Day 2 Part 2: New Friends and Seafood
It was after 6pm when we arrived back at the hotel from the Sarawak Cultural Village.
It had been quite a satisfying day, feeding my photography and cultural pangs, but not my Kuching food cravings. It's already Friday (day 2 is nearly at an end) and the food we have tried thus far has been below my expectations. And I haven't even sampled kolok mee!!!!
Today, we met a more helpful and more senior staff at our hotel, Uncle Lawrence. He asked us what places we have went and what we wanted to try. Since it was dinner time, I told him we wanted to try some of Kuching's great seafood. (The previous night, we actually hunted around and found a very touristy seafood centre in terms of pricing, even Mr TZ of KL was intimidated, he he)
Uncle Lawrence immediately recommended a place at the top floor of a car park within walking distance and gave us the card which will give us some nice discounts. I was quite touched by the gesture. I mean you can say people do it for business sake but still I think some people do go the extra mile for others.
No sooner had we found out about this place, a French couple showed up and enquired about seafood. Uncle Lawrence asked them to follow us but I think they wanted their own personal time and politely declined. Out of the blue, another chap asked us if he could follow us for seafood, and we said we didn't mind.
At 7.00pm, off we went in search of this Top Spot Seafood Centre. Frankly, we were doubting if there was really any seafood place above a car park. But then we found it. And true enough, it was a huge centre on the 6th floor of a car park and there were at least 6 seafood shops packed into that area. Wow!
For that night, I decided to swap my Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens with my first love, my Nikon 50mm f1.4. Unfortunately my photos kinda sucked with that. (Argh I've forgotten my first love and gotten rusty... so my photos turned out soft.
We picked shop No 25 as recommended. (Of course, our card will entitle us to a 5% discount, kiasu a bit laaaa)
The first dish that arrived was a plate of midin, a kind of local fern which I really enjoyed. It was crunchy and tasty. (And it's real cheap outside too, we've seen big bunches of midin sold for rm1.00 each) Why can't I find midin in West Malaysia!
The second dish we tried was my coveted 'or jien' or oyster omelette. But we realized they do it differently in Kuching. For one, the batter was crispy like crackers, and more flour based than egg based. And the oysters are really big. Yummy!
Interestingly, the 'or jien' took the shape of the frying pan or wok. Here's Chris, our newfound friend demonstrating the size of the 'or jien'. Big, huh...
It had been quite a satisfying day, feeding my photography and cultural pangs, but not my Kuching food cravings. It's already Friday (day 2 is nearly at an end) and the food we have tried thus far has been below my expectations. And I haven't even sampled kolok mee!!!!
Today, we met a more helpful and more senior staff at our hotel, Uncle Lawrence. He asked us what places we have went and what we wanted to try. Since it was dinner time, I told him we wanted to try some of Kuching's great seafood. (The previous night, we actually hunted around and found a very touristy seafood centre in terms of pricing, even Mr TZ of KL was intimidated, he he)
Uncle Lawrence immediately recommended a place at the top floor of a car park within walking distance and gave us the card which will give us some nice discounts. I was quite touched by the gesture. I mean you can say people do it for business sake but still I think some people do go the extra mile for others.
No sooner had we found out about this place, a French couple showed up and enquired about seafood. Uncle Lawrence asked them to follow us but I think they wanted their own personal time and politely declined. Out of the blue, another chap asked us if he could follow us for seafood, and we said we didn't mind.
At 7.00pm, off we went in search of this Top Spot Seafood Centre. Frankly, we were doubting if there was really any seafood place above a car park. But then we found it. And true enough, it was a huge centre on the 6th floor of a car park and there were at least 6 seafood shops packed into that area. Wow!
For that night, I decided to swap my Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens with my first love, my Nikon 50mm f1.4. Unfortunately my photos kinda sucked with that. (Argh I've forgotten my first love and gotten rusty... so my photos turned out soft.
We picked shop No 25 as recommended. (Of course, our card will entitle us to a 5% discount, kiasu a bit laaaa)
The first dish that arrived was a plate of midin, a kind of local fern which I really enjoyed. It was crunchy and tasty. (And it's real cheap outside too, we've seen big bunches of midin sold for rm1.00 each) Why can't I find midin in West Malaysia!
The second dish we tried was my coveted 'or jien' or oyster omelette. But we realized they do it differently in Kuching. For one, the batter was crispy like crackers, and more flour based than egg based. And the oysters are really big. Yummy!
Interestingly, the 'or jien' took the shape of the frying pan or wok. Here's Chris, our newfound friend demonstrating the size of the 'or jien'. Big, huh...
Verdict. It's really nice but I still prefer the 'or jien' from West Malaysia. The next dish we hd was sweet and sour plaice( a kind of flat fish with both eyes on one side). It's meaty on the top side but not so meaty on the floor side, he he.
Our last dish was black pepper crab. Quite tasty I guess.
In the end, our meal bill was rm70++ which totally below our high expectations. Each of us guessed the food must have exceeded rm100 but turns out it all came to rm70.
All in all, I think the seafood was great, and the vegetable, midin was excellent.
Anyway, that's all for now. Nighto!
Comments
yea i wonder why u dun hav midin in west malaysia... it taste great when fried with belacan or wine..
Yummy food. The or jien is so huge!
def for the food
TZ: Tempted, we stay at frankie's ha ha.
maryanne: Go! Go! Go!
[SK]: Ha ha, the Kuching version is crispy. We had to break off with our hands and eat it like crackers.
He knows la. I did it for art and anonymity.