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Food
Flavours
of
Sarikei
• Burger bun
Sarawak’s ‘Food Basket’ is often
associated with Sarikei, an important
agricultural produce area and a town
famous for its pineapple. With the development
of Tanjung Manis, one of the key areas marked
under SCORE, Sarikei has become even more
strategic as it is the closest town to the new
development area. Most of the food, water and
supplies including banking, administration and
hospitality industry for Tanjung Manis come
through Sarikei.
When passing by Sarikei, there are a few
eateries that you should not miss as these are
considered the flag bearers for authentic and
savoury food found in this riverine town.
Aik Seng located along Jalan Wharf has the distinction
of being the must stop-over point for Sarawak’s Head
of State whenever he passes by here! There are two main
specialties offered by this 30-year old traditional coffee shop –
‘Loh Mee’ and Toast. Certified as halal, the noodles come with
chicken meat in the traditional dark sauce with prawns, eggs
and assortment of garnishes. The proof is in the eating!
Toast here comprises burger bun delicately toasted over
charcoal fire before generous spread of peanut butter,
pandan flavoured kaya on one side while the other side has
a thin slice of pure butter. The home-made kaya is a secret
family recipe, not too sweet, smooth in texture and great
tasting. Aik Seng operates between 7am to 5pm daily.
Loh Mee •
Glory Café along Jalan Bank is easily located as the shop is usually packed during
operating hours of 6am to 5pm (closed on 1 st , 2 nd Thursday of each month). Almost
everyone coming here are for the town’s most talked about Tom Yam prawn noodles.
Modeled after Penang’s famous dish of the same name, here the main attraction is that
the Tom Yam sauce is home-made, also another secret family recipe. Operating for the
past eleven years on the same spot, it is easy to deduce that the café must be doing
something right to continuously attract customers here! When the dish comes, you will
see that it is literally overflowing with prawns and big ones too. Surprisingly, the sauce
is not too spicy, despite the name and even suitable for young ones. Chef and owner of
Glory Café learned his trade at Labuan before operating his own shop here by offering
something different for the town folks and visitors.
• Tom Yam prawn noodles
Kompia •
Hiek Lik Café along Jalan Nyalong is the town’s premier kompia seller, a
Foochow specialty comprising two slices of hard buns holding minced
pork in between them. Unlike everywhere else, their pork fillings are crunchy
which adds to the delight of biting into these kompias. The shop operates daily
from 7:30am to 11:30pm and it is not uncommon to see queues of people
waiting for their order of kompias at night here!
52 | BorneoTalkApr-Jun2012
Wonton • • Kampua
Two other famous dishes here that
visitors should try are kampua
and wonton, traditional Chinese
specialties. Many customers say
that the kampua is most like the
original as only lard is used in the
preparation, which makes it very
similar to the traditional recipe. Even
the wonton is sprinkled with a dash
of wine to increase the flavour and
differentiate it from all others. It is
usually the only coffee shop that
operates until late at night so if a
bedtime snack is calling you, this is
the place to head to when in Sarikei.