A Gastronomic Trip And A Trip Down Memory Lane To Bintangor & Sarikei

June 6, 2015

After taking our complimentary breakfast at Bamboo House in Premier Hotel, my wife and I waited for my mother-in-law and our niece Wan Ying who were staying with my wife’s cousin. We left Sibu by taxi at about 8.40 am and arrived in Bintangor at 9.30 am.

Before this trip, I had googled to see if there are any more famous dish that Bintangor offers besides the Bintangor rojak and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Tumpik Lemantak is another of Bintangor’s signature dish. Because it is a Melanau delicacy, none of my Bintangor friends seem to have heard of it.

Tumpik means pancake and lemantak is sago flour. The dough for making tumpik lemantak is made from sago flour mixed with coconut and a sprinkle of salt and ajinomoto seasoning. The dough is pan-baked for about 10 minutes before it is ready for consumption.

The famous Bintangor tumpik lemantak is sold by Hj Abang Saini bin Abang Bantin at stall number 15 Gerai Majlis Daerah Meradong along Jalan Teo Kin Ngo.

The stall sells 2 versions of tumpik. The regular tumpik is plain sago pancake with shredded coconut while the special tumpik is stuffed with shredded fresh prawns. Both versions come with gula apong or nipah palm sugar to give it a nice sweet taste.

 

 

 

We ordered two specials and one regular. After we had ordered, I called my Bintangor friend Francis Chen who joined us after a couple of minutes.

Both versions of the tumpik were nice but all of us preferred the special version which is a delight to our taste buds.

When I told Francis that we would be going to Sarikei to taste the Glory Café tom yam mee and the Aik Seng Café’s toasted bread, he insisted that we must try the charcoal-toasted bread on the first floor of the market in Bintangor. He said it is as good as the Aik Seng Café’s version but it is sold at a much cheaper price.He led the way to the stall known as Chan Pak Cho. Yes, the bread was nice and the coffee too was good. Thank you Francis!

 

 

Bintangor has always been well-known for its Bintangor oranges, the sweet and tangy citrus fruit with hints of sourness. It was only a few years ago that I learned that Bintangor is also famous for its Bintangor rojak. People often travel from Sibu and Sarikei to Bintangor just for the rojak.

For those outside Malaysia, you may be wondering what the heck is rojak. It is a traditional fruit and vegetable salad dish concocted by blending pieces of pineapples, cucumbers, tofu, cuttlefish, jicama (turnip), crushed roasted peanuts and other ingredients in a special sauce. The sauce is made from a combination of sweet black shrimp paste, sweet sauce, caramel soya sauce, toasted belacan and tamarind juice. Of course, the famous rojak sellers won’t tell you what other special ingredients they use in the making of their rojak sauce. It is a trade secret. After all, it is the sauce that makes or breaks the dish!

I have tasted the Bintangor rojak twice. My first taste of the famous rojak was during the Bintangkian Lau Peng Yu Reunion in 2012. At that time, I really enjoyed the rojak. But when I had the rojak a few months ago, the taste was below my expectation. So on this trip, I have been telling myself that I must try the rojak again.

The famous rojak is sold by Stall No. 7 at the Muslim Food Open Air Market. It may come as a surprise to you that the stall is operated by a Chinese under the business name Wong Hung Ping. The stall also sells the rojak sauce and Bintangor orange juice. Bintangor orange juice is made from the famous Bintangor oranges. I have not tasted this in my prior visits to Bintangor so it is on my must-try list this trip.

Unfortunately for us, the rojak stall was closed. Needless to say, it was a big disappointment for us.

Francis took us for a car ride around Bintangor, beginning with Jalan Abang Amin. My late dad’s fish ponds and orchard that my dad sold ages ago have been developed into a housing estate. The road leading to our family old ancestral home had disappeared, a victim of erosion caused mainly by waves from express boats. Our old ancestral home near the bank of Rejang River, which was probably the biggest house in Bintangor in the early 1900s, had completed disappeared, succumbing to erosion quite a long time ago.

 

Further up along Jalan Abang Amin, we stopped at Villa Abey to take a look at this resort-style house. It is a beautiful wooden house and is just a hundred feet or so from the Rejang River. The small jetty near this house is quite an idyllic place. There were a couple of Malay men and a Malay kid fishing on the jetty. From a branch of a tree in the river hangs a long rope that kids use for swinging before they release their grips on the rope to plunge into the river. This really brought back a lot of nostalgia of my childhood days in Bintangor.

 

 

 

From there, Francis took us to his house. Francis has a lovely garden filled with nice plants, orchids and bonsai. He and his wife definitely have a love for gardening! Oh yes, thank you for the barley drinks, Mrs Chen!

 

 

 

 

We asked Francis to drop us at Kedai Ubat Kiong Hua (recommended by Mrs Chen) at No.12 Wharf Road where my wife and my mother-in-law bought many packets of patin herbs and dried red dates.

 

I showed my wife and my mother-in-law my late dad’s shop in Bintangor. We also passed by Lu’s Biscuit Shop at No. 8 Wharf Road. In my childhood days, this was Chop Seng Kee, famous for its kompia and other delicacies.

 

 

 

From Ming Kiong Hotel (owned by Ting Pek King), a taxi took us on a 20-minutes’ drive to Sarikei, a town which some of my friends used to call Silly K in our childhood days. I last visited Sarikei at the end of 1976 after my Form Six.

Sarikei is famed for its pineapples and a pineapple statue near the Express Boat wharf bears witness to this. I saw another pineapple statue from a distance in another part of Sarikei town but I did not take any photo of it as we have taken so many photos of the pineapple statue near the wharf.

 

Because I grew up near the banks of Rejang River, I always have a fondness for rivers and river banks. I had a happy time clicking way on my camera along the Sarikei Esplande and the wharf areas.

 

 

 

 

 

A visit to the market is a must for my wife and my mother-in-law. At the Sarikei market, they bought lots of salted fish and some ikan bilis.

It was then time for lunch. And in Sarikei, that means Glory Cafe’s Coconut Tom Yam Prawn noodle. This Coconut Tom Yam Prawn Noodle is not just served inside a coconut; it’s perfectly cooked with the essence of prawns, lemon-grass, tomatoes, onions, coconut juice and a pinch of lime to enhance the flavor.

There are two different options for prawns – RM 26 for a coconut bowl of big white prawn (Litopenaeus vannamei) and RM 34 for the larger freshwater prawn (Udang galah). The latter is what people call da tou xia (大头虾) or big head prawn. We opt for the latter since we seldom have the chance to eat the fresh water prawns in Miri.

Be warned! You may have to wait for a long time for your orders to be served. We waited for just over an hour and we overheard someone saying that sometimes you need to wait up to two hours!

The Coconut Asam Tom Yam Big Prawn Noodles came in a young coconut that was filled to the brim with generous portion of noodles and fresh water prawns (sliced in half for easy consumption) and the asam tom yam soup. The broth is a delicious contrast of sweet and sour flavors with a hint of spiciness thrown into the mix. The portion was big but I was able to finish it all. It was really delicious!

We wanted to try their popular homemade coconut pudding but luck was not with us. All the pudding had been sold out!

We had intended to try the Aik Seng Café’s charcoal-toasted bread to compare it to the one that we had tasted in Bintangor. But we were already feeling so full and a bit bloated after the tom yam mee that we decided to give the toasted bread a miss.

After lunch, we walked around the town for a while but the heat and humidity were making us feel tired and uncomfortable so we decided to go back to Sibu.

 

 

On the way back to Sibu, we asked the taxi driver to stop at Kim Hing Bakery and Confectionery. I have read glowing review by a blogger about the muar chee (mochi) that is made at this bakery. We bought five packs, each of which contained 6 pieces of the muar chee. The muar chee was flavored with pandan and was so soft. It was really nice!

 

On the journey back to Sibu, the sky was darkened with foreboding black clouds. I admired the scenery: the oil palms trees, an occasional longhouse, swiftlet houses and rural houses.

In no time, we were back in Sibu. The day trip to Bintangor and Sarikei had been a very good gastronomic trip for us and  a great trip down memory lane for me.