Last year, when my friend, Philip, was home from the US, he drove me to Bintangor and the year before that, we went to Kanowit. These are towns about an hour or so away from Sibu by road and this year, we went a little further, via the bypass/shortcut just before reaching Bintangor, to Sarikei…
This is the main town, the capital, so to speak, in a division (that comprises all the districts under its jurisdiction) on its own…
…so it is quite busy, unlike Bintangor.
This is the boat jetty by the river – the very impressively named Terminal Satu…
…and I would say that from where I stood, it did look nicer than that dreadful LCCT.
It seems to have grown a lot since the last time I was there on one of my working trips but some of the old shops are still around…
…though they do look like they need a coat of paint…and the market is there at the same place, still looking the same…
…and if you go straight ahead (you will need to go around the market though as the part in front of it is a one-way street…or so I thought), you will get to Bank Road where this coffee shop is located…
– home to the celebrated prawn noodles…
This is the tom yam version…
…which is very nice, very fragrant and despite the fact that I found one calamansi lime, unsqueezed, and one asam (tamarind) jawa seed in it, it was not really sour and was, in fact, a bit sweet. I think I would prefer it a little bit more sour – perhaps if I had spotted the lime earlier and squeezed that, it would have been just perfect.
I heard that I would be able to get only this tom yam version of the prawn noodles here and if I wanted the Foochow char chu mee version like the one in Sibu, I would have to go to a town nearby, Jakar. That, of course, is not true as we can actually get that here as well…
I found the taste a bit different from the one in Sibu – it seemed that they had more wine in the soup and I liked it a lot. The one in Sibu comes across to me like any char chu mee (Foochow fried-cooked noodles, soup version) with those freshwater prawns added…and the ones here were a lot bigger.
As for the price, oh me oh my!!! The ones here aren’t all that cheap either – at RM26.00 a bowl…
– RM4.00 cheaper than the ones in Sibu (RM30.00 now) but between the two of us, it would come to RM8.00 already and if you have a lot of people in your group, I guess it does make quite a lot of difference.
After that very delightful brunch, we went in search of the Hung Kiew Kee Restaurant along Jalan Berjaya as I wanted to try their “gold coins”…
They’re actually layers of meat, fat and liver…
…marinated with char siew sauce and barbecued to perfection and I would say they were absolutely out of this world. So very nice, indeed!!! No worries, while indulging in that, I did make an effort to remove the fat…a bit. Hehehehehehe!!!! It was, by no means, cheap though – over RM20 for that little bit and actually, the restaurant people were not all that keen on selling it as they were busy with a wedding reception going on at the time when we were there. However, Philip told them that we had come all the way from Sibu just to try their “gold coins” and in the end, they relented and agreed to sell us that little bit to sample.
After that, we made our way back to Sibu, stopping at the market in Bintangor along the way for the very famous and very popular rojak…
…before making our way home after a most delightful day trip.
Thank you so much, Philip – I had a great time and I sure enjoyed the food…and the company and thanks also for the can of luncheon meat that you got for me…
– Singapore recipe, made in the E.U. Hmmmm…just can’t wait to give it a try!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
nvr bring us there oso?! hmmmph…
We’ll go when you come again…and to Kanowit too since you’ve covered most of the sightseeing spots here, just need to eat… 😉
i like the first few scenery pics. vivid blue skies, brightly happy days 😀 and wah, the food looks mouthwatering too. plump prawns 😀
Food was great, made the outing all the more worthwhile… 🙂
Ever since I came back from Beijing, I have learned to really appreciate our blue skies.
The skies are not blue there? Very blue in New Zealand…or at least when I was there in the summer…
The dishes, especially the first two, looks so bright and cheerful!
I see the pineapple is the focal point in the first picture, I’m guessing that is a local crop, right? it’s too cold to grow them in my area, otherwise I’d have planted a tree long ago! 😉 I guess, I’ll be content with the fruit trees we do have; apple, fig, mulberry, peach and pear
Yes, this place is famous for a particular variety – smaller than the usual…and they used to cost 50 sen each. The seller would just peel it and remove the eyes and we would hold on to the stalk and eat like a drumstick. Sweet and juicy. 🙂
When I was in Hanoi I found their pineapples the size and shape of the sepak raga or rattan ball nicer than Sarikei’s. I also find KK’s up-in-the-mountain pineapples nice so I guess pineapples may be nicer in cooler climate?
I’m not really crazy about pineapples…except in rojak.
Hi STP, I am going Taipei for a trip soon and will be getting a souvenir for you since you are normally the first commenter in my blog most of the time. Can you leave me your mailing address in my email lilian_fu2002@yahoo.com and I will send the souvenir to you when I come back from Taipei. Thanks.
Taipei? Not Sibu kah? 😀 So sweet of you to offer but please don’t trouble yourself. Thank you so much for the thought…and as they say, it’s the thought that counts. Have fun in Taipei. 🙂
The char siew looks so tempting, yum yum…
It was! Very very nice – had the taste of char siew plus the liver…tasted a bit like those freshly-made sausages.
*so tempting
Ok, I’ve edited it… 😉
One of my vague n happy memories of my late dad is him bringing back Charsiew from Sarikei when he came back every weekend where he was posted to for awhile in his job. Heard the town had the best Charsiew then.
These “god coins’ that I got were really good…except that I had to peel off most of the layers of fat and put those aside. 😦
Wow, all looks awesome. Oh, that foochow chu char cost a bomb. Love the rojak & juicy meat though it looks a bit too fat Nice view of the town. Can’t wait for the review of the luncheon meat.
Yup….but once in a long, long while would be fine. Otherwise, I would buy char chu mee from one of the better shops around and add my own prawns – RM30 can get a kilo of medium-sized ones already. Luncheon meat? Ummm…wait ah!!! LOL!!! 😀
The boat go where at the Terminal Satu?
For one, I know they have “express boats” plying between Sarikei and Kuching…
The Tom Yum version is so tempting…
Those prawns would be worth their weight in gold in Singapore…
So is the char siew…
You probably can get this in Singapore – they’re called “gold coins”.
Wahhh…such a huge pineapple. I think this place must produce lots of pineapples too like Johor Bahru?
Yup! Different variety from Johore one – very sweet and juicy but not suitable for making pineapple jam tarts – usually we will buy the “nanas paun” for that.
wow, the prawn noodles just look very very loaded with goodness!! quite different from the “heh mee” over here in KL, this one has got tamarind and seems to taste more like “asam laksa”.. how much is a bowl of that, may not be cheap looking at the huge prawns…
Of course, not cheap… I did mention the price in the post. Not like asam laksa, the Penang one…that’s for sure. Let’s say it is their own original recipe – very nice!
the RM26 is for that one with crabs, same for the prawn noodles?? or they are actually the same thing, but you’ve posted so many photos that kind of confused me~~
What crab? Both prawns…HUGE ones with legs and claws…and in each bowl, we get 2 prawns (4 halves). I had a dish in Dengkil of around 2-3 prawns (4-6 halves) – big ones too (but no legs, not that big), RM85 a kilo…
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/home-at-last
…and that dish alone was over RM100 – my friend, Mandy, insisted on treating…but I would say THAT was really expensive.
haiyoyo, so no crabs but all prawns, just one prawns noodles.. hehehe, sorry sorry.. some many photos and i thought they are all different.. next time one dish one photo enough lah, no need to take a 360-degree shot, later SK become nyanyuk and confused seeing so many photos, hehehehehehe~~
Put two or three photos, Twilight Man will come and complain…why so few, such a short post…bla…bla…bla!!! Sighhhhh!!!! So susah, serba salah!!! 😦
Tapau mali tapau mali…but then now cannot eat yet…gum swollen…too heaty
Come, come. We will drive there… Lots of things to eat wor. Maybe have to stay a night or two.
Sarikei is oso call as Pineapple town rite…cos it produces alot of pineapples.
I used to eat Mee Kolok next to Glory Cafe. But have not tried the huge prawn noodle from Glory Cafe. Okay….next round I must go try edi. The tom yam version looks good 😉
A lot of people have blogged about this place and the prawn noodles – finally, I got to try it myself, first hand! Next door? Didn’t see any other coffee shop around there leh? Or maybe I was too engrossed in enjoying the prawn noodles… Yummmmmm!!!!!!
the prawn noodles look awesome! Rm 26 or Rm 30 is actually fine with that generous amount of crabs no?
Prawns that size is RM45-50 a kg in the market and you will get around 4-6, already one kg…so minus the cooking and the other stuff used to produce that bowl of noodles, I guess it was all right but I wouldn’t be able to afford to eat that often, I’m afraid.
The prawn mee looks delicious and nice. RM26.00 a bowl is so shockingly expensive, you rich man can afford that!
See my reply to Ken…and anyway, my friend, Philip, drove me all the way there and he insisted on picking up the tab for this heavenly treat. He’s so very nice….and so generous too!
Looks like a nice place, love that giant pineapple!
It is! An interesting place and lots of nice things to eat, just that we were on a fleeting visit so we did not manage to try everything. After that big bowl of the wonderful prawn noodles, so full already – could not possible eat anything else anymore…so we had to make our way back to Sibu. 😦
You could try Aik Seng cafe’s roti toasted over charcoal and which they are known for. Opposite the old wharf’s godown and which has now been converted to supermarket.
2 7 59.8655, 111 31 19.9009
Ya, I saw that in somebody’s blog…and there’s the very special and nice mochi as well…and so on and so forth but after the prawn noodles, we simply could not eat anything anymore. Even the Bintangor rojak did not seem as nice as the first time around and it was quite obvious why – we were too full and was forcing it down, consoling ourselves that it was all fruit and vegetable… 😦
Nice huge prawn 😀
Lovely blue skies too!
They were HUGE indeed… Ya, the weather was good when we went….thankfully!
Welcome to Sarikei … 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/Sarikeians
Thank you, will certainly hop over again… So very near, and thanks for dropping by my blog. 😉
Very interesting “gold coins”! If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought those were regular char siew. I bet I would love the gold coins 🙂
There’s a layer of liver and a layer of fat and a layer of meat, all wrapped together…marinated and barbecued to perfection. VERY nice! But not for those who do not like the taste of liver… I love it!
that first pic ~ huge pineapples, my mum’s fav ! haha
Used to be the best but these days, we have the honey pineapples aka nanas kelapa sawit, grown as a subsidiary crop in the oil palm estates here. Those are really really good!
Whoa! the aTOMic YUMmy kung sure to give a hard atomic kick haha.
Seeing is believing!!! Yummmmm!!!!!
Oh my favorite rojak looks very tasty. Go nuts over it.
This one is especially nice, best in the world. I bought two bottles (beer/soy sauce bottles) of the sauce home – can make own rojak, eat slowly…
So glad we made the trip. The hay mee alone was worth the trip. Next time will have to try the charcoal toasted roti.
That probably would have to be sometime next year already… 😉
wow a giant pineapple, so where is sponge bob? haha
anyway the place was cool i like it
as for the foods i like that grilled dish, that second to the last dish it seems
so perfect for me
Oh? The “gold coins”? They were VERY nice!!!!
That’s a mighty big pineapple! LOL 🙂
Love all the eye-candy with the buildings, etc! Neat!
Old town, old look…but I do think that places like this have its own charm and character – all those modern cities look more or less the same, a concrete jungle.
I been to Sarikei during my teen once, with my dad drove us all the way from Kuching. We stayed overnight there. I remember the pineapple statue. Even had the picture of it and the waterfront!!!
Now you’re very near – just an hour or so away – road’s good…so you can drive over one weekend… Nice.
Bintangor and Sarikei, so so long never been to, at least more than 20 years!!
That famous prawn noodles, i think some tv programe introuduce it? I think i saw it somewhere, not sure is it the same place. If got chance, should give it a try and i want to try the rojak too, see is it bintangor one nice or the one over here nice. 🙂
Can drive there – around one hour or so only, roads are good… Not a problem at all. You want to go in mu antique car? Can drive to Selangau, can drive anywhere! 😉 Hehehehehe!!!!
Mamamia !!!
Yum! Yum!!! LOL!!! 😀
wah… that prawn tom yum & char cu mee looks shiok! The foochow char cu mee looks interesting… I m going to visit a foochow place soon… can’t wait to try foochow dishes.. 🙂
Sibu, Sibu…come, come! Air Asia having a sale right now, I think. Go check their website…
I have driven down to Sarikei so many times JUST FOR THOSE PRAWN NOODLES! 😀
It’s cheaper than Ming Kong and more importantly, it’s more delicious than the Sibu one.
The first time I went, the owners asked if I was from the papers coz I took photos of everything. How things have changed over the years. Haha!
I wouldn’t know if there have been any changes – my first time there. With the bridge now, it certainly is more accessible – can drive over anytime.
Sarikei is a great little town. And you got to try the gold coins! They are supremely delicious.
Thanks for sharing.
Yes, they’re so sinfully yummy…and thanks to you too! I read about it in your blog and went hunting for it. We were lucky to be able to get hold of some to try the very first time around.
I realized the sky is so blue over there, isn’t it??? !!! =]
Dunno, we tend to take it for granted – so used to seeing it. Not so polluted here, maybe?
Tried the Tom Yam Prawn mee and I find it too sweet and the Tom Yam overpowered the delicate taste of the prawn. They now have very nice coconut pudding, better then the one in Bintulu. GPS for those needing it 2.13228N, 111.51838E
Oh? I saw the banner but I did not try. You went for the Pineapple Festival?
Yes, I went to the Pineapple Festival and I actually actively looked for pineapple and there wasn’t a single pineapple in sight. How ironic. As for the coconut pudding, it cost RM7 which is cheaper than Bintulu’s but the Tom Yam Prawn was expensive at RM27! I still prefers the one in Sibu.
Will try the pudding if I get to go over again. Like I always say, to each his own…one man’s meat may be another man’s poison – some may like, others don’t – I’ve seen both reviews in other people’s blogs, positive and negative.