Kuching Food: 3 Signature Dishes + 1 Drink

31st Jan 2008

On the day that we are about to leave Kuching, I insisted to hunt for local food. Dispite of much looking around, not many stalls are open due to Chinese New Year, so we finally settled for some food under one roof nearby Padungan Road at Song Kheng Hai Food Center.

Kuching Laksa or Sarawak Laksa (叻沙)

There are different versions in Malaysia and also one version from Singapore. The one I write about is the Kuching/Sarawak version. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry in its ingredient at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with omelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added. So far, I tried this on 3 occasions, but none of them are tasty or live up to the expectation. What a pity...

Belacan Beehoon is one of Sarawak’s most legendary delicacies, although it can't reach Sarawak Laksa in terms of popularity. It is a taste to acquire and thus not a lot of people can stand its pungent smell. It's like durian, you either hate it or love it.

Sotong Kangkung is another legendary signature dish of Kuching. It basically mixed the cuttle fish with water convolvulus vegetables. It is called "Ju Hu Eng Chai" in Hokkian dialect or simply Sotong Kangkung in Malay. There are different version, the Kuching version pours a sweet sauce over the ingredients and sprinkles with grounded peanuts. Chili sauce is usually put at the side to taste. Penang has the similar dish but uses some kind of rojak sauce.

Fresh Sugar Cane juice, this is a rather common drink in South East Asia. The sweetness of sugar cane is refreshing and a thirst quencher.

And now, all plates are emptied and stomach satisfied, now is a quick grind of the surrounding. All these three delicacies are from Song Kheng Hai Food court at Jalan Padungan.