Monday, January 29, 2007

Day 7: Let's Go To Market

After the trip down to Sarikei and Bintangor we really had to take things slow and easy. Besides we're here for a holiday and not to over exert ourselves so thats why the next day we leisurely went down to say hi to my favorite uncle.

My favorite uncle is the bestest uncle in the whole wide world. He's very friendly and extremely generous. Whenever there's visitors in town he will take them out to eat till they burst. So when he saw us coming he decided to take us out to lunch but knowing what we like to eat, he personally went down to the Sibu Central Market to buy the fresh produces for the restaurant to cook!

This market is huge! It was built in 1996 at the cost of RM12 million and some said its the biggest market in Asia. *roll eyes* Anyway the council built this so they could force all the stall holders around town to concentrate in one area coz apparently hawkers are eye sores? *roll eyes again*

Politic aside, I'm here to check out the fresh produces like these small crabs some call 'pangi' if I'm not mistaken. They're soft shelled and I remember eating them, just soak with some sauce and down the hatch!

But these are more my type of crabs, they're mud crabs and I just love eating them though I didn't get to eat a lot of them on this trip. Gets a bit tiring eating them, I wish someone would shell them for me!

Poor chicken! Thou shall see no morrow's sun! But its a convenient way of selling these chicken, they're all wrapped up and ready to be carried away. The only problem is you can't see how skinny the chicken are!

Live balitongs and cockles! I used to love eating them too but nowadays I'll think twice especially the balitongs coz they live in mud and they're full of mud! It doesn't matter how clean you wash them there's still going to be mud inside them!

Last but not the least is the dabai. I believe you can only find these in Sarawak. Some call it 'oh kana' literally meaning black olives but they're not real olives. No need to cook them, just soak them in warm water for a couple of minutes, dip in soya sauce and eat! You'll enjoy it and keep the seeds coz you can play those childhood games with them before they start to rattle inside meaning the kernel is ready to be eaten. Break the hard casing and pop the kernel in your mouth..you'll thank me for it!

17 comments:

5xmom.com said...

I wanna go Sibu. So exotic stuffs wan. Help!!!! I got no where to go during CNY. One full week. Got flight to KK but no hotels, how wor. Been to Kuching liao. You got any kaki staying in Kota Kinabalu can find hotel for me anot?

Anonymous said...

I've been there some years ago and I think I went and ate lunch upstair where the market is
I never realized there were so much downstairs, but then again I only had one night and day including my work
:)

Anonymous said...

Did you try the local longan and luku?

Sebastiane said...

I love seafood! Damn, just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Haha.

(:

Anonymous said...

I love crabs too. Here crabby crabby. :P

Anonymous said...

Aiyoo.. long time no eat crab ;P I need people to break the shell for me. Hahahaha...
Yummy... Dabai again cheaper than the one we bought last time. Make me salivate only.

Anonymous said...

By the way, you know how we got rid of the ants if we want to bring the rambutans back home from the farm? We placed them in the stream and let the water flushed all the ants away :P hehehe... That was long time ago... Now we still bring them back from the farm but it's already plucked and waiting for us to take them home so no more ants anymore.

Jo said...

Waaaahhh!!! I know all that things you have posted. The cockles and Balitong!! *sucks kuat kuat*.. I love them lah! My dad does a mean stir fry of them! And the oh kana is verrrrry nice. I ever see them in KL!

sengkor said...

the oh kana looks like bugs.. fruits or vege?

Anonymous said...

Aunty: Go Sibu for CNY? I don't recommend, from 8pm onwards of CNY Eve, Sibu town will sound like Baghdad being bombed by the US army and it will go on till the early morning of CNY

I love the "pangi" but I prefer it when they pickle it into a sauce which is a cross between thai fish sauce and chinese red wine and it goes well with soup, stir fry vegs and such...

OOOH the dabai or oh kana looks good, its actually a fruit...taste quite similar to those canned olives you get from china...actually even better. There's another way to eat the seed's kernel and that is by boiling it for 20 minutes...the taste reminds me of pistachio nuts.

Anonymous said...

Biggest in ASIA? Been in the market before ,so pardon me for a while........

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha......ROFL.

Sorry for that.

Peach Palm is antoher name for Dabai. Many exotic fruit/vege in Sibu, damn, should have try it. :(


5xmom : If you think about going Mount K.K, change your plan. Good timing already fully book(April to early June) and MoT "sapu" many of it for foreign tourist(niamah!!).

Anonymous said...

neber see before the "oh kana" only available at Sibu?

Wuching said...

5xmom: aiyo..i'm so sorry i dun have kaki in kk! all the hotels full house meh? if u go to sibu then i got kaki!

zeroimpact: yeah well it is kinda big downstair but if time is limited, u can't really go check it out so next time maybe!

jen: we saw the local longan but didn't buy them & i dunno whats luku?

kyels: seafood dinner tonight then!

che-cheh: crabs in steamboat very nice wor..but i miss out on steamboat..:(

irene: quick quick go buy summore dabai! great tip on getting rid of the ants.

jomel: dun u wish u could have some now! yumm yumm..

sengkor: its a type of fruit but ppl eat with rice so that makes it a vege also!

QV: dun scare aunty away from sibu! shh..

moot: i concurr..ROFL biggest in asia! *roll eyes summore*

mspretty: i think so coz i never seen in kuching wor..

me said...

so, whose pocket did the RM11.9million go into?

Wuching said...

SA: chey! who's talking about eating live chickens! lol

me: some blardy politician who else!

Anonymous said...

Wahaha, RM12 million market! Got aircon type is it? :)

Wuching said...

neo: air con cost extra!