Lucky to be here
This is the view from my room in the Hotel Pullman Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. I can hardly believe that I’m here. It’s my first time in Sarawak.
View of Kuching from my hotel window
At one stage, I didn’t think I’d make it to Kuching. My first flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur (KL) was cancelled and I was worried I’d miss out on part or all of the trip. The original flight was due to take off at 1.25am, so I had planned to sleep on the plane. After waiting at the terminal for several hours before we were told the flight was cancelled, I tried to sleep for a few hours at home before returning to the airport for my rescheduled, very full late afternoon flight to KL. I arrived late at night in KL, had maybe three more hours sleep overnight, then caught an early flight from KL Airport to Kuching, arriving a whole day later than originally scheduled.
At Kuching International Airport, a driver is waiting for me, holding up a sign (I feel like a celebrity!). We step outside to a cloudy day. It’s rained recently and it’s warm and muggy. My t-shirt clings to my back and the air feels thick and hard to breathe. I’m grateful to ride in air-conditioned comfort to the hotel.
I check in, go upstairs to my room and quickly freshen up, reluctantly ignoring the bed that I ache to lie on. I’m sleep-deprived and sleep-interrupted, which can sometimes be worse, but I’m not going to let that stop me enjoying myself. Sleep must wait until tonight. I head back downstairs to meet the others.
My bed, Hotel Pullman Kuching. If I sit or lie on it now I will sleep for hours!
Our little group from Australia includes three bloggers, two journalists and our lovely chaperone Anna. I also meet our hosts from MATRADE and our Kuching guide, Joseph. I’m the only one from Western Australia and the last to arrive. Everyone is so friendly and makes me feel very welcome. I’m so thankful and excited to be here at last.
All I’ve missed is the first hotel breakfast with the rest of the group, but I feel pretty good having eaten a very tasty chicken rice on the flight to Kuching.
Da-Light Food Court
We get into our little tour bus and drive into town to visit Da-Light Food Court. When we arrive, stalls are setting up for lunch and there aren’t many customers about.
Reading the news, Da-Light Food Court
At the back of the food court, there’s a supermarket. Hanging from the ceiling are puffy novelty balloons like the kinds you find at carnivals and hospital gift shops. There are also paper lanterns decorating a tall pot plant. The balloons and lanterns give a festive and kitchsy feel to what would otherwise be quite drab surroundings. But let’s face it, no one comes here for the decor.
There’s a supermarket at the back of the food court
We’re all hot and thirsty, so our MATRADE host Trra orders a round of layer tea. I stay to watch our drinks being made. The steaming hot black tea is poured from jug to jug, then poured into glasses which are then filled to the brim with ice.
Pouring the tea to make layer tea
Condensed milk is poured over the ice. Like magic, we have layer tea!
Adding condensed milk to the ice and tea to make layer tea
Adding condensed milk to the ice and tea
My layer tea
I mix the layers to form a beautifully refreshing milky sweet iced tea drink.
My layer tea after stirring
Our guide Joseph introduces us to Pat, owner of Patz Dayak Home Cook Special, which serves traditional Dayak dishes. The Dayaks are the indigenous people of Borneo. Joseph is himself Iban, one of the main ethnic groups of the Dayak peoples.
Patz Dayak Home Cook Special, Da-Light Food Court
Pat speaks in Malay and Joseph translates. On this trip I’m thrilled to discover that I remember quite a lot of Bahasa Malaysia from my primary school days – I got up to Standard 4 in Malaysia before my family moved to Australia. I can’t speak fluently but recognise and understand many of the Malay words spoken by Pat.
Pat’s homestyle Dayak dishes feature traditional local ingredients such as tapioca leaves (“daun ubi”), cucumber leaves (“daun timun”), wild ginger (“tepus”) and lemongrass (“serai”). The dishes include fish grilled in bamboo, flavoured with wild ginger and lemongrass; pork with ginger, lemongrass and oyster sauce; “manok pansoh” – the Iban delicacy of chicken cooked in bamboo with tapioca leaf, lemongrass and wild ginger; and “kacang ma” chicken – cooked with ginger, Chinese rice wine and pounded kacang ma, a member of the mint family found only in Sarawak. Joseph tells us kacang ma is considered very good for the blood and kacang ma chicken is a dish often served to Iban women after giving birth.
Joseph talks to Pat about Dayak cuisine
I smile at Pat’s little daughter but she watches us with a mixture of shyness and suspicion. I suppose we must look like a strange group to her, crowding around the stall, taking pictures and writing notes.
Someone is watching me!
As we learn about Dayak cuisine, we make way for the customers getting lunch at Pat’s stall. It’s clearly one of the most popular stalls in the food court. We’re now invited to try Pat’s food ourselves. I try my best not to appear too grabby and greedy.
I start with pork and snake beans with prawns. The pork is succulent, cooked with ginger, lemongrass and oyster sauce, each juicy piece topped with rind and a layer of fat. I suck the prawn meat out of its shell and devour the snake beans. It’s all delicious.
Pork and snake beans with prawns from Patz Dayak Home Cook Special
The fish is wonderfully tender, in a flavoursome yellow broth.
Fish from Patz Dayak Home Cook Special
The others are quite content to sit and chat but I’m itching to look around and take more pictures. As I walk around the food court, camera in hand, I see some interesting sights, including these bright red Taiwan sausages on skewers.
Taiwan sausage
At the same stall, more things on skewers, including (I think) crispy fried chicken bums!
I see chicken bums on sticks!
Besides the Patz Dayak Home Cook, the other stall that seems very popular is the one selling ABC (which stands for “air batu campur”, meaning “mixed ice”). The ABC man works non-stop making variations of ice kacang/ABC using a collection of multi-coloured syrups (I see bright pink, yellow, blue and palm sugar) and other ingredients including red beans, sweet corn, tinned fruit, condensed milk and a medley of mystery jellies.
ABC/cendol stall
The ice machine is constantly in action, shaving ice.
Using the ice shaving machine
Meanwhile, the BBQ meats man is setting up his stall, hanging the glistening meats on steel hooks – barbecue pork and roast chickens, and a slab of roast pork.
Setting up the BBQ stall, hanging up BBQ meats
He chops up barbecue pork as I chat to a man who’s here on his work lunch break to get takeaway barbecue pork and steamed rice.
Slicing up BBQ pork
More people are arriving for lunch, many pulling up on motorbikes and scooters.
Many arrive for lunch on motorbikes and scooters
I feel my heartbeat speed up a little as a car pulls up at the front of the food court and two young men wearing gloves begin unloading fresh durians from the boot.
Setting up a durian stall at the front of Da-Light Food Court
They’re setting up a durian stall in front of the food court. They work quickly, each carrying multiple durians at a time. The air fills with the whiff of durian. Imagine what the inside of their car smells like!
Getting the durians out of the car boot
I’m not sure what their system is, but they quickly organise the durians into groups (looks like it’s by size). I can’t take my eyes off the spiky fruits on the ground. I’ve loved durian ever since I was a child and feel so happy to be standing here smelling their pungent scent mingled with the aroma of the Chinese barbecue meats.
It is at this precise moment I feel a rush of emotion as I think to myself: I’m in Malaysia!
Sorting and arranging durians
I haven’t been back for 26 years and feel a strong sense of homecoming even though I now proudly call Australia home. Throughout my short stay in Kuching, I find myself reflecting on my life in Australia and the one I left behind in Malaysia. I feel lucky, yet I feel loss. I wonder what would my life be like if my family had never moved to Australia.
One thing I know for sure is my diet would include a lot more durian. We can get imported durians from Thailand in Asian grocery shops in Australia, but nothing like this, and with just a fraction of the distinct durian smell. It’s just not the same.
Our group is on the move. We don’t eat any durian right now as we have to leave for our next planned activity – but don’t worry, I get to eat durian more than once over the next couple of days!
Da-Light lunch crowd
Da-Light Food Court with durian stall out the front
Hotel Pullman Kuching
No.1A Jalan Mathies, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Telephone: (+60) 82 222 888
Da-Light Food Court
King’s Centre
Jalan Wan Alwi
Kuching, Sarawak 93350
TFP visited Kuching, Malaysia in September 2011 as a guest of Malaysia Kitchen, MATRADE and Tourism Malaysia. I won a place on this trip as part of the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit.
More Kuching posts
Read the posts in my Kuching Trip 2011 series
Where is Kuching, Malaysia?
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, those durian look vicious. What do they taste like ?
lolly,
I’ll write a bit more on the taste of durian in my next post. :)
Acquired taste; like eating custard off a toilet seat. Tastes great tho …
TFP,
I am glad that you spent a little bit of time working on the malaysian blogger posts. The effort definitely shows in the way the blog is written. I enjoyed reading this post.
You mentioned that the durian what the initial moment when you realised that you are in malaysia, as someone who has been to Malaysia before I will never forget the weather. Didn’t you realise you were in Malaysia the second that you felt the warm and muggy weather?
I look forward to reading more posts :)
Simon,
Yes, I definitely knew I was in Malaysia when the humidity hit me (though there are plenty of places I’ve been that are warm and humid). And seeing all the Malay/English signs around KL and Kuching airports. But maybe in all my stress with trying to get to Kuching and get to the hotel to meet with the group before they left for the first activity, I didn’t really stop to think about it until I was standing there looking at/smelling the durians. It would have to be food, of course, more than language and weather, that had the most profound effect on me! :)
“…reluctantly ignoring the bed that I ache to lie on. I’m sleep-deprived and sleep-interrupted, which can sometimes be worse, but I’m not going to let that stop me enjoying myself…”
Kudos, TFP!! I’m sorry to know about the initial difficulties. My impressions (so many!). Nice hotel room. :-) And I love the “overlook of city” photo.
Colourful. Am surprised to see quite a bit of English…but perhaps shouldn’t be. Have never heard of “layer tea.” I’d give it a try. Pat is a pretty lady, and her daughter is cute. The Taiwan sausages look good. Fried chicken rumps on a stick!! Lol! I’ve seen plenty of those (cleaning chickens as a kid; dad was always a “farm boy” at heart). Durians — wow. They look like oversized spiked grenades! I should have Googled by now; you’ve mentioned durian before.
Yes, I can only imagine how awesome it was for you to return to the nation of your birth. And to understand much of what Pat said; cool! My father’s native tongue was Czech(oslovkia); his immigrant parents spoke it at home (an Iowa farm). Dad had to learn English at age 5 (entry into Kindergarten)…but he still remembered lots of words and phrases throughout life (and sometimes my mother heard him speaking Czech in his sleep!).
The photos are fabulous. You mentioned others sitting and chatting, but you were eager to explore and take photos. I’m so glad!! Looking forward to more of your adventure…
Cindy,
I was pretty stressed out until the plane landed in Kuching. The whole time I was in KL for the stopover/transfer I was thinking something stupid could happen and I could be stuck in KL and still miss out! In fact, a flight to Kuching before my flight was cancelled too!
The hotel was fantastic. When I go back to Kuching I will seriously consider staying there. The staff were all lovely. The hotel buffet breakfast was great too – I have some pics of that to share too! ;)
Haha, you’re the first one to say the Taiwan sausages look good! Everyone I’ve shown the pic to is a bit put off by how red they are! :) You’ll be seeing more chickens soon – took some great pics at the wet market we visited the next day.
Will be writing more about durian and featuring more pics of the fruit inside the spiky exterior in my next post.
I enjoyed talking to the locals in my mixture of English/Malay, and had no problem being understood. I felt really chuffed about that! I still remember whole pages from kindergarten and primary school text books!
Thanks, glad you like the photos. I think the best ones from the trip are yet to come. I wanted to get the most out of being there, and (sorry to my lovely travel companions) sitting around chatting wasn’t high on my agenda. :) Next post will be up on (my) Wednesday.
Brilliant Post, I’ve never been to Malaysia, but i have a feeling by the time I have read your posts – I will be putting it on to my list of places to go. Can’t wait to read more.
Thanks Kath, glad you enjoyed it. I wanted these Kuching posts to be about more than just the food. Sure, the food is the star of the posts and was top of my list for things to experience, but I wanted to photograph and write about being in Kuching. I hope you find the rest of the posts as enjoyable as this one!
The food look very nice and sedap.The place looks very clean too. Fresh durian. I haven’t had any fresh durian for 6 years already. I haven’t been back to Msia that long too. I think even if I’m in Malaysia, I might have to smuggle the durian home. Hb doesn’t like the smell of it. I remembered once or twice when I was still in Malaysia, everytime I bought durian, I will hang it outside and try to eat it all before he came home from work. But of course it’s hard to hide the smell of durian.
You can get a frozen Malaysian durian here in Perth. Try Chan’s bros or my favourite Oriental shop in Canning Vale, 99 Seafoods. They have it there. Find the name D24 and Musang King. Musang King durian is more expensive than the D24. Try it, they taste different from the normal Thai durian.
flower,
Yep… hard to be sneaky with durian! I ate as much durian as I could while in Kuching those three days!
Thanks for the info about frozen durian, I will look out for it. I’m sure it’s good, but as you know nothing beats digging it out of the shell and eating it from a durian that’s been opened right in front of you.
Hey, TFP –
Looks SO GOOD! Glad you had a good time in good ol’ Malaysia, lah :) Didn’t say how the rest felt about the durian? ;)
Hey Greg,
That’s because that’s coming up in the next post! :)
I’m so happy you got to go to malaysia!!! Everythings looks delicious. Do you have any more pictures of the scenery? I’d love to see them.
Leah,
There are more posts and LOTS of pictures to come from my trip. Stay tuned!
Good old Malaysia. Road-tripping up from Singapore is always plenty of fun, especially when we make foodie stops (beef noodles, chendol/ice kacang, curry puffs, apok balik, etc.) along the way. I’ve never been to Kuching though. It’s an idea for a short getaway. Can’t wait to see what other yummy eats you’ll be featuring, durian aside (*pinches nose*, lol)!
My favourite foodie place in Malaysia thus far is Melaka, being the daughter of a Melaka native! I must have my fix of Nyonya food every time I’m there, and drive back to Singapore with a car full of foodie goodies like kueh doldol and pineapple tarts (more biscuity and less buttery than normal, but with a mound of sweet-tart pineapple jam).
As for the humidity…a word of advice for anyone planning to visit Singapore and Malaysia – be prepared for it. We locals happily trot around in jeans, but the humidity can be a bitch for anyone not used to it. That said, I LOVE travelling to places with cooler climates! :D
S
Dea,
I haven’t been to Melaka since I was a kid. Same with Penang. They are both on my list of places to go (that list will end up as long as our list of restaurants to eat at – not enough time to do it all!).
I do prefer cooler climates but can cope with hot/humid weather. Apart from the difficulty in breathing the thicker air when I first arrived in Kuching, I was fine. Got used to feeling constantly sweaty pretty quickly!
Hmm, how did I miss this post for so long?
Great post, nice and informative!
Seriously, chicken bums?
Caroline was reading the other day, most probably after my brush with durian, that at least some of the durian we get in Australia are actually grown here (up north that is), but they are a different variety to what is grown elsewhere. Apparently one of the “features” of the locally grown ones is that they are not as pungent and probably are milder in taste too.
Put it more delicately … parson’s nose .. apparently best part of a chook … pass …
Craig,
Too busy, I guess! ;)
Glad you enjoyed the post. See, less pungent, milder tasting durian doesn’t appeal to me. I’d give it a go for sure, but would rather just have access to the real pongy stuff!
TFP!great one.:) Im from Borneo as well but not the malay side, the indo side. I went to Kuching several times during school holiday. Now, Im trapped at Perth like you!! glad you enjoyed your trip there
“Im trapped at Perth”
:-(
Aw, Rebecca, you feel trapped in Perth?
Oh yes, it was a great trip, except for being too short!
“trapped”= hard to find good malay indo food here at Perth. over the east, my fds told me there is a big indonesian supermarket. Everything you need is there.
any plan to be back there?
look forward to your other posts!
Rebecca,
Hhm, yep – there’s not as much Malay/Indo food. Lots of Chinese and Indian.
Hope you enjoy the rest of my Malaysian posts. It was a short trip but we packed a lot in. :)
I’m glad you finally made it, TFP! And also pretty impressive that you didn’t really miss any of the itinerary. :)
I would happily eat all of the dishes from Patz Dayak Home Cook Special, and that picture of barbecued meats looks heavenly. :D (All the more so, in fact, given my current unbearable char siu cravings!)
Not gonna lie, the durian look more than a little bit menacing!
Jessi,
The team at Ogilvy PR (behind the Malaysia Kitchen campaign/competition and organisers of the trip) were fantastic. You can just imagine the stricken text messages I sent them early in the morning from Perth airport, telling them the flight had been cancelled, asking for help to get on a new one! Malaysian Airlines were good too – once I got to KL, there was a nice chap waiting to take me to my overnight accommodation. He was very understanding and patient when I insisted on finding a mobile provider so I could get a local sim card to use in my phone! I was glad I did that first thing in KL – as I suspected and as it turned out, with our packed itinerary, I didn’t have the opportunity to get a sim card once in Kuching. I needed to be able to tweet/Facebook/check emails etc while away! :)
When I go back to Kuching (not if, but when!) I hope Jac will be with me. I’d love to take her to try the Dayak cuisine. She would love layer tea too.
You say menacing, I say magnificent! :D
What a fab trip!! That layer tea looks great :)
Nic,
I had a great time (I think you’ll be able to tell that from all the pics :))
I’m used to finding a lot of Malaysian milk drinks much too sweet but the layer tea was just right.
Oh wow that layer tea looks delicious. I have some leftover condensed milk, can’t wait to try it!
Karen,
Did you make some layer tea? How was it? :D
Hi,
Yeah I tried to but I’m sure I messed it up, my tea was so bitter. I found a recipe that uses brown sugar syrup, so I’ll give it another go :) it looks too good to pass up.
Kuching still looks as sleepy as it was when I was last there about 18 years ago. The food doesn’t look that appetising though and I know that humid and muggy feeling … makes me want to stay in air-conditioning in the hotel room, but … there’s streets to wander and food to eat …
ChopinandMysaucepan,
I can assure you, the Dayak food was delicious. When I go back to Kuching (hopefully with Jac) I want to take her to try Dayak food as she’s never had it and I want to try more of it myself.
If my stay was longer I may have justified vege-ing out in bed for a bit just to cool down and rest, but with so little time I wanted to make it count.
I’m most likely planning my first trip to Kuching in Jan, yay! Also congrats on winning the trip to Malaysia for the Malaysian Kitchen Insiders campaign. My friend, Greg, works at Ogilvy and I’m always so jealous that one of his tasks for work is this campaign which involves so much food! I love having drinks at coffee shops in Malaysia. Definitely need to try them Dayak cuisine if I head down there. Love authentic local indigenous cuisine! =)
Winston,
Haha, awesome. Well, these posts may come in handy then! Hopefully you’ll get some inspiration from them. :) But does Greg get to eat the Malaysian food as part of his job?
Congratulations on making it to the top 10 Food Bloggers of 2011!!!
All your food photos and article content are truly interesting/ beautiful.
Thanks for your kind words, Malli. Technically I made it to the Top 12 – I’m pretty happy with that. :D
You MUST MUST MUST try atapchi with your ice kacang….or ABC. It will escalate your enjoyment of your much loved dessert!
Orion,
I’ve had atap chee in ice kacang! Not in Kuching, but back home in Perth! :D
We had ABC the next day of the trip. I didn’t have standard ice kacang though – I went straight for the durian ice!
Hi TFP. What a great opportunity you have to return to the land of your birth! I understand everything you say about Malaysia as we had a great family trip there ourselves. We spent some time first in Brunei where we explored the night markets with the scents of BBQ filling the air. We had some delicious noodles there, some yummy fried things and other stuff steamed in banana leaves. Then, the aroma of BBQ overwhelmed us and we ordered some delicious skewers steaming hot and glistening in a row…I thought they looked a wee bit familiar and a little too uniform but happily bit off one and started chewing. Then it hit me! They were chicken bums! Or, as we call them in Canada, pope’s noses! Unfortunately I couldn’t get past that plus the fact that they really were just chewy fat with a tiny bone so I spit it out into a napkin. My husband ate the rest though.
On that trip we found a great little ‘resort’ at the top of the hills surrounding the Kinabatagan river in Sabah. The Last Frontier is a four bedroom resort in the jungle near Sandakan. It is accessed only by hiking up six hundred stairs in thethe jungle heat (Malaysians like stairs?) with your luggage. But later you find out that everything the resort is made out of and everything the resort needs is brought up by hand on those stairs you don’t feel so bad! I mention this place because the part owner, Jason is a trained chef from KL and the food is absolutely amazing! I would go back again in a heartbeat. When it was time to leave my kids felt so sad to leave this oasis in the jungle. Jason agreed to bring us to a nearby cave Gomantong. It was much like your description of caves, though the rails were slippery with bat guano and cave cockroaches! We got very lucky as we got to watch the cave men harvesting birds’ nests for soup. Harvests are only done four times a year. If you get a chance to go I would highly recommend it.
Bernice,
LOL re: your chicken bum story. I don’t like chicken bums and always pass any to Jac – she quite likes them.
OMG if I’d seen cockroaches in the caves I would’ve been in trouble as I’m terrified of them. They just move so fast (or worse, fly)!
600 stairs with luggage? Wow.
We didn’t get to see harvesting of birds’ nest, but we got to see the birds’ nests being processed by hand. And Natalie and I shared a birds’ nest drink (tasted like sugar water, with chewy bits).
The Pullman Hotel is probably the nicest one in all of Kuching at this time.
The Da-Light food court is very close to my house, and is apparently pretty popular, but we don’t go there to eat – there are so many hawker centers, food courts and kopitiams to choose from!
I’d never encountered Dayak food until we moved to Kuching, but I have to say it’s pretty tasty. One thing I like is the ever-present 3-layer pork. The Dayaks love their pork! You hardly see so much pork out in the open in West Malaysia, unless you’re going to an exclusively Chinese restaurant.
The Dayaks also make terrific dishes with tapioca leaves. A good friend of ours makes a great pucuk ubi dish that is the best around.
I’m not a big fan of Kacang Ma, but perhaps I just haven’t had the right one.
You’re right about the durian sorting – they’re arranged by size. You pay more for the larger ones, less for the smaller ones.
Looking forward to reading all your future posts!
yum!! the layered tea reminds me of thai tea!!!
That 3 layer tea or named as Teh-C Peng by local, remind me of the Fresh Food Court at 7th mile, Kuching. It is deemed that the 3-layer Teh C Peng was originated from Fresh Food Court. When it become a popular drink at that food court, then other food court also try to make their own 3 layer tea. But until now, most local say that Fresh Food Court’s 3 layer tea is still the best.
HOME! Oh my goodness! Thank you for the post! :) I missed last year’s durian season, so I am now on a two-year durian fast. Tragic indeed. Hope you’ve had a great time in Kuching!
I wish I’d never seen your Kuching posts. I’m now so homesick I could be…sick.
Glad you enjoyed Kuching though. Now if you’ll excuse me I have some moping to do. :)
nice. if i come there will defiantly try to visit