Finally, I got to visit the always-the-talk-in-town here — SIBU CENTRAL MARKET.
Believe or not, when I was still staying at Sibu when it was being built, I had NEVER come here before. Firstly, it was too hassle for our parents to bring us here through the jam and crowd just to get some vegetables or meat. Secondly, just nearby our house, 300 metre away, we had a morning market selling vegetables and meat. So we only visited our usual morning market, and not the Sibu Central Market.
SIBU CENTRAL MARKET
Sibu Central Market is located at Jalan Channel, Pekan Sibu, 96000 Sibu, Sarawak. Sarawak is a Malaysia state on Borneo Island.
Sibu Central Market is the largest and most unique market in Sarawak, in fact, rumours had it that it can be the largest market in Malaysia. But I am not sure about that. It was built in 1996, the huge building is 6-stories tall and 18,000 square metres, had since become an iconic building and a major tourist attraction. It used to be hawkers selling various stuffs outside or at the side of the road, under either hot sun or super rain. Therefore Sibu Municipal Council Chairman, Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew decided to build this building to let the hawkers sell stuff at proper sheltered place.
😎FUN FACTS: There are 1118 stalls at Sibu Central Market!!!! Because every year, on November 18, we celebrate National Hawkers Day.
I wanted to buy Sibu famous milk biscuits as well as Sibu famous heong peah (fragrant biscuits) for families at Kuala Lumpur. And parents told us that they would take care of the boys at home so that my husband and I could take our time there since it was our first time. Yippee, we went.
Driving there, we were stucked in the jam. Every cars got a slow queue in order to enter its multi-storey car park. My husband and I went at 10:30am, using my parents car, and we were stucked at jam for half an hour even though the building was just right beside us. I took a few photos from car, and of course, do not expect a nice photography. I felt more like a tourist gazing at the building but actually I grew up at Sibu. Haha.
I couldn't get the photo of whole building, if you are interested, you may Google Up Sibu Central Market. I am sure you can find its photo there.
Entrance into the car park was monitored by police traffic too to ensure no chaos or accident.
In the car park, it was jam too. We were lucky to find someone wanted to get out of his car park, so we immediately got in.
There is lifts in the building too. We stopped at level 1 to look down from there. We were greeted by colourful stalls umbrellas. Magnificent view!
Let's proceed to Ground Floor
When we reached Ground Floor, the market itself has its own air-conditioning Mart.
And then, suddenly I stood there and looked at the whole stretch of hawkers stalls and WOW-ed. Not knowing where to start, we just picked the aisle right in front of us.
Walking and walking, we tried to walk towards dry area, so here we noticed hawkers selling dry stuffs, like rice, grains, salted fish, spices, dried shrimps. Despite being a market, it is clean and the stalls are neatly arranged.
Feeling impossible and abit lost, I decided to ask on of the hawker the location of milk biscuits. We finally walked to the sections selling biscuits and snacks..
We found it!
It used to be the biscuits being piled up in mountain. My friend told me because her mother is selling dry noodles here. She was the one bought for me milk biscuits and I fell in love since then.
Now, all the milk biscuits and Heong Peah were nearly arranged in plastic containers. All standard price. One container for RM12 which is about $2.73.
We bought 3 containers of milk biscuits and 3 containers of Heong Peah.
Just beside this stall was a stall selling fresh plants.
I looked around, so many stalls selling fruits and vegetables here. Some are unique vegetables only could be found at Sibu. Our jungle products or using better term, local Sibu products.
Then, I was tempted to buy famous Sarawak layer cake, but I was able to resist. I am supposed to cut down sugar intake to reduce my knee inflammation.
Then, a hawker selling fresh sugar cane drink. Order and freshly squeezed for you using the machine.
We didn't walk to the other huge section where all sorts of meat were sold from fishes, to chickens, to pork and even live chickens and duck tied up and wrapped in newspapers in case you wanted to buy live ones. I knew this because my friend told me too. She said she didn't like it when customers order fresh and there and then, the chicken was being slaughtered. Back when I was younger at my mother's hometown where they grew own chicken, weekly my mother slaughtered a chicken too. Some of us do not even know how to chop whole chicken into smaller pieces, let alone slaughtering chicken. Now, we just happily walk into supermarket, all chickens are nicely chopped and cleaned for us.
Hubby wanted to take this opportunity to have some couple moments, so we went up to first floor using this staircase, where all the food stalls are.
Many Food Stalls
We already had breakfast at home, so just a light snack for us. We found a stall selling 'Kompia', Sibu famous snack. If you ever go to Sibu, Sarawak in Malaysia, you gotto try this famous Foo Chow delicacy. Why is it a Foo Chow delicacy? Because Sibu has a lot of Foo Chow people. This delicacy is called 'Kompia' which is basically a type of bagel-like snack made from flour, yeast and salt, cooked in an big round clay oven. Eventhough it sounds simple, it is tasty especially when eaten fresh out of the oven, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, topped with sesame seeds too for extra fragrance. The one I ate came with stewed pork which made the whole Kompia dish sort of upgraded.
Our Kompia
We also ordered a cup of hot milk coffee and iced milk tea. Total cost only RM7, which about $1.80. So cheap!
And in the midst of all normal stall, there is a special nicely renovated stall. Looking grand in the centre of everything.
One drawing I spotted here.
And it is nice that everyone can order at any stall and you can freely sit anywhere.
On the same floor, at the other are selling all clothes and miscellaneous. Very nice to walk. I love love love to shop for clothes at this type of place. But since we did not talk very big luggage, so I refrained.
It was time to go home as it was already 12:30pm. Our view from 2nd floor.
And here was the milk biscuits and Heong Peah I bought⤵️. Couldn't resist, let's eat one of each. Haha. Heong Peah is Hokkien language, Heong is fragrant, Peah is biscuits.
Wish I had more time to walk all sections. If you are here at Sibu, this is a must-visit place!
That's about it my blog this time for #marketfriday initiated by @dswigle. Thank you for this community.
All photos are taken by me using Hua Wei P20 phone.
Thank you for reading. Stay bubbly. Stay hopeful.
❤️Love from me❤️ 