Introduce Sibu Cuisines

If you are asking what to eat in Sibu, I would say there is really a lot of  good food for you to try out. The MUST try cuisines are kampua, BianNyuk, Sarawak Laksa, Dian Man Hu, Kompia, Midin,  Big Head Prawn Noodles, Ka Lang, Foochow Red Wine Chicken etc

You can find the list of restaurant in Sibu HERE.

I happen to come across this video on Youtube by Sibu呷透透 and I feel it will be nice I added to my page. This video summarized most of the traditional or local delights, although the coffee shop that introduced here might not be the famous. How we choose which coffee shop has the best one? That is all based on individual preference.

Big Head Prawn Noodle

Big Head Prawn Noodle is very common in Sibu but the price is higher than normal fried noodles. The cheapest I know now cost RM18 and I am not sure how big is the prawn. The most expensive one I heard is around RM30. The price difference might be due to the size of the prawn.

I went to the wet market and checked the price as my friend said Sibu has cheaper price. The smallest big head prawn is RM45, medium RM55, Large RM58 and giant RM60 per kg. (Update as at Aug 2013) The price of the prawn will change time to time and normally it will be more expensive during any festival event like Chinese New Year or Hari Raya.

Pictures below show the size of the large prawn. This costed RM58 per kg.

This is the home-cooked Big Head Prawn Noodle, the one you see at restaurant almost the same as below but of course not as much prawn as home-cooked. Here we put 2 big prawns, the cost already RM14(assume we have 9 prawns per kg). That is the reason why the Big Head Prawn Noodle is so expensive if you eat in the restaurant.

Ka Lang(Olive 橄榄), Buah Dabai

This fruit(or vegetable?) is very common in Sibu or the Sarawak and if you go to central market, you will definitely find stalls selling it. We call it Ka Lang(In Foochow), in Malay it is known as Buah Dabai(Video), if I translate from Foochow to Chinese,it is  橄榄 and again if I translate to English, it is Olive. This is definitely not the one that make the olive oil that you can buy in the market. The taste is totally different from normal Olive and Sarawak Olive. It can be found along the riverbanks in Sibu, Kapit and Sarikei divisions.

My mum and sister love it very much, I can't remember the taste well as I don't really take it, not too sure why but I kind of reject this fruit. So I don't know how to differentiate whether it is good or bad. In market, they usually put it in the basket like the picture shown below and there will have a cup with some sample for you to taste, then only you decide whether to buy.

This normally go with rice in local but we do treat it as snack. Mum and sister can finish 1kg at a go. This is how much they like it. How we cook this? I only know one way which I see from young until now.

How To Cook?

1. Wash the Ka Lang(not rinse), so that it is clean and safe to eat as you are going to eat the skin as well. Some people will throw away the skin while they eat
2. Put the Ka Lang in deeper bowl or cup and pour hot water to it until it is covered. 
3. Use lid to covered eat so that it is well cooked. My mum normally leave it for 20-30mins, but I guess it depends on the texture you want
4. Pour the hot water away when cooked, add soy sauce and sugar to it.(It depends on how strong the flavor you like) Mix well.
5. Optional: Serve with rice

Sarawak Steamed Layer Cake

Sarawak is famous for its steamed layer cake. During the Chinese New Year, if you visit most of the houses, you will sure find it served as part of goodies. When we talk about cake, we normal will think of baked. but Sarawak we use steam which means we just need the steamer. 

I am not too sure where is this originate but since I know it already the cake that we used to eat during Chinese New Year and there are so many variety. Even my mum will make 10++ different flavour cakes.

You can buy those cake in some cake and bakery shop in Sibu or even the morning market. All the races in Sibu, we know how to make it. Malay people normally have more colourful version, Chinese tend not to put in too many colour as they feel too much colouring is not good for health. So you can choose what you want and try it!

Homemade steam cakes except the top left fruit cake.

Top: Fruit cake, Coffee cake

Bottom: Sesame cake, Seaweed cake

Close up for the coffee cake

Sibu Restaurants

I have a food blog which I update on my food journey and that included some of the restaurant in Sibu. You may refer to Sibu Food Blog here for more information.

Here are the list I extracted from certain sources and I linked with my blog for those I had visited:-

Coffee Shop

1. New Nur Islamic Cafe
2. Aloha Food Center
3. Soon Hock Cafe and Restaurant
4. Chop Hing Huong兴园餐室
5. Aloha Food Center
6. Sieng Heng Cafe
7. Taman Selera Muhibbah亲善美食园
8. Huang Chuang Cafe欢泉茶室
9. Choon Seng Coffee Shop
10. Jin Xuan Corner
11. Kian Hock Coffee Shop
12. Sie Kai Food Stall
13. Ding Wang Gourment Place鼎王美食坊
14. Rong Rong Seafood & Cafe荣荣海鲜茶餐室
15. Bai Sun Cafe百顺茶室
16. Kafe Up2U随億茶室
17. Ipoh Town Kopitiam
18. Xi Chan Lai Cafe喜常来茶室
19. Little Umbrella小雨伞
20. Ah Ching Cafe阿清茶室
21. Master Eatery
22. Roy Corner No.4
23. Daniel Cafe迎宾美味茶室
24. 966 Corner
25. Yummy's Kafe吔美茶室
26. Hock Sing Cafe福星茶餐室
27. Thomson Corner 詩巫東昇閣
28. Toto Cafe多多茶餐室
29. Wan Li Sheng Ruo Mian 万里生肉面
30. Red Vinasse Kampua 红糟干盘面
31. King Sun Canteen 金顺阁
32. Chopsticks
33. Kiaw Hin Cafe 桥兴茶室

Market

1. Tiong Hua Road Market
2. Civic Center Market 民众会堂菜市场
3. Sibu Night Market
4. Sibu Central Market

Cafe

1. Klang Bak Kut Teh
2. Enjoy Cafe and Restaurant
3. Cafe Cafe
4. The Cafe IND
5. Noodle House
6. Peppers Cafe
7. KCaffe
8. Junction Cafe
9. Payung Cafe
10. Anson
11. The Ark Cafe and Restaurant
12. Rasa Sayang Cafe
13. Oriental Bistro
14. Tom's Too
15. Victorious Cafe
16. Italian Coffee
17. Masjid Lama Cafe
18. The Uptown Cafe
19. 328 Katong Laksa 328加東叻沙
20. Golden Bakery House & Cafe
21. Espressense
22. Nica Gelateria

Restaurant

1. Singapore Chicken Rice
2. Good Happiness Restaurant旺喜楼
3. Zen Japanese Fusion Dining
4. Hong Fu Seafood 洪福海鲜酒楼
5. 168 Terminal Cafe
6. Chui Shiang Court翠香阁
7. New Capitol Restaurant新首都冷气大酒家
8. 喜来登餐厅
9. 金喜楼
10. Akatsuki Animate Restaurant木ノ葉焼物語
11. Joystar Garden花悅枋
12. Hai Bing Seafood & Coffee Shop
13. Mum's Place老地方食店
14. Happy Hour Corner欢乐阁
15. Kong Mama江妈妈
16. Yu Xuan Thai BBQ Steamboat玉轩泰式（火炭）烧烤火锅
17. Singma Herbal Roasted Duck King Food Shop鸭皇大食店
18. Mitsu Shabu Shabu Restaurant 快可利涮涮锅

Dim Sum

1. Fish Culture Cafe 鱼玩食家
2. Hong Fu Seafood 洪福海鲜酒楼

Fast Food

1. SugarBun
2. KFC
3. McDonald
4. Pelicana Chicken
5. Marrybrown
6. PizzaHut

Dessert and Snack Place

1. BlackBall
2. ZenQ仙Q甜品专卖店
3. Sibu Dumplings
4. teAmo磨磨茶
5. WikiTea
6. Nest Station Egg Puff 巢阁鸡蛋仔 
7. Seng Kee昇记
8. Big Apple Donuts and Coffee
9. Easy Drink Easy Go

Bakery

1. Chung's Bakery
2. Xiu Long Confectionery 小龙饼家

Others

1. Ramadan Bazaar Sibu
2. Sibu Foochow Festival

Traditional Bean Curd

Bean curd also known as Douhua (Chinese: 豆花) or doufuhua (Chinese: 豆腐花). This traditional bean curd that you can find almost everywhere at the night market in Sibu. Of course, you can find it in the morning market, but it normally packed with sugar and sale in pack during morning time.

It is usually served either with a clear sweet syrup alone, with ginkgo seeds suspended in the syrup, or in a sugar syrup infused with pandan. They will scoop the bean curd from the big container below and add with syrup. Some places, they will add in soy bean milk to replace the pure syrup, which make it taste more "bean". It usually served in hot, however, if you want to eat with cold, you can buy back and put in the fridge for 30 mins, then you will have cold bean curd, best go with hot weather.

In some other places of Malaysia, however, the most popular kind is served in hot and sweet ginger water.

Crispy Pancake(半个月亮）

Not too sure where is this from but since I have memory I know I like this Crispy Pancake very much. It is just so nice. In Chinese we call it 半个月亮, which in English, it simply means half moon. Do you think it is the same as half size of the moon?

There is another thicker and soft version. However, I still love the crispy one. How I love it? I can have 2-3 at one go. The ingredient inside the pancake is the peanut, butter and sugar. I normally requested less sugar as it is too sweet for me.

Kaya Jam

Kaya is a coconut jam make from coconut milk, duck or chicken eggs which are flavored by pandan leaf and sweetened with sugar. The spread originated in Southeast Asia, most likely Indonesia or Malaysia. This is reflected by its tropical ingredients santan (coconut milk) and pandan leaf. Kaya is sweet and creamy. The original color reflects the color of the yolks used in the making. It is sometimes available as a golden brown or green colored spread depending on the amount of pandan and extent of caramelization of the sugar. As a popular local jam, kaya is typically spread on toast to make kaya toast and eaten in the morning but is mostly enjoyed throughout the day.

Kaya is used as a topping for several desserts including pulut taitai or pulut tekan, a dessert of sweet glutinous rice coloured blue with butterfly pea flowers (bunga telang), and pulut seri muka, a similar dessert but coloured green with pandan leaves. It is also used with glutinous rice to make kuih seri kaya.

Foochow Redwine Chicken Noodles(红酒鸡长寿面线)

You must be very curious, why the title write Red Wine but the picture above show no red at all. This is because there is one ingredient missing, the Hong Zhao.
It is red wine sediment/residue of wine. That is the ingredient that make the dish become red.
I used to cook without Hong Zhao, however would like to try the version of Hong Zhao next time.
This unique blend of red wine is a tradition among Foochow people. In the olden days, family of a pregnant woman will start brew red wine months prior to give birth to a new child.
The ingredients consist of rice, yeast and varieties of herbs. The red wine thus brewed is dense, and is kept in bottles stored in a dry and warm place.
RED WINE is a vital ingredient to longevity noodles/rice vermicelli (chang shou mian)and pre-cooked chicken which is served to friends and relatives who pay congratultory visit to the family with new born baby. Longevity noodles widely used as it symbolize long live.
RED WINE is also consumed by the woman who give birth to the baby in the believe that it will help her to recover health in shorter period of time.
Nowadays RED WINE is commonly used as ingredients for some cooking in many traditional Foochow restaurants.
Besides RED WINE CHICKEN, Sibu is well known for Hong Zhao CHICKEN. 'Zhao' is the residue of wine.

Here are some simple steps to prepare my favourite dish.

Ingredients:-
Half chicken (kampung chicken is the best)
1 cup of foochow red wine
1 tbsp of foochow Hong Zhao (red wine sediment)
Few pieces of ginger-julienned
3 tbsp of sesame oil
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp of sugar (to replace Ajinamoto)
1 litre of water
3 bunches of longevity noodle
Few pieces of dried mushrooms

Steps:-
1. Cut the chicken into bite size. Marinate it with the ang zhao, leave it for 30 minutes or so.
2. Soak the dried mushrooms in water and leave for 30 minutes.
3. In a wok, heat up the sesame oil, once the wok heated up, add in the ginger and stir fry till fragance.
4. Then add in the chicken and stir fry continuosly till yellowish. Add in the foochow red wine and stir fry again. Add in the salt and sugar and continue to stir fry for a minute or so.
5. Pour in the water & soaked mushrooms and close with a lid. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes till cook.
6. While the dish is simmering, prepare a pot and boil some water to cook the longevity noodle. When it is boiling, add in the noodle and let it cook on high heat. Remember to constantly stir the noodle so that it doesn't stick together.
7. Once the noodle is cook(it will float), then drain it. In a bowl, place the noodle and laddle some red wine chicken and soup onto it.
8. Serve while it's still piping hot. (Please don't let the noodles soaked in the soup for too long as it will affect the tasture)

Sago Worm

Sago worm is an authentic local dish for the native people in Sibu. Normally we use deep fried style for this special worm. It is very crispy, just like the fried crackers(I never try but my family said delicious!!). It contains lot of nutrition.

You can get it at Central Market easily with RM10 per basket.(Price as at Year 2008)

Pucuk Manis马尼菜

Pucuk Manis (we used to called it as 马尼菜/九指菜), a very common vegetables you can find in Sibu and almost all the restaurant will serve this vegetable. You normally will find the dry version in most of the restaurant. It is the famous and common dish in Sibu. Must try! Picture above taken from my mum's farm so it is actually quite easy to plant.



Pucuk Manis fried with egg said to be good for eyes. There have a few method of cooking, my house we make it either dry dish or cook with soup but both also fried with eggs. I like both!!

Hot Plate Char Kway Teow Tomato(Wet)

Char Kway Teow, literally "stir-fried ricecake strips", is a popular noodle dish in Malaysia. Normally if you order Wet Char Kway Teow, you get the non-tomato version.

Why I put it as "(Wet)"? In Malaysia, the stir-fried noodles normally cooked in 3 ways - Wet, Dry or Soup version.

• Wet - As seen in the picture above, it has thick gravy(not the soup version). Normally at other place, it is non-tomato version, but Sibu has it unique one. It sometime served in hot plate.
• Dry - No gravy for this kind of cooking, noodles will be fried with egg, bean sprouts sliced meat or fish cakes.
• Soup - This is cooked with lot of water and normally looks brown for the soup.

I personally dun like any chinese stir-fried noodles with tomato in it, however, I found this wet version Char Kway Teow Tomato is quite good. If you never try it, do go for it!

Rice Dumpling(Ba Zhang or Zongzi)

History:
Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped mass of glutinous rice wrapped in leaves, is eaten by people at Duanwu Festival(Dragon Boat Festival), May 5th in Chinese lunar calendar each year. The origins of rice dumplings are traced to the legend of Qu Yuan, a well-loved poet who drowned himself in a river. To stop the fish from eating his body, people made rice dumplings and threw them into the river. Another version of the legend states that the dumplings were made to placate a dragon that lived in the river.

Zongzi originally is called Bamboo Tube Zong the fillings wrapped into a bamboo tube. Later, it gradually develops with various shapes, like triangle-shape, pagoda-shape, and cudgel-shape, ect. And more and more materials can be made of fillings, providing all kinds of flavor. At present, Zongzi is not only a kind of traditional food at Duanwu Festival, but also become a common food in daily for its delicate taste.


Dumpling Type:
Generally, Zongzi can be divided into 4 types: Beiping Zongzi, tasted sweet; Guangdong Zongzi, used all kinds of materials and cost the longest time in making among the four; Taiwan Zongzi, mainly made by meat; and Huzhou Zongzi, having two flavors of sweet and salty

The dumplings need to be steamed or boiled for several hours and one superstition says that dumplings will never cook if a pregnant woman enters the kitchen whilst they are being steamed. Dumplings may also be frozen for later consumption, but must be boiled instead of steamed when stored in this fashion.

The Zongzi that you find in Sibu is mixture of everything. The common one will be the meat dumpling which show in the 2nd picture above. It usually make with pork, sausages, Chinese mushrooms, salted egg, and chestnuts. Other filling like peanut is quite common. This is the salty version.

Sweet version you can get the filling with red beans paste or mashed yellow beans.

Some types of zongzi contain no filling at all, in which case they are usually eaten with sugar or kaya(coconut egg jam).

Sarawak laksa

Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa find at other place as the soup contains no curry 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.

Personally I like Sarawak Laksa quite a lot because of the unique taste and they have less coconut milk. You can find it in most of the coffeeshop in Sibu.

You can find the list of restaurant in Sibu HERE.

Kompia(光饼)

"Gom bian" (光饼) (or Kompia)- a Foochow delicacy made with flour, baked in an oven and with sesame on top.It can be eaten either with or without filling. The one kosong(means empty) is the traditional, the rest with filling are the improved version. You can see market selling the one fill with meat and a special gravy.

There are 2 types of kompia, one is the one I introduced just now which tasted salty, another is called ZhenDong which tasted sweet, it is softer and fluffy. Both types are advised to eat while hot else it will become harder, so normally we will try to re-heat it and it will taste better.

Kompia

ZhenDong

Bek Ding Yuok(八珍药)

"Bek Ding Yuok" (八珍药 in Chinese)(or pek ting ngor): The soup of eight essences - nice, sweet, tasty and nutritious Chinese soup made of at least eight types of Chinese herbal materials. It is good for health especially helping in recovering from lost of blood.

八珍汤，古代中药汤剂，使用当归、川芎、白芍药、熟地黄、人参、白术、茯苓、炙甘草制成，有补气之功效。用于治疗气血两虚，面色苍白或萎黄，头晕耳眩，四肢倦怠，气短懒言，心悸怔忡，饮食减少，舌淡苔薄白，脉细弱或虚大无力

This type of herb soup seems not very common at other places, they said it should be good for ladies. Like my friend in West Malaysia, they said guys never drink this. However, in Sibu, I think generally all people despite the gender will drink the soup.

It is basically a black soup, which usually have 2 tastes, sweet and bitter version. I personally like the sweet version and that is the only sweet soup(not dessert) that I drink.

Dian Mian Hu(鼎边糊)

"Duёng Mian Ngu"(鼎边糊) (Dian Mian Hu)- a savoury soup with soft rice cake is available at several stalls as a hefty breakfast or a late night supper. It is often served with fish balls and squid. This is traditional foochow dishes also. It can be eaten any time, from breakfast to dinner. It normally sale at RM3 for normal one and RM4 if you added special ingredient like meat or fish ball.

鼎边糊主料是以白米和水磨成的米漿，做法是锅汤烧开后，将米浆淋置锅边，稍干后用小铲刮入锅中，与海鲜、蔬菜、肉类等配料煮成的汤合成，口感爽滑，味道清甜，十分美味

Where you can find this?
诗巫德古路美景花园的<福远茶室>(山民迷你市场旁边)
They have curry Dian Mian Hu and curry pan mee also.

Bian Nyuk(扁肉)

"Bian Nyuk"(扁肉, also called wonton, 雲吞) - a meat dumpling which can be served dry or in a soup. The way of making is almost the same. It is easy to make and you can make it at home too. Same as kampua, BianNyuk also can have different flavour, the ooriginal white, dark(with soy sauce) and red(with chili sauce). My another favourite dish, whenever get back home, sure want to try this.

Kampua(干盘面)

"Kam Pua" noodle (干盘面) (kampua) - noodles tossed in pork lard or vegetable oil, fried shallots, spring onions and sometimes soy sauce and/or chili sauce. It is available at almost all coffee shops and food stalls.

You can tell from the colour of kampua what it is actually added. Original kampua is always white like the picture above, black kampua is added with soy sauce(you can request to add chili sauce) and red kampua is added with chili sauce. I prefer the original one, simple and so nice.

There are 3 types of noodles, made with the same ingredient but texture different. The 1st picture show the flat noodles, the 2nd picture is the curly version and the original, the 3rd picture is the round straight version. I personally prefer the curly noodles over the other 2.

Kampua can be served in soup too. By default if you order kampua, it always come with dry version. If you are tired about the dry one, try the soup one, it tasted good.

Midin or Milian 美林蕨

Tender midin or milian, one of the famous vegetable in Sarawak. Some people call it Paku but locally we call it milian or bilian depends on the dialect. It is kind of wild fern and it cannot last long. Once it is picked freshly, best to consume within 3 days, else it will turn black like the vegetables got poison. I used know that this vegetables found only in Sarawak but I did tried before at Port Dickson, looks alike and texture also alike. My friends said their hometown and Cameron Highland also have but I am not sure if they are referring to the same vegetables. So I thought Midin/Milian or Paku is the same vegetables until I saw this article.

In Sibu, you can ask the cook(or you can cook at home) to stir fried it with Foochow Red wine, balacan, soya sauce etc, at your own preferences. The recent way that Sibu people like is to cook it in Thai style. This is one of my favorite vegetables.

The picture on right cooked with balacan and the one on left is the Thai style.