I am not sure if this was the one my friend, Philip, home from the US at the time in December last year, was telling me about…
…but he insisted that the kampua noodles at a certain coffee shop in Rejang Park here was very good. The problem was he did not know the name of the place and I could not make out exactly where the place was based on the directions that he gave.
I’ve tried the one at the coffee shop right next to the post office. It used to be very good a long time ago but since then, they’ve changed hands a few times and what I had from the lady currently running the stall was all right – not the best, that’s for sure but it was o.k.
The kampua stall at this particular shop is also run by a lady…
…and I would say that her kampua was good – I liked it better than the one next to the post office…
…but I must say that I was quite put off by the excessive red colouring used for the boiled meat.
The pian sip was not all that great though…
…as the dumplings were served in a bit of soup. They do that at some places here probably to cut down the amount of oil needed but I do not really enjoy it that way as they would come across a bit bland as far as the taste is concerned. If I had wanted something along those lines, I would have ordered the soup version of piansip and not something that is neither here nor there like this one.
So far, among all the kampua places in the vicinity, my favourite would be this one here which, I would think, is among the best in town but I’ve yet to try all so I guess I can’t be all that sure and I will have to reserve my verdict for the time being…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Although I’m not been here very long. I always see you post kampua noodles from your hometown.. Really want to taste it lor.
You’ll have to come over here if you want to try the real things. Otherwise, you may find some pseudo-authentic ones where you are – just that they are not necessarily the same and not as nice.
Hope to visit Sabah and Kuching.
You mean Sabah and Sarawak? Kuching is the capital of Sarawak but I don’t live there – I live in Sibu which is in the central region of the state and is not the capital. You can get kampua noodles in Kuching but they are not as nice as the best ones here – Kuching is noted for its own kolo mee (something like Hakka noodles)…which we can get here too but is not even half as nice as the best ones there. Sabah has its konlou mee…whcih I would say, I don’t really like. To me, wanton mee, which I feel is not as nice as kampua or kolo mee, is nicer.
So if want to visit you, which airport, Kota Kinabalu?
Sibu, in Sarawak! If you are flying from Singapore, you will have to fly transit Kuching via MAS, Air Asia, Tiger…and I think, Silk as well…and via MAS or MasWings or Air Asia from Kuching to Sibu. If you go to JB, you can take an Air Asia direct flight from there to Sibu.
Kota Kinabalu is in Sabah – that’s where the Sulu King thing is/was going on…if you read about that quite recently.
Kampua noodles lover spotted! Any good ones outside Sibu?
You can try JB – the place is infested with Sibu Foochows. Whatever it is, it will not be as nice as the real thing here in Sibu, not even in Kuching. It’s the noodles!!! They make their own but theirs are not so nice…so somehow, true kampua lovers will be able to tell the difference.
Wow, that dye is a bit excessive, perhaps they wanted to add color to the dish? I would have been put off by the excessive dye too. Which reminds my, I haven’t made my daughter a noodle dish in several weeks. I’ll prepare a noodle dish sometime this week.
Yup! Put me off instantly. Like the meat was bleeding… She could have left out the dye – it’s only colouring, no difference to the tatse…and cut down costs and sell the noodles a bit cheaper. Ya…your girl would be longing for your noodles, I’m sure…especially when she sees all the noodles here. LOL!!! 😀
The red reminds me of ang pow packets 😀
If only. 😦
Hi Arthur! You have tried and reviewed so many kampua and pian sip outlets that you could publish a book just on the noodle dish!
Arthur, the young one aka kampua King! 😀
Hahahahaha!!!! There are a few good places in town – customers spilling on to the pavement but there are a lot more kampua stalls in town…so I thought I could give them a try. Who knows there may be some good/better ones yet to be discovered?
I noticed that the meat that comes with the kampua have very red colour. You mentioned boiled meat, so it is not char siew then?
It most certainly isn’t. It is boiled meat…coated with some red colour. At one time, the red dye that they used was banned…so whether they have permitted dyes now…or those people have gone back to their old ways…since people seem to have forgotten what had transpired way back when, I wouldn’t know. I would very much prefer places where they use plain boiled meat – never mind that it has no colour…or braised meat (dark with the soy sauce used).
Actually I wasn’t too impressed with that place. Poor service and the kampua was only so-so. I remember I didn’t even finish it. As someone would say, not worth the calories. I think it was coffee we were talking about — and I said the shop behind your favorite chu-cha place has the best coffee in Rejang Park. The best kampua in RP is still the one you recommended, the one across from Leong’s.
Ahhhh!!! So it wasn’t the kampua. Must be groggy after my NZ trip, can’t remember too well what you said on our brief outing that morning.
Behind my favourite chu-char place would probably be the one next to the post office then. Generally, the coffee around this area is all all right – haven’t had any horrible ones. You’ll probably have to go to the Malay shops for that…or go to those places that I went to Kuching. In desperation, I asked for Nescafe-O thinking that you just can’t go wrong with Nescafe…and it did go wrong!!! Grrrrrr!!!!! We certainly have better coffee around here in Sibu.
The one next to the post office had very good kampua a long time ago when I was still working and they had an Indon helper who could speak Foochow but not since it changed hands. The current one is probably the 3rd one since…and it’s ok, not what I would go back to eat again.
Gee! It’s April already. How times flies! In a couple more months, you’ll be back in Sibu again. Looking forward to that – we can check out a few more kampua places when you’re home.
Time does fly. Two more months and it’s kampua time again. For me, the gold standard is still Lieng Yew but I think that place we went to last time is gaining a new convert.
Yes, I know a few people who would swear by Lieng Yew…but it has to be the old guy doing it. The one we went to was Rasa Sayang. See you soon!
Yes, the red coloring on the meat is excessive already…. if I were to see that, I would order more piansip to replace the red meat… :p
Yup! I would not mind having the kampua again…but with so much red dye on the meat, I would ask for the kosong – or as wks would say in Foochow, “Mai eng nik!!!” (Don’t put meat!) Hehehehehehe!!!!!
I agree. The red will turn me off too. Anyway, I’m not a fan of char siew though, but I love the pian sip.
I love char siew – the roast pork type, that is. The real thing.
I agree the red coloring was too much 😦 The piansip looks good though 🙂
It certainly looks ok but I do not like it when they do that – add a bit of soup instead of using more oil to prevent the dumplings from sticking together. In the end, it’s neither here nor there – not the dry version…and not the soup version either.
Portion looks small to me, is piansip something similar to our wanton? LOL 😛
Let’s say they’re distant cousins. Small? You’ve yet to see the real thing, my friend. Foochows are not known for anything small – used to be notorious in my younger days for quantity, not quality. Thank goodness, as far as Foochow cuisine is concerned now, there is a paradigm shift and more attention is given to taste nowadays. Quantity-wise, it is stll as Foochow as before…
Really too much colouring for the char siew but the pian sip looks good though. What is that mug there for?
Boiled meat, trying to pass off as char siew. 😦 The mug’s filled with boiling water for you to soak your spoon and chopsticks before use. It is a requirement at all eateries here in Sibu – rule set by the town council…which I would say is a good thing.
The dumpling makes me drooling… keke…
Appearance can be deceptive. Was at best ok, didn’t like it watered down with soup like that.
The wantan looks good but the char siew colour is too red…..
Both would get my thumbs down but what amazes me most is the fact that there are quite a lot of people eating there every day.
agreed! that bright red is scary… lol…. need to be careful about food coloring as some ppl get allergic reaction to it.
admire that you must have hunt down almost all of Sibu’s kampua noodles and more… 😀
I don’t go out of my way to do this. If I happen to be at a certain part of town, I may go and try something there to see if it is any good. The sad thing is I don’t go back to eat those that I know are nice and have blogged about before…or I will have nothing to blog about. 😦
Yeah lah, the red coloring is not so inviting. Did you say boiled meat? I always thought char siew is supposed to be roasted or grilled – siew, mah.
Nobody ever said it’s char siew…or not me, at least as it is definitely not char siew as I know it. To me, it is boiled meat, coloured red. I think those of you who are used to char siew on your wanton mee just assume that it is char siew. Well, it is not and this is not wanton mee. Period!
So, all set to cast your vote?
Since long, long ago… Let me see the date of my sms to SPR regarding my centre – 1st May, 2012.
Ohhh, ya, you’ve posted a lot of really tempting kampua noodle pics on your blog over the months, but I guess this one might not be one of the better ones. It does have a very simple “instant noodles topped with char siew” look, but I guess a bowl of kampua noodles is still better than no bowl, hehe
Nope, it would be nicer than instant noodles, I would say – even this not really great one…and nope, that’s not char siew – it’s boiled meat, cooked in some red sauce and trying to look like char siew. This one is shockingly red though – usually it’s light orangy red.
The excessive red colouring on the meat probably to make it look like char siew. 😉
Yup, bluff one! Tastes like…boiled meat! 😦
yeah, i gotta agree with you.. the noodles itself looks nice but i am put off by that “fake char siew” also, too much coloring already.. just curious, is that a must to use coloring for the meat for a bowl of kampua noodles??
It’s part of the whole deal – the few thin slices of meat on top. Used to be a lighter shade of red, something like orange…not this horrendous bleeding red colour…and once, when there was a ban on the red dye, they served it without the red colour – some still do and actually, nobody has any problem with that. Dunno why some people insist on the red colour and to that extent some more. 😦 It’s boiled meat, quite bland other than just the sweet taste of the meat…so many would opt to go without the meat…or ask that it be replaced by pian sip – the meat dumplings instead.
Kampua!!! Now whenever my friends see me, will ask me, actually how is kampua taste like? Is it that good ar? hahahhahahha..i said i cannot explain to you, you have to try it yourself.
Pian Sip – now i will stick to the one at the lanang road, Ah Nong kampua? During my recent trip back, i went there TWICE! hahahhahahha. I notice their pian sip got those “olden day” taste, it is so familiar and feel so ‘warm”. LOL
Yup! So far I think theirs is the best in town – I wish I could say the same about their kampua though. Wouldn’t want to go all the way just to eat the piansip and parking can be such a pain there plus traffic is often heavy. Ya, so hard to explain – they will just have to come over and try for themselves.
pian sip looks very good! 🙂 drooling lo..
Not really. Diluted. 😦
Yum to the kampua!
If a certain dish is tasty, people would travel to the stall/restaurant no matter how far or deserted the place is.
I know, many would…but not me. I’d rather settle for something less, honestly…and no queues either – might as well not eat! Crazy, those people lining up for hours to eat at a place – nothing can be THAT good.
Oooo… kampua! I rindu sama dia.. Hehehe but yes lar, the red colour on the meat is a scary 🙂
Come, come…and you can be sure I will not take you to eat any kampua like this. Bila nak datang…lama dah I menunggu!
haha i was about to ask what’s that red meat on the top
i always see that on your noodles but then you told us
it was just a colored boiled meat
Yup! Must have spilled the colouring that day! Tsk! Tsk!
hmm the second dish seems pretty chewy
Not at all. Suitable for the old and toothless.
Wah that is even redder than my accident char siew last time.
LOL!!! That’s so consoling, eh? 😉
Yeah, it’s a bit radioactive red, that char siew.
The pian sip looks great in the photo though – very “Rejang Park style” with the serving style (lots of oil in a ceramic plate). Too bad it didn’t taste good.
Unfortunately it was not oil, it was soup…so it was kinda diluted. That was why I did not like it very much.
Many stalls doesnt give “genuine” Char siew any more…they just cook the meat and put red color….MIL was complaining just the other day. So i made some Char siew for her using HCP
You mean for wanton mee? How can? The main attraction is the char siew – the mee and the oily black sauce, just so-so only…nothing great. I would be very disappointed too if I were serve fake char siew…instead of the real thing.
You could try their fried “Sour & Hot” Bee Hoon.
It’s good? Long time ago, I saw their Indon maid taking the roast chicken out of the roaster (the huge egg-shaped stainless steel thing) and she dropped it on the road…and she quickly picked it up and put it back on one of those stainless plates… Eyewwwww!!!!!! I made up my mind there and then never to go and eat there… LOL!!! 😀
If that was your reason not to go there, then I am afraid you probably have to delete off all the eateries in town. May be you should practice “Close One Eye”. LOL.
I do practise eye-no-see…but this one, I saw already, that’s the problem. But that was quite sometime ago, the maid’s no longer there, I’m sure – should drop by and give it a try one of these days.