Back to your roots…

This is the DBNA (Dayak Bidayuh National Association) Building…

…at Jalan Kumpang, Taman Ridgeway (1.526511,110.347675) in Kuching. If you are unfamiliar with those names in the address, you can get there via Ong Tiang Swee Road – coming in either from Simpang Tiga or Rock Road till you get to the Sarawak Cheshire Home – that road to the right of the home is Jalan Kumpang and this place is just a short distance away on the left.

On my first night in Kuching, my cousins took me there for dinner, together with one auntie and the missus and children of one of them. The association has rented out a section of its premises to some people to run a restaurant serving their ethnic cuisine – the AwahCafe @DBNA…

– a simple, very spacious place, non-air conditioned and not very elaborately decorated though there are some evidences…

…of the cultural ethnicity…

…at this place including sections of their menu…

One of my cousins had called up to make the reservation and he had ordered all the dishes that he had tried before and enjoyed so that certainly saved us the trouble of having to go through the menu and trying to figure out what each  dish was and deciding on what we would want to have.

The lemon grass chicken…

…was very nice and I enjoyed this ethnic mixed vegetable dish…

…very much.

The sambal sotong (squids)…

…was very well-received by all that night and the barbecued pork served with sambal belacan (dried prawn paste dip)…

…as well.

I was beginning to wonder why those dishes did not seem all that familiar to me, nothing like the ethnic dishes that I am well-acquainted with and my guess was that these were probably more towards the Bidayuh cuisine. the ethnic race found mostly to the western section of the state of Sarawak, more towards those parts where Kuching is…while I am more familiar with the Iban cuisine or that of the Melanaus in central Sarawak. For instance, I had not had terung Dayak (Dayak brinjal) cooked with chicken…

…before. Normally, in its simplest form, we would cook it in soup with ikan pusu/bilis (dried anchovies), belacan (dried prawn paste) and serai (lemon grass) or we may choose to add fish or prawns to it. Otherwise, we can replace the anchovies with salai (smoked) fish or prawns.

The keli (catfish) with tempoyak (fermented durian)…

…was all right but it was very very sour – usually, when the tempoyak is sour, we would say that it is not very nice so probably, this was what was used in the cooking.

The local ethnic rice…

…that was served with all the aforementioned dishes was probably the only thing that night that I know only too well.

That certainly was a delightful dinner, thanks to my cousins for the treat…and of course, it sure was great to get together with everybody once again.