AWWW YEEEEAAAAAHHHH!

Prologue: The adventure continues! I am getting the hang of this!

Background story: unlike Penang or Ipoh food which ventured its way around Malaysia, one seldom heard about Kuching or Sarawakian food anywhere else in Malaysia (other than back in Kuching of course) except maybe in KL where there's a huge Sarawakian diaspora over there. Kuchingites love their food and they will do whatever they can to bring some over whenever they go back to Kuching like buying Sarawak Laksa paste or tapao at least 20 packs of kolo mee over etc. For those who seldom gone back to Kuching however (like me and thousand more fellow countrymen over this side of the pond), the wait will be even longer and the search for it will be arduous. Penang being a food haven of its own means that bumping into other down to earth regional local food here is a matter of luck and I can safely say that Kuching food in Penang is definitely on the rare side...until recently. My search for Kuching food in Penang actually has its root quite a while ago when a quick search on Google revealed that there's a Borneo Cafe located at Sungai Pinang Esplanade (more famous because of the first Burger King branch in Penang). Going there however is a big challenge if you're travelling by RapidPenang because the only bus I can take is 303 (one of the observation I made while making my round to Georgetown on extended Labour Day holiday.) and I need to alight at Sungai Pinang food court and walk another 500m across a busy intersection of Jelutong Highway. The intention of going there (as well as visiting Burger King) has been push back until now. Just as I am ready to make this challenge a reality, another round of Google search this time reveals that there's Carpenter Street Cafe over Bayan Baru right behind Sunshine! My immediate reaction: OH MAH GAWD! Going to Bayan Baru from USM is so much more convenient with three RapidPenang buses namely 303, 304 and 308 going through Bayan Baru and it's only RM1.40 per trip (the cheapest normal fare we can get)! Why didn't I heard of it before? Because it's a relatively young establishment! Now that I have the location and ways to go there, I MUST DO IT FOR GREAT JUSTICE. The wait has been way too long!

-Today, 4 May 2010 (Wednesday)-

Hop out from my room around 12:30 noon with great anticipation even though there's light drizzle since morning. Reached Sungai Dua bus stop and within 10 minutes, a 303 arrived. What luck indeed! (or maybe it's because that 303 and 301 is the most common bus around here)

Inside a RapidPenang bus from my point of view. Plenty of seats today. There's a tourist couple sitting in front and they alight at Sungai Nibong Express Bus Terminal. I wonder where are they going next on their trip around the Peninsula? There's another USM girl (I know it from the USM bagpack that USM gave out for all freshies.) lugging her bags and pillow also alighting at the express bus terminal, ready to go home after final exam. This week's the final week for the semester exam and by next week, the campus will be dead silent waiting for the new semester...while I stayed back. *sigh*

Reached Sunshine Bayan Baru in less than 20 minutes time and I alighted at the bus stop located right across it. Convenient eh?

Sunshine Bayan Baru. Sunshine's basically Everise of Penang (a Kuchingite will know what's Everrise straight away) because of its ubiquitous presense and its steadfastly local brand and customer base. Hmm, think I will drop by to buy my beloved Hup Seng Crackers. After lunch though so let's go!

The premise is located at the row of shoplots located right behind Sunshine further down from the large CIMB Bank branch there, same row as KFC and Secret Recipe and right beside AmBank.

So here we are: Carpenter Street Cafe! The hornbill and Iban Pua Kumbu: cliche-esque symbols of Sarawak! I am feeling giddy!

Went inside the air-conditioned premise, sat down, picked up the order sheet and immediately ordered what I wanted for the day: Laksa and Teh-C-Peng. I guess I am the only one in the restaurant that deliberately came here just to try it out because everybody else over there are office workers from the FTZ and such. Anyway, let's check out the rest of its offering on the menu.

The offering is fairly simple: one page for drinks and two pages for food! The drinks: the only Kuchingite stuff that I can see from here is obviously Teh-C. You know what else they could expand on? ABC section adding in the famous names such as White Lady and Matterhorn and such but of course they need to find someone who's expert in making ais kacang.

This is the part that makes me drool: besides Kolo Mee and Laksa, they even brought over a few lesser known name (lesser known here of course.) of Kuching food such as Tomato Mee, Kacang Ma Chicken (Hakka's cuisine) and Ang Chow Pork (Foochow's cuisine) to be served with rice. From what I can see from the picture, the noodle they're using for Kolo Mee and Tomato Mee is indeed the REAL DEAL from Kuching and not yee mee or those wan tan mee type of noodle prevalent in peninsula. Looks like I will be back for more!

Besides Sarawakian dishes, they do have other more common fare like fried rice and ginger chicken with rice and such.

Not too long later, my drink arrived: teh-c-peng.

Hmmm...the three layered is there but why did it look kinda...thin? The name's three layered teh-c-peng but in the end you will have to mix it up before drinking it. I haven't seen anyone drink with the three layer separate.

Verdict: Errr...let's just say that NOTHING including this recreation right here can beat the original one over Fresh Food Court at Kota Sentosa which conveniently located right behind my neighbourhood. The one over Fresh Food Court really perfected the technique in making the perfect glass of teh-c-peng with the correct consistency and richness for only RM1.50 per glass! The one over here with it's thinness is definitely a fail if compare to the real deal but thanks for trying anyway and good luck in perfecting it.

RM1.50 of rich and sweet goodness. Great quencher for thirsty evening!

Next up of course is my bowl of Sarawak Laksa.

My usual combination for breakfast (if I really go out to market/food court and such) but now I am having it as lunch. Can't ask too much about it anyway since I am in Penang and not Kuching.

Wanna take a bite? *OMNOMNOM*

Verdict: It's (almost) DA REAL THANG from the laksa soup base to beehoon and the topping of beansprouts, omelette and chicken strip and juicy prawns as well as belacan with sliced lime to be squeezed into the soup to make it tangier. Though I can't help to notice the subtle difference despite its very faithful recreation. Maybe it's because I am not having it in Kuching but the difference is subtle enough to be dismissed anyway. The portion is very generous but maybe it's because of its price which is RM7.90. I can get this portion back in Kuching for lesser price (maybe RM 4 or 5) for the same ingredient and If I pay RM8 in Kuching, I would get a deluxe version of Sarawak Laksa with MORE AND BIGGER PRAWNS like the one over Golden Arch. Of course that's in Kuching and taking into consideration that they imported the Sarawak Laksa paste from Kuching, the price (not just for laksa but also other dishes as well) are understandable. I will definitely give this a go if anybody else is interested about it.

It has been featured in newspaper! The owners of this premise are indeed Sarawakian and they do proudly show the Sarawak Laksa paste that they imported all the way Kuching. I wonder do they have a steady order from Kuching and from what I can see from here, they really order it from the best (or rather, off-spring of the best).

Ahh that sort of explain the subtle difference there because they kinda spice it up a little to suit local taste. Westies are all too used to heavy taste tsk tsk.

Hmm, I never knew that Kacang Ma (or the herb used to prepare Kacang Ma) has a Chinese name: 盐母草. Meanwhile, the newspaper messed up the Chinese name of Ang Chow Pork: it's 红漕(geez can't find the actual Chinese word for it even though the menu has it. What's the pinyin!) not 红曲!

For those people who wanna come by, Carpenter Street Cafe open's on lunch time (11pm-3pm), close for rest and open again for dinner time (5.30pm to 9.00pm).  Even the opening time is very Sarawakian lol! The premise is not halal (because they served pork dishes) but Sarawak Laksa are as halal as in can be because the paste in making soup base is certified halal. We Sarawakian regardless of religions have no problem in eating anywhere as long as it reaches the basic requirement.

Overall Verdict: I WILL BE BACK FOR MOAR especially Kolo Mee when I saw they do offer the authentic RED Kolo Mee (True blue kolo mee has to be served RED that is with the Pork Charsiew Oil! Ohh the oily goodness!) as well as Tomato Mee. Have to personally check it out for further verification! *excuses to eat*. In conclusion:

AWWW YYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHH for KUCHING FOOD!

Epilogue: It's not just AAAAAWW YEAAAHHHH from my front as there are plenty of AAAAAAWW YYEAAAHHH around the globe too. First up of course: Oba...I mean Osama bin Laden is dead.


see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm


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see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm

While Osama bin Laden has been evading US's capture for too long that it almost impossible to catch him, there are a couple of contenders who are still impossible to track.


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see more Memebase and check out our Troll Face lols!

Besides of the death of Osama, I think most of the world know about this too: the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton even though it kinda paled once the news about Osama's dead broke out.


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As a rehash for those who didn't manage to follow it on TV or internet or didn't have the patience to go through the whole 3 hours of it, here's an abridged version.




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Last but not least, the often forgotten place on global politic: Canada had their federal election too.


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Earth shattering tectonic events that are bound to change Canadian politic landscape forever occurred when the long time 2nd runner up of Canadian politic, the social democratic New Democratic Party under the leadership of the dynamic Jack Layton had doubled its gain in the 41st Canadian Parliament thus upgraded to Official Opposition status. Green Party of Canada, long time regarded as a "fringe" party despite being the extra-parliamentary party with the largest vote share has finally emerge from fringe status when its leader Elizabeth May has been (finally) elected to Canadian parliament! Watch out for the scrum! Their gain however is at the expense of the centrist and long time veteran Liberal as well as the sovereigntist Bloc Quebecois suffering the worst defeat since their origin with both of their leader, Ignatieff and Duceppe defeated in their own riding and even more dwindling presence in the parliament in particular the Bloc which has been decimated to four from 49 in the previous parliament when Quebecois voter switched en masse to NDP contributing 58 from Quebec alone. Are we seeing the rise of the progressive Social Democratic left? GO NDP! Too bad all these happened while Conservative gained their majority government they longed forever...*boo!*


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That's all for world news I guess. Personal news? Err...same thing as usual: procrastinating even though I am suppose to work on my presentation slides.