Ain’t nothing like the real thing (3)…

I went back to the 3:16 Kopitiam the other day to try the Sarawak laksa. There used to be a Malay stall in the front portion of the coffee shop but they have moved some place else. I was told by Roy of the Asian Flavours stall that the new guy is one of the chefs from the Ark and he’s selling Sarawak laksa at the stall in the morning…

I had expected an older guy…and perhaps, a Thai, considering that the Ark claims to serve authentic Thai cuisine. It turned out to be a young, Iban boy…but never mind, I ordered what I wanted and sat down to wait. The sambal belacan came with the cut calamansi lime…

That looked pretty good. They seemed to be quite generous with it as in other places, they would give just a teeny weeny bit that would hardly be enough.

When the Sarawak laksa was served, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement…

It did not look great and it did not taste great either…

Well, to be fair, it was all right…except that it would not make it into the list of the best that we have here in Sibu, much less in Kuching. It was something like those things that one would find in the franchise shops or fancy restaurants – nice…but simple cannot be compared with the real thing.

It seems that he also sells other stuff besides Sarawak laksa – some Vietnamese noodles and…American fish noodles, whatever that may be, so I may just drop by again one of these days to see if those are any good.