mee, of course, but still (to me) the best beef noodles in town. It’s halal to boot. I remember bringing clients there once, and I don’t know if they were just being polite but they said it was great (they were from KL). 🙂
Yeah, it’s pretty good eh? Did you try the butter prawns?
I heard from Arthur that a bunch of you Kuching bloggers came to Sibu and stayed at RH Hotel. 🙂
Yeah, if you’re going to Sibu (or coming to KL), give me a buzz, we’ll go for lunch or dinner together! I haven’t seen you for ages Rose. 😀
Yes Huai Bin.. We tried the butter prawns.. so yummy I wanna eat it again.. huhuhu..
and yup.. a bunch of us went to Sibu some time last year.. very random trip.. we did invite you but last min you couldn’t make it, rmb? huhuhu.. but nvm.. there is always a chance in future right? plus everyone can fly now 😀
and I haven’t seen you for quite sometimes too HB 🙂
Nice! Oh ya, I remembered! Sorry about that! 😡
Okay, next time you’re going I’ll come along k?
Or I can just go to Kuching!
See ya soon Rose! 🙂
I’m sure you and STP had a good time catching up. So this is the restaurant that he always go.
Hello Eiling!
Yup, it was a lot of fun! I wished we had more time to talk though.
Ruby Restaurant is one of the best places to eat in town. I’m a huge fan of their food as well.
You should try the butter prawns when you come to Sibu, and of course the midin. Oh, and empurau fish as well! It’s also expensive in Sibu, but it’s a lot fresher over here. 🙂
Oh good lord! I saw this post and now I cannot wait for December to roll around when I get to go home and eat till the buffaloes come calling home. The one thing I am lusting over are those damn prawns and midin! Oh HB, you kill me
Hello there! 😀
Yar, haven’t heard from you in a while. Heh!
Them prawns and midin is good, I’m hungry right now but I haven’t slept so I’m not too keen on driving out.
Have an awesome week! 🙂