In the shadows…

Over in West Malaysia, people sing in praise of the Penang char kway teow or fried flat rice noodles and maybe the kway teow therng (flat rice noodles in clear soup) as well.

Here in Sarawak, however, it seems that the kway teow is always lurking in the shadows. When one talks about Kuching, immediately the kolo mee or the Kuching/Sarawak laksa comes to mind and in Sibu, it has to be the kampua noodles or the dianpianngu. Sadly, most of the time, little is said or heard about the kway teow dishes here which are, more often than not, sidelined in favour of the better-known delicacies.

Personally, I would go for the wet Foochow fried noodles (with sauce/gravy) anytime I feel like having something fried. However, at most of the stalls in the coffee shops as well as in the restaurants in Sibu, one can order the fried kway teow – Foochow style…

I may opt for this occasionally especially when I feel like having something different for a change like the other day, when I sent my car to the car wash and I hopped over to this Ah Ping Cafe in the vicinity of the Sibu Civic Centre (Dewan Suarah) for a bite to eat while waiting.

Together with one glass of kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee), it came up to RM2.90 which makes it cheaper than what I had at the Y2K Restaurant in the town. This cost RM3.00 for the fried kway teow alone…

…and if you asked me, I would say that it was not as good despite it being a bit more expensive. The only saving grace was the fact that the restaurant was air-conditioned.

We do have fried kway teow – the dry version as well but without all the prawns and the clams that one usually finds in Penang fried kway teow and needless to say, it is not as nice…

…but one should not expect too much considering that it is only RM2.oo something per plate. However, there are some who love the Ah Tor char kway teow which was once available at the Kok Cheng coffee shop opposite the Cathay Cinema (now the Star Cineplex). In my younger days, there was this man named Ah Tor who would fry the kway teow and serve it sort of wrapped in egg like this…

…and up till today, there are people who like it this way. I am not sure whether the stall has moved back to the original coffee shop as I heard that at one time, they all moved to the one next to the Sibu Public Library. Some claim that the lady at one of the coffee shops in Sungai Merah is related to this Ah Tor and there are others who prefer the kway teow fried this way at the coffee shop behind the Sibu Kidney Foundation premises.

We also have tomato kway teow in Sibu…

…but I think the ones in Kuching are much nicer.

Whatever it is, we actually have a lot more to offer here in Sibu than just kampua mee, dianmianngu and kompia, believe you me…