Mum's Place (The Old Place) inSibu

Last Saturday (18th June) I went back to my birth town to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the founding of First Sibu Company Girls Brigade and to meet up with my good friend Mona Pengelly who was the founding captain in 1970.

We went to Bukit Lan where she ran the Bukit Lan Clinic (which also had a mobile clinic)for a few hours by road. Now a road goes right to Bawang Assan and soon Tanjong Mani. (We used to go by a slow wooden motor launch which would take 4 hours.) Four of us Steve Ling and Yang Yi Fang who are Sibu journalists and Mona and I were driven by our ever popular Sibu tour guide and friend Wong Meng Lei. Now the journey is about 1 hour.

After the hot trip we decided to have lunch at Tang Kee a very popular restaurant across river but unfortunately it was closed because they had outside catering. So we went to Mum's Place which is tucked in a little corner in one of the lanes of Jalan Osman. If you know where Wong Ho Leng Advocates Office is you can find this. It is just below the Parliamentarian and State Assemblyman's office. The restaurant was recommended by Meng Lei and we were not at all disappointed.


This is Foochow Braised Pork Knuckle in Soy Sauce with a new accompaniment : fried Sayur Manis and Egg. Mona liked the tender and juicy pork knuckle and it reminded her of the feasts she had in Bukit Lan.

This is the Egg and Toufoo Soup but without the oyster or razor clams.


Here's two-coloured broccoli with scallops and other assorted vegetables.

Tapah is a lovely fresh water fish and is seldom available. This style is called "steaming with ginger and onion hot oil" or Chin Chen Style. Hope I am not wrong. It is supposed to be a spin off from the Foochow steaming in Soy Sauce. If you do not wish to have sugar in your diet you have to let the proprietor know to reduce the sugar in the cooking. Foochow cooking is on the sweet side.

At this popular restaurant we met Madam Judy Wong and her family having their lunch too and Mona showed the slides she made of her (as a little secondary school girl) in the 1960's. Slides were in in those days!! We found it difficult to get a studio to make copies of the photos from these slides.


Thus the five of us had a wonderful meal at Mum's Place in Sibu. It is always good to have conversation about food and comparing what are fashionable dishes and what were available a long time ago!!

I can imagine how difficult it would be for me to swallow Foochow Egg Nog which is a fresh egg in a glass of hot milo. I would also not be able to eat a whole big Foochow bowl of mee sua with hot chicken soup at one sitting. In Miri noodle bowls are very small and on an average we get only one or two chopsticks of noodles with about 1 cup (250 cc) of soup. May be William Ting could clarify this point! And I don't think many of us could eat through a 10 course Foochow dinner.

But definitely I would like to have Hock Chu Leu's almond pudding with laichees and peaches in lots of icy syrup for dessert!!

Mum's is highly recommended for any one who would like to have  good Foochow dishes for lunch. But don't be too disappointed if some of the dishes have been a little modernised. Dishes do evolve and new ingredients added. Fushion is the word!! Even the presentation keeps on improving.

So see you at Mum's Place sometime. Our meal was less than two pieces of RM50 notes including posh and slush drinks!! Do ask for the Sour Sop Juice/smoothie. Thanks to Meng Lei for taking us there!

The Methodist Message Office where he is the Chief Editor and Manager is just two lanes away.

The Chinese name is Old Place....lau di fan....lau di fan chien bah!