Kuching, me, food

This was one of the most exciting part of the trip. Food~~

I went to lots of places, ate so much that I thought I must have put on a few pounds during this trip.


One of the many food stalls on a not so busy morning.


Food Court in The Spring Shopping Mall.


Hawker Stalls in Hui Sing Garden


For alot of Kuchingites, one of the most important thing in life is eat. This photo was taken at 9.30pm at night and hawker stalls still packed with people.

Let me list out the food that I tried during this trip.


Kuching Laksa @ Golden Arch


Yum~~


Kueh Chap @ Thrid Mile (mixture of pork parts including pork belly, pork skin, pork ears, pork tongue, pork intestines, pork stomach, lean pork cooked with thick rice noodle in herbal soup)


Kolo Mee, Vegetarian version.


Kan Pua Mee, a Foo Chow Mee but I prefer Kolo Mee than this one. This dish a drier than Kolo Mee but looks really similar.


Nasi Lemak which are available in some Food Courts around Auckland


Char Kueh, means Fried Cake (Cake is made from steamed white radish. It is then fried with Chai Poh (Preserved Turnip), eggs, spring onion, and soy sauce)


Char Ham O Mee (Fried Egg Noodle with soy sauce, just like some Mee Goreng which are available here, only difference is this one is fried with small clam)


Beef Satay


This was how the satay got Peng Gang (bbq)


Now this is different, BBQ Egg Plant. It was actually nothing special and didn't taste very nice. I tried it, that's all it matters.


Jiu Hu Eng Chai (Kangkong, a semi-aquatic tropical plant grown as a leaf vegetable, cooked with cuttlefish and a sweet and spicy sauce)


These were not fried chicken, there were fried pigeon. And prawn balls on skewer.


Fried Chinese New Year Cake, the name is weird but the taste was divine.


Barbequed Stingray covered with some kind of spicy sauce.

I went to Four Points @ BDC with couple of friends for dinner and we had buffet 'Steamboat'. It consists of variety dishes, where ingredients are cooked in a pan and pot of broth at the table. The ingredients that were available include thinly sliced meat, vegetable, mushrooms, tofu, fresh seafood, hotdogs, noodle, crab, etc... The cooked food is either eaten with a dipping sauce, or sometimes as a soup.


This was how the setup looked like. We had mixed Tom Yum and chicken soup. Nothing beats chick with a bit of spice.


And this was how we cooked and then eat.


And again, a messy aftermath...

The next night, my friends invited me to a food stall in Kota Padawan just after 10th Mile Bazaar. Well, we had...


Oyster Omelette. This is quite different from the normal soft omelette. It is crispy and really tasty, probably one of the best ones I've tried so far.


More king prawns


Belacan Paku (Miding Fern which could be collected from thick bushes along the road side in Kuching cooked with shrimp paste)


Wild boar, yes pork!!

And this was the highlight of the night. Fruit Bat!!


Live free, or


Die hard


Part of the bat, guess where?


Still can't guess it? Let me bring it closer...


Yes, bat head, in half. And the white square stuffs were the teeth.


It's wing. Well part of it anyway.


Yes I know... very ge li~~ (gross)

That was my first time eating bat. Its texture was a bit like duck. It wasn't too bad but just very weird and uncomfortable... I'll say that it was my first and probably the last time to do this again...



That night, I beat Batman.

So many things to eat, yet so little time... damn tummy is not big enough to take them all in~

Ripped Off!!

When I was in Kuching, I decided to try Starbucks Coffee at Precinct 88 Jalan Song to see how big the difference of coffee is compare to Starbucks here.



I ordered grande (medium) Chocolate Frappucino with a bit of cream. There were no price tags on the order board so I thought: 'Ok, maybe RM8.00 at the most. It's alright. I can cope with that.'

Who knows, when the bill came..



Rm14.20 FOR A GRANDE!!!!!! I almost pengsan (fainted, in Malay). With trembling hand, I handed a RM20.00 note to the cashier and looked at the leftover change.. with tear in me eyes and speechless.

I finished the whole lot, not even a single chocolate chip left over.

That was a lesson well learnt. NEVER buy things when you can't see the price!!!

I never went back to Starbucks again in Kuching after that experience. Who wants to pay so much for a glass of not-so-delicious coffee when you can pay RM2.00, at the most, for a glass of kopi at the local kopitiam back home?

Things to do, places to see pt.3

Going to Kuching Sunday Market is a 'must do' for all visitors.

The market actually starts on Saturday afternoon. It is renowned for Bidayuh ladies set up small stalls selling fruit and vegetables, saying that there are lots of Chinese and Malay stalls as well. Goods on offer include handicrafts, forest produce, pets of all descriptions, plants, live fish (both pet fish and comsumption fish), and a whole range of local snacks and delicacies. The market is very colourful and reeming with shoppers. The best time to go is Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Below are a few photos which I took at the market.


Lotsa vegie stalls




Clams. These are yum when fried with egg noodles!!


Very wet fish market


Yup. They are king prawns.


King of the king prawns. Fresh Of Tha Boat.


Wonder whether if fish got brain? There you go. Proof!!


Hundreds of chicken for sale at the market. Head or headless. You choose.


Moo cow. Not from New Zealand.


Dry Fish, one of Chinese delicacy.

Fruit stalls are over the place selling exotic tropical fruits which I have not had for a long time.




One of my favourite tropical fruit, 'Ang Moh Durian'. 'Ang Moh' means Pakeha (white guys). Not sure where the fruit name came from...


The taste is sweet, the after math is messy. Juice were all over my hands and mouth...


This is Buah Kolong (Kolong Fruit). Very sour but if to apply a dash of salt when eat, it becomes a very additive fruit snack.. trust me


I miss this fruit the most. The name is Buah Ciku (Ciku Fruit). The texture is kind of similar to Kiwifruit but no way near as sour as Kiwifruit. In fact it is soft and sweet. Mmm~~


These are Jambu. Very nice pretty reddish pink.


Fruit texture is a bit like candy floss. Just a lot juicier.


Red Dragon Fruit. I think it looks more like 'Red Fireball' fruit


This is how red the fruit is. Mum told me if we had too much of this, even our poo will turn red ah~

Shame that when I went back it was the wrong season to be able to buy the so called 'King Of The Fruit' - Durian.



Durian is a seasonal fruit and distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. It can grow to as big as 30 centimetres long and 15 centimetres in diameter, and weighs between one to three kilograms.

It has a very sophisticated taste. I found this article from internet which, maybe, gave a best description of this fruit:

"The five cells are silky-white within, and are filled with a mass of firm, cream-coloured pulp, containing about three seeds each. This pulp is the edible part, and its consistence and flavour are indescribable. A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect. It produces no nausea or other bad effect, and the more you eat of it the less you feel inclined to stop. In fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience. ... as producing a food of the most exquisite flavour it is unsurpassed".

What do you think? All of these descriptive words are contained within a bite of Durian. Thou it still hardly ever near how it tastes like.

It has a very very distictive smell as well. People either love it or hate it. There is almost no in between. I found this description of the smell from internet:

"Its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away".



Really?! Come on, I don't think it smells like pig-shit at all!! And I don't eat pig-shit. But the smell is strong alright.

Because of that, the fruit is forbidden at some places like hotels, airports etc...



Scared yet?