I’m back in my hometown, eating delicious food you can really only get here – at least, if you want the authentic stuff! 🙂
1. Char Kueh Tiaw Omelet
Yeah, that’s what I’m calling it! It has been around for over 40 years (no kidding) and this particular way of cooking it is a Sibu institution. I first ate it as a kid in Kwok Ching Coffee Shop (now defunct) and this is the son carrying on the legacy, cooking it the exact same way.
How do you get char kueh tiaw into an omelet? The CKT is cooked first and even though it’s a simple dish – spring onion and bean sprouts are the only ingredients – it tastes superb in its simplicity.
The CKT is dropped on a cracked egg on a hot wok, flipped and served. This technique has been copied by many other cooks in Sibu but there is only one heir of the original and he does it best! This stall is located at Aloha Cafe and it’s only RM 3.30.
2. Twice Cooked Tapah Fish Noodles
There are RM 35 bowls of this stuff out there. I had that with my better half when we came back last time at Min Kwong. I can’t justify eating that all the time so this is an equally good (if not better) version from Y2K Cafe. It’s RM 12 and is cooked in the traditional Foochow style – the noodles are first *fried* before being *stewed* in a hearty soup.
That means you get both the Maillard reaction and caramelization on the noodles from frying in the fiery hot wok, making it taste wonderful, before it’s softened in the rich seafood broth. Infinitely satisfying, and a local classic. You can drink the wonderfully tasty soup after you’ve finished your noodles too – it’s full of flavor!
3. Kampua Mee with Pork Tripe and Pig Liver Soup
Yup, this is our famous kampua noodles. I always like to add a bowl of pig liver soup to my order (RM 4) coz it makes the noodles taste even better with that rich, mineral-y taste that liver has. I also like pork tripe soup (RM 5) coz of the chewy texture and the acidic dipping sauce it comes in.
It’s a perfect side dish(es) for kampua noodles – the offal works very well with the slices of BBQ pork in the noodle dish and I always love drinking the soup after I’m done – alternating between the clear pork tripe soup and the dark iron-y pig liver soup with tendrils of liver. It’s always the *first* thing I eat when I come back and this one was at Yum Yum Cafe.
Yes, we call that Ah Tor CKT after the man who used to fry it at Kok Ching – the son is doing it now…and it is still the favourite of many.
Only RM12??? Gee! I must go and try that one of these days. But on the whole, the fried mee and stuff…and also their regular dishes to go with rice are very good at Y2K.
If you’re looking for Angkau kampua, he’s now at Ah Ching Kopitiam – in the first/second block on the left, opposite Public Bank, when you’re heading towards where you had your kampua and liver soup. Around where WeCare and Chung Bakeries are.
Yeah, my dad loves to eat at Y2K Cafe! 🙂
It’s our family go-to restaurant for many years now. I also know the son’s wife (before she married the son, she was working in Kim Tak, that was circa 2008) from back in the days. She had very different hair back then.
We used to go to Kwok Ching too coz I like the CKT there, only “downside” is that they pre-fry the kueh tiaw in batches, so depending on when you go, it can taste a bit like cafeteria food sometimes – it’s made in batches, then re-fried to do the “omelet” – and they’ve been doing that for ages, ever since the dad opened the original one.
I’m not so keen on Ang Kao kampua, still love good ol Soon Hock. Haha!
Yeah, you should go try it – we’re regulars at Y2K and I also like their tai chow in addition to their fried noodles. The Tapah chu char noodles is good (RM 12) and they also have a big prawn version for RM 25!
Char Kueh Tiaw Omelet? Wow, first time heard that. And proud it is Sibu’s uniquely dish. I miss my hometown. Counting days!
Yeah, it’s been around here for decades! 🙂
I’ve never seen it done like that anywhere else in Malaysia! It’s been done the same way since the original stall (owned my the dad) and now it’s the son and his wife in another spot in town.
It’s always good to come back home! Here’s to your trip back home, hope you have a good one!
Thanks for the sharing! All in a nutshell here where in STP blog, I can read the food in details. hahah…
Haha! Yeah, I used to write a lot and in very verbose detail back when I was working in Sibu too! 🙂
It depends on the post though – I wrote close to 2,000 words for the Michelin star dinner while this is more of a short mention since I’ve written about it *so many times* in the past already. Some of them even have long videos, my old Sibu food reviews.
There’s not much to do here and there’s only a couple of F&B outlets – certainly not the vibrant food scene in KL, although I do love my hometown.
I remember meeting STP from way back too, he hasn’t started blogging and was asking me for tips and tricks and I taught him a couple of things about the blogging world. I only knew him as a family friend before that. We met up with a couple other new upstart Sibu bloggers too – those were fun days!
of these three i have only tried the kampua! sans innards though.
all i remember eating during my last Sibu trip was sarawak laksa, sarawak laksa and MORE sarawak laksa hehe! oh and a warmth bowl of red wine mee sua that ex-homie’s mami cooked before sending me off to airport!
That’s great! Kampua is our most famous dish, after all! 🙂
The instant ones available nowadays don’t quite cut it for some reason – we were all okay with eating it at first and then I couldn’t finish the batch I bought, my better half didn’t want any more, and then when we saw a new brand coming out and I asked if my sister wants some, my dad said she got jelak from the last consignment! Haha!
It seems that nothing beats the real thing, he now tapau the cooked kampua to bring over instead of the instant ones.
Sarawak laksa is good but I always thought it was more a Kuching invention than a Sibu one – all of my favorite spots are in Kuching!
Mee sua is ours though! We also have a really good pickled vegetable thick bee hoon soup dish (called chau chai hung ang) and I ate a bowl of tapah + patin fish hung ang in asam tom yam soup with pickled vegetables last night for just RM 16 – it had a lot more fish than the Y2K one, almost 3-4 times the amount.
Safe trip. Do send my warm regards if you bump into our taiko Eddy Puah. And watch the weight 🙂
Thanks James! 🙂
I haven’t seen Eddy since Chinese New Year though. I’m terrible at keeping in touch. Haha. Also, I’m really sick of the karaoke pub scene in Sibu, it just isn’t my thing anymore, although I try to make one appearance during CNY.
I’m here to visit my dad and also work on some stuff for my late mom. I did see Alex (you know him?) in church on Sunday though – might have lunch with him one of these days and will pass your msg on through him.
I’m not worried about gaining weight mate, I’m still good, despite hitting the 30’s a couple of years ago. Plus, I can’t come back to Sibu and *not* eat all the awesome local food I grew up with. Heh.
mate that CKT looks proper! and like i’ve said before…’high’ time you did a veritas post 🙂
hope all is well huai bin.
Thanks for the well wishes mate! 🙂
It’s been a while since I’ve even *done* anything veritas-like. It’s been at least 2 years since I let him out but I do have a lot of old posts which I never put up (2CB in Malaysia – no kidding) as well as a nice batch of Methylone (bk-MDMA) which was okay but not as good as *real* e.g. regular MDMA.
I was quite surprised it was in KL but maybe that had to do with veritas importing RC’s and using a novel delivery method. 😉 I’ll write about it some day. Cheers mate!
I had tried all,except the tapah fish one,looks very nice.Is there any nice steamed bao(unique will be better)I can find here? o.0
The tapah fish one is just right in town! 🙂
It’s a very popular fish here. Hmm…we have peanut bao, vegetable bao, and our char siew bao is different from Peninsula Malaysia.
I’ve only eaten kampua out of all of the above. Even that the kampua I had was the instant one sent to me by Arthur. Must make a trip to Sibu one day. It’s a food heaven 😀
Yeah, there’s a lot of local Sarawakian delicacies here! 🙂
You can find things which you can’t find in KL – dabai, kampua, teng mieng ngu, kompia etc.
Oh ya, I saw a lot of instant kampua now – lots of booths in BCF 2014 were selling it. I personally got sick of them though – it’s not the same as real kampua and some of them has too much lard (can’t believe I’m saying this haha).
Whoa! The Char Koay Teow comes with a nice blanket! So appetizing and nice!
Yeah, it’s an egg omelet covering! 🙂
It’s quite different from any CKT I’ve ever had – very good and delicious in it’s simple way though (only kueh tiaw, spring onions and bean sprouts in the dish – no cockles or prawns). I grew up eating the one made by this person’s dad.