I was in the vicinity of this coffee shop…
…that day and despite the massive jam that reduced the traffic to a very slow crawl, by some stroke of good luck, I was able to find a parking space as it so happened that one car was reversing and leaving. Probably it was because of the number of people taking the express boats to go back to their homes upriver – the wharf/jetty is just about a hundred metres away.
I had no intention of joining all the cars moving at a snail’s pace so I decided to stop by the aforementioned coffee shop for the kampua noodles…
*I so love that old-school bowl that they used!*
…that at one time, a friend on Facebook was praising to the skies, insisting that it was the best in town. I have not heard from him since so I wouldn’t know if he still feels the same about it.
I ordered the kopi-o-peng (iced coffee, black)…
…that many feel is really very good, RM1.80 a glass, but when I had it on my last visit, I thought it was just so-so. However, this time around, it was indeed very nice and I sure would not mind having that again. Maybe it is the person brewing the coffee – sometimes when it is not done by the right person, what one is served may turn out to be somewhat disappointing.
The complimentary soup…
…for reasons unknown, had a piece of tofu inside. It was rather watered down but it wasn’t too bad, much better than a lot of kampua mee places where what one get is nothing more than water with msg added. In the event of getting anything like that, I would just leave it, almost untouched.
I had to wait quite a long time for the noodles – it seemed that it was past 11.30 a.m., almost noon and they would be busy catering to the customers dropping by for lunch so normally, they would not have it anymore by then. Luckily, they were nice enough to come out with a bowl so I could have a go at it…
I was delighted to see that they used real char siew (barbecued meat) instead of those wannabes – boiled pork coloured red, and the char siew was really very nice! All this while, I had been grumbling that I could not get very nice char siew here, nothing like those in KL or elsewhere in the peninsula, but this one here wasn’t too bad. Now I know where I can go to should I happen to have a craving for it.
As for the noodles…
…it tasted great with the lovely fragrance of lard and I was quite positive there was garlic in the oil used to toss the noodles and that made it taste different from the regular ones…but yes, I loved it!
Having said that, I was not all that fond of the texture of the noodles, not that it was overcooked till soft and soggy but it did not really feel like kampua mee, more like those in the packets of instant noodles . I wonder if that was because it was so late already and they were calling it a day as far as their kampua mee was concerned or perhaps, that is how their noodles are like. I guess, to answer my question, that will have to wait till the next time I drop by here for this.
KIAN HOCK COFFEE SHOP (2.284853, 111.831557) is located along Jalan Maju to the left of the River Park Hotel and across the road from The Ark and the Rejang Esplanade.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I agree that the kampua mee doesn’t look like the usual kampua I had. Char siu looks good like the kolo mee char siu.
Yes, I like how they have real char siew with kolo mee in Kuching.
Has been a while since I had char siew as some places, so so only…
Better than here, all not nice…but this one is quite good so if I want reasonably nice char siew, I will come here.
I still don’t like the taste of kampua and the noodle texture. Hehe.
You’re a die-hard kolo mee lover, eh? I prefer kolo mee too but it must be a really good one, must know where to go. The ones here are either just so-so or terrible…and expensive!
Your char siew looks very nice with the charred edges.
Yes, I quite liked it, unlike most that we can get here, not anything I would want again.
Good to finally see new ads in your blog and also in youtube. LOL
make your own char siew la. very easy. Then whenever you wanna cook noodles at home can cut and use
Easy kah? A friend gave me the char siew sauce once but I never tried. Gave it to somebody, I can’t remember who now. Maybe I should, one of these days, as the ones sold outside here aren’t nice.
New ads? I went and checked, did not see any leh?
I was just thinking “I love that plate” and then I read your caption. Great ceramics.
We had these during my growing up years, the exact same design – I only have a few left, two plates – one big and one medium and a bowl and I sure would love to buy more to make up a complete set but I have not seen any around the shops.