Tiger Tales

Kuching Street Food

It’s 7.30am on a Sunday when we set out in search of hawker food from street stalls, coffee shops and food courts. We plan to park ourselves on plastic chairs, eat authentic, low-cost fare and live without air-conditioning. Wandering past the quaint, Portuguese architecture on Carpenter Street, we stumble upon Lau Ya Keng, a bustling, century-old Chinese food court. Early birds, we snare the only free table.

A young woman draws our attention to popiah – thin rice- flour pancakes rolled around shredded carrots, lettuce, bean sprouts, tofu, chicken, omelette strips and peanuts. Each popiah comes sliced in round sections, with sweet soy dipping sauce on the side. The taste is delicate and refreshing.

Locals hunch over bowls of steaming hot noodles and chicken porridge. The hum of conversation is interrupted only by the thwack of a cleaver, the sound of bubbling porridge and the swish of long metal spoons.

Large bowls of chicken porridge arrive at our table. The thick, nutritious rice soup is garnished with fresh scallions, shreds of tender chicken and streaks of runny golden yolk.

“You like local food?” asks a young man at a neighbouring table. “Then you must try noodles from Next Coffee Shop. Best in Kuching!”

After a short stroll down Carpenter Street, we turn left onto Bishop’s Gate. Next Coffee Shop (formerly known as Min Joo) is a tiny, narrow eatery, but the bright green sign makes it hard to miss. The tables are crammed together and there isn’t a spare seat in sight.

Akok, the grown son of the 50-year-old establishment’s owner, ladles beef broth into bowls filled with unfamiliar ingredients. He looks at us and asks, “You like pig’s heart?”

There’s no going back. A table is vacated and we’re destined to try Akok’s “local specialty”. Two bowls appear, one filled with fresh rice noodles, the other with hot broth. Using our chopsticks and spoons, we combine them to produce a noodle soup laced with tender prawns, pungent pig’s heart, soft liver, kidney, intestines, chewy stomach and traces of tongue. We slurp and munch gingerly. ,

In search of anything to combat the muggy heat, we head to the open-air market for ABC (ais batu campur or “mixed ice”’). This unusual blend of shaved ice, condensed milk, artificial syrups, corn, red beans, palm seeds and jelly cubes is hugely popular. It’s sweet, creamy and ultra- refreshing.

The hawker quest continues at the busy Weekend Market. We munch on vada, doughnut- shaped snacks made with lentil flour, and kek lapis, multi- layered pastel-coloured cakes made with butter, flour and sugar. The most delightful (and disconcerting) discovery is sago worms. An elderly woman cooks the fat, white, wriggly larvae in a wok. “You’re lucky,” she tells us. “Sago worm is only available today!” They’re fried in chilli and ginger and look like a dead man’s toes, but they’re edible. The sudden burst of creamy innards that spurts across my tongue is surprisingly good.

Kueh chap and fish head curry are local delicacies, usually eaten for lunch or dinner. And they’re especially good at Lau Ya Keng. So we trek back to our earlier location for a midday feast. The fish head curry is exactly that – a bowl full of spicy, soupy gravy giving buoyancy to a couple of fishy heads.

The taste is strong and fiery. Kueh chap is delightful. Large ceramic bowls come filled with thick slices of pork meat, skin, fat, intestines and knuckles, mixed in with a bundle of rice noodles and tofu. Everything is afloat in a caramel-black soy sauce and ginger-based soup. It’s rich, salty and comforting.

We waddle on. After some sightseeing and a siesta, we head to the See Good Food Centre in search of local lobster. “I’m sorry. Too late. Lobster finished,” we’re told. Fortunately, two splendid live crabs await us instead, and they’re begging to be boiled. The crabs come whole, filled with ground lemongrass, ginger and chilli, alongside a bowl of midden (river ferns) fried with shrimp paste and garlic. The curly fronds and tender tips are juicy, with some crunch. Washed down with Tiger beer, it’s the perfect finish to a Kuching culinary adventure.

FIND IT:

Lau Ya Keng, 43 Jln Carpenter (breakfast, lunch and dinner)

Next Coffee Shop, 19 Jln Bishops Gate (best for breakfast)

Open-Air Market, Jln Khoo Hun Yeang (breakfast, lunch and dinner)

Weekend Market, Jln Satok (Saturday at 5pm until Sunday at noon)

See Good Food Centre, 53 Jln Ban Hock (lunch & dinner)