noodles

Cha soba (Green tea noodles)

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cha soba

Cha soba is a green tea noodle dish served cold (chilled). There is a side of noodles, a dish containing fresh spring onions and wasabi, as well as sauce.

cha soba macro

Here’s a close-up of the soba noodles. Soba is made from buckwheat
flour and green tea powder is added to the mixture to make the noodles
look green. It comes with nori (dried seaweed).

cha soba mix

I like to eat cha soba by just mixing everything together to form a chilled noodle mix. 🙂

cha soba side dish 1

Just add a couple of side dishes…

cha soba side dish 2

…and you’re set for the perfect meal. Zen…

Pure Fish Ball Cafe

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pure fish ball cafe

This is Pure Fish Ball Cafe which is famed for being the first to
introduce pure fish noodles here. Pure fish noodles means exactly what
it is – the noodles are made of fish! I’ve passed by this eating
establishment in Jalan Padungan many times, but never did get around to
reviewing it until lunch just now.

pure fish noodles

This is the famous Pure Fish Mee. It retails for RM
6 per bowl and its well worth it, considering what’s inside. It’s a
soup based dish with noodles made out of fish meat and various
condiments. There’s a whole lady finger stuffed with fish meat, crab
stick, tofu stuffed with fish meat, fish balls etc. You get the
idea…fishy stuff, basically. 😉

pure fish strands

Here’s a macro photo of the “fish noodles”. Perhaps a more accurate
description would be that fish meat was pressed into reels of noodles.

Life Cafe review

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life cafe

Life Cafe is a little quaint place hidden along a narrow street. The
place exudes a charming old ambience, with its wooden chairs and
constructs, the sliding doors, and the intentional ancient decorations.

life interior

The interior is air conditioned, with minimal incandescent lighting.
There’s a narrow brick walled enclave to the side and normal sitting
arrangements on the other side. The place makes you feel like you’ve
stepped into some old-fashioned place out of time.

life tatami

There’s also a private dining area at the back, which is walled off
from the main area. This tatami style section is raised, with a short
table and mats, cushions and futons for sitting. Basically, you sit on
the floor and the table clearance doesn’t leave much room for your
legs, but it’s comfy.

life pie

The waitress recommended a range of pies that were freshly baked.
She assured us that it was good, and my coworker, who’s been here
before, agreed. We went for the chicken pie.

life chicken pie

It’s good, the pastry is crispy and the meat filling is just nice.

life coffee ice cream

I was recommended their Life Ice Cream Coffee. It’s coffee, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to replace the ice cubes.

life herb egg

I ordered a boiled herbal egg for starters. It’s served whole and un-cracked, in a saucer of soy sauce.

life herbal egg

The herbal egg tasted of herbs, and is colored green, even the yolk. It was alright to me.

life lamb rice

I went for the Life Mutton Spiced Rice for the main. The mutton is nice and tender, great dish.

life lamb noodles

My coworker had Life Mutton Spiced Noodles. It tasted about the same
but the noodles are infused with something I can’t put my finger on.
It’s good.

life croc soup

Life Cafe also has an unusual specialty – Crocodile meat soup with
red dates and ginseng. It’s RM 12 for a bowl, which we shared, and the
soup is boiled to perfection, with the ginseng flavor shining through
brightly.

life croc meat

The crocodile meat was good too. The boiling process made it tender
and it tasted strange, but nice. Kuching has a crocodile farm which
rears crocodiles and sells the meat to various food establishments here
and I believe it’s exported as well.

Life Cafe is a good place to have a quiet lunch – grab the tatami
style seats at the back if they’re not taken. It’s the best spot in the
place. 🙂

Adem Finest Cuisine

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adem.jpg

Adem Finest Cuisine is the latest Vietnamese restaurant to hit Sibu
and I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. I went there for
lunch today to check them out.

adem interior

The seating arrangements are divided into two areas – the inside
(shown above) which offers a pub like ambience and the al fresco area
outside (shown below).

adem al fresco

I chose the latter coz it was a bright and cheery sunny day and also
because I found the water lilies they had growing in the trough lining
the al fresco area intriguing and very peaceful.

adem water lilies

I saw that the umbrella covers were all showing Trung Nguyen Coffee,
and the waitress confirmed that it’s their specialty Vietnamese coffee
so I had that.

adem vietnamese coffee

It came in the form of some metal contraption on top of a cup and saucer.

adem coffee lift

Noticing the befuddled look on my face, the waitress kindly
explained the system…basically, it’s a coffee filter, and you open
the lid when the water has seeped through and put it upside down on the
table.

adem coffee side

The other two contraptions is then lifted and put on top of the said
upside down lid “to avoid the coffee from spilling” or something.

adem coffee strong good

The resulting coffee was fragrant, with a nice robust aroma. It was strong and good, just the way I like it.

adem trung nguyen

There’s coffee service in the form of milk, ice cubes and sugar, but I espoused that in favour of the dark, rich coffee.

adem garlic toast

It also comes with complementary garlic bread toast, and man…I
can’t describe the feeling of chewing on a bit of garlic toast and
taking a sip of hot coffee to chase it down. It’s divine!

adem vietnamese omelette

As for the food, I ordered “Vietnamese Omelette” to start things off…

adem omelette

…it was just egg and sausages, nothing to write home about.

adem beef pho

I also ordered their famous Vietnamese beef noodles, shown here in all its glory – hot, steaming pho!

adem pho condiments

The pho came with three condiments – lime, chilli sauce, and sea salt.

adem vietnamese noodles

The pho was absolutely fabulous…it’s the understated but rich
type, with nearly clear stock, but it was well made and the natural
flavours of the ingredients fused together to provide a superlatively
wonderful meal. 😉

Seriously though, their pho is good…go and try it!

Oriental Noodle House

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oriental noodle house

Oriental Noodle House is located in Jalan Satok. The name is quite
confusing because it’s staffed by non-Chinese and it seems to attract a
similar clientele. Despite our puzzlement, we decided to patronize the
outlet and check out their menu offerings.

oriental noodle interior

It appears to be a self-service establishment from the interior, but
we were handed menus and had our order taken. I had two noodle dishes
(it’s called Oriental Noodle House after all) and went for a drink called Nestomalt (RM 2.50).

oriental me dan jon

L-R: Huai Bin (me), Daniel, Johnny
This is a photo of the three of us – Daniel is my high school friend
who dropped by Kuching for a short visit and Johnny is also from my
high school and he’s working here.

oriental sauces

Here’s a photo of the standard sauce the establishment provides. The
left side contains chilli oil, the kind which comprises of an oil layer
with chilli pieces on the bottom, and sliced chilli in vinegar on the
left. It goes very well with both the noodles I had. Unlike the
emasculated sliced chilli most establishments serve, this one still has
its balls (well, seeds anyway) intact and retains the spiciness.

oriental chicken mushroom noodle

This is Chicken and Mushroom Noodles (RM 4.50). It was served piping
hot with a delicious flavor base with chicken and mushroom flavors. The
noodles tossed well with the sauce and it was soft and pliable enough
to slurp, just like the way God meant noodles to be eaten. 😉 This dish
has a nice home cook essence to it and is served with a generous
portion of chicken and vegetables. Not much mushrooms to be seen
though. Perhaps they’re on strike.

oriental roasted chicken noodles

The second dish I had was the Roast Chicken Noodles (RM 4.50). This
one is drier than the previous dish, and it tasted quite different, but
in a good way. The roast chicken portion was generous and came from a
cut I like – the thigh. The noodles had a basic flavor, but it went
well with the strong tasting roasted chicken. It also came with some
vegetables and great grinded meat, and the final presentation was
dusted with fried onions and fresh spring onions. Delicious…

oriental nestlemalt table

Nestomalt, which I strongly suspect came from a 3 in 1 sachet (just
add boiling water), is the Styrofoam cup you see on the table.

Ting Noodle House

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ting noodle house

This is Ting Noodle House which is purportedly Taiwanese owned and
operated. It’s supposed to have a chef from Taiwan and their menu has a
green star for authentic Taiwanese cuisine and a red star indicating
the spiciness of the dish.

taiwanese jasmine tea

We ordered the only green star beverage on the menu – Jasmine Green
Tea (RM 2.00), an unholy fusion of Jasmine tea and green tea, which
started out frothy but settled into a translucent liquid. It was good.

taiwanese dumplings

This is what we had for the starter. It’s Taiwanese Dumplings (RM
3.50). We chose the pan-fried version, and it comes in a set of six.
The dumplings are in a boat shaped receptacle with a ginger, chilli and
soy sauce dip bowl built into it.

taiwanese dumplings close

Here’s a close up of the dumplings – the insides are filled with
meat and some other unidentifiable ingredients. It’s good, the skin is
crisp and the filling is very substantial for its size. Goes well with
the sauce too.

taiwanese beef noodles

This is Stewed Beef Noodles in Soup (RM 4.00), recommended by the
proprietor and the flagship of this establishment. It’s has a spicy
soup base, thick hand pulled noodles, generous chunks of beef and a
smattering of vegetables to garnish the bowl. It tasted great.

The portions could do with a bit of work though…too small.

Huge bowl of noodles

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fried cooked noodle ha

This is the largest bowl of noodles I’ve ever had – Foochow style
aka “chau chu mien” (fried cooked noodles, literally). It’s noodles
that are fried before being broiled (?) in a thick gravy. Late lunch
with co-workers – it took about 30 minutes to come out even though four
out of the five of us ordered the same thing. I guess they didn’t have
a large enough wok to cook it in.

I’m extremely tired from work, going to sleep. My apologies for the sparse updates.

30 minute crispy noodles

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30 min crispy noodles

This plate of crispy noodles took 30 minutes to arrive. I was having
lunch with a co-worker and we both had to go to the bank so we ordered
crispy noodles, which is probably the fastest turnaround dish since the
kolo mee stall it having an off day. Crispy noodles are the pre-fried
noodles that comes…well, crispy and the cook just needs to prepare
the sauce and pour it over the noodles. It’s a really good noodle dish,
the contrast of the crispy and soggy noodles with the hot sauce
combines to create an unusual but tasty texture. The thing about crispy
noodles is, it doesn’t get soggy unless you purposely push it down into
the sauce.

Anyway, back to the long turnover, it was due to a large family
(complete with elders, heaps of young children and the obligatory
Indonesian maid) taking up two big tables and ordering heaps of food. I
think there should be a law banning these diners from eating at places
frequented by office workers during lunch hour.

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