Chong Choon Cafe – a good place to try Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee

22 December 2019

It was a rainy morning on our second day in Kuching. We went to the popular Chong Choon Cafe which is a typical coffeeshop in Kuching with many food stalls offering various kinds of local food, including the Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee.

We arrived at about 8.30 AM and there are ample seats inside.  Probably an advantage of coming to this cafe on a rainy day as it is less crowded than usual.

One of the reasons why the locals flock to Chong Choon Cafe is because of Poh Lam Laksa stall, reputed to serve one of the best tasting Sarawak laksa in Kuching.

Poh Lam Laksa is reputed to serve one of the best Sarawak laksa in Kuching.

The stall offers 2 versions – one for 6 MYR and one for 7 MYR. The noodle dish contains prawns, strips of chicken meat, coriander as garnishing and a delicious curry.

I ordered the more expensive version that comes with slightly larger prawns. The laksa did not disappoint.

Sarawak Laksa in Chong Choon Cafe.

Another dish that is reputed to be good is the Kolo Mee. 

Sarawak Kolo Mee with generous servings of noodles for only 5 MYR.

"The popular and tasty 3-layer iced tea known locally as “Teh C Peng Special”.

For those who already had too much of Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee can try other dishes like Nasi Lemak, various kinds of toasts with jam, peanut butter or egg.

There is even a stall selling Western breakfast (e.g. sausage, baked beans and sunny side up eggs).

Nasi Lemak.

Various kinds of toasts.

Address of Chong Choon Cafe: 275, Jalan Chan Chin Ann, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

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Cat Museum Kuching

22 December 2019

Visiting a museum that is devoted to all things feline was not in my original Kuching itinerary. Our plan for the day was to go on a mini foodie tour of Kuching before attending a wedding event later in the evening. However, the day started with heavy rain.

After a good breakfast at Chong Choon Cafe where we sampled some excellent local food like Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee, we told Brandon (the driver of our chartered van) to take us to the Cat Museum (Muzium Kucing) since the rain had not stopped. “Kucing” means “Cat” in Malay, so it is probably apt that Kuching has the World's first Cat Museum.

The museum is located on the Ground Floor of the Kuching North City Hall Headquarters Building at Bukit Siol, north of the Sarawak River. It was a short drive from Chong Choon Cafe. 

Entrance to the museum. Entry to the museum cost 3 MYR per person. 

Immediately opposite the ticketing counter is a large photo stop where our family has some fun. 

The museum is filled with paintings, articles, posters, toys, figurines and almost anything that has to do with cats. 

One of the cute toy cats on display.

We took our time to browse through the exhibits.
One of the interesting paintings on display at the Cat Museum Kuching.

Here are some exhibits that caught my attention:

In the early 1980s a young and energetic Japanese Creative Director named Satoru Tsuda has an idea that trained cats would be a big attraction in TV commercials. He appealed for strays and received many offers. He selected 4 cats and devoted a great deal of his time to teach them to perform various poses for cameras and wearing an extensive wardrobe of costumes, specially created for cats. His efforts paid off and his cats were a hit with advertisers. Story of Satoru Tsuda’s trained cats was quite interesting to read.

Examples of the trained cats posing in various costumes and sets. 

I thought Satoru Tsuda’s cats in the posters are really nice and innovative at his time. However, with modern technology like CGI or even Photoshop, such images can be created nowadays without the use of trained cats.

There is also an interesting section describing how black cats have played a major role in folklore, superstition, and mythology for centuries. Many cultures have stories about evil or bad luck that are associated with black cats.

An interesting folklore was about how the local people believes a black cat walking along on the roof of the house is bad omen. It signifies that someone in that house would soon pass away. I have heard similar folklore from my grandmother when I was child. But it was about a black crow on the roof, not a black cat.

Another local folklore is that a black cat jumping over a coffin would raise the dead! Hence black cats are not welcome near funerals or homes.

This exhibit is a bit more scientific. It claims that one can get an accurate idea of the room temperature by the position of a sleeping cat. I don’t think so. I have seen many sleeping cats during my visit to the Annah Rais Longhouse. All were sleeping in various positions at 30 to 35 degree C.

Maneki-neko is a common Japanese white cat figurine which is often believed to bring good luck to the owner. The cat beckoning good luck or money for the owner with their waving paw. If it’s the left paw, this is supposed to attract customers. If the right paw is raised, this invites good fortune and money.

There is a section on famous cat-related proverbs.

A lame cat is better than a swift horse when rats infest the palace. – Chinese Proverb.

I have not heard of the above proverb before.

I only heard of the following:

“Don’t care if it is a black cat or a white cat. As long as it catches mice, it is a good cat.”

The famous cats such as Garfield and Hello Kitty are not forgotten.

We ended our visit with a stop at the souvenir stalls where we each bought at least one Kuching cat-themed T-shirts for 30 MYR each.

Our new Kuching cat-themed T-shirts.

I normally don’t buy souvenir T-shirts when I travel, but these T-shirts were sold to raise funds for the School of Intellectually Disabled Children Kuching.

Overall, we spent about an hour at the Cat Museum. There was also a room in the City Hall showing a model of Kuching city and the surrounding areas. Most interesting for me were the many old black and white photos of Kuching in the colonial days.

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Morning walk along Carpenter Street and Ewe Hai Street in Kuching

23 December 2019

My plan for the day was to bring my travel group for a food cum heritage tour of Kuching‘s waterfront area on foot.

We started our tour at the Lau Ya Keng Food Court along Carpenter Street or Jalan Carpenter. In the old days of Kuching, most houses (called attap house) were made of wood and attap. Hence carpenters are very important to the community.

Harmony Arch at the entrance to Carpenter Street (as seen from Lau Ya Keng Food Court).

Along this narrow street and lining both sides are old Chinese shop houses not unlike those found in Singapore’s Chinatown in the old days. In addition to the many furniture shops here, there are the usual sundry stores, medicine shops, coffee shops among others. Also seen are buildings housing local Chinese clan associations.

Breakfast at the Lau Ya Keng Food Court.

Lau Ya Keng Food Court is a small eating place located opposite a Teochew temple. The food court probably got its name from this temple as “Lau Ya Keng” is loosely translated to mean “temple” in Teochew.

This eating place is particularly popular with foodies and can be very crowded in the weekend. Since we came on a Monday morning, we had no difficulty getting seats for my group of 12 persons.

Our group at the Lau Ya Keng Food Court along Carpenter Street.

I had tasted very good Kway Chap at the Lau Ya Keng Foodcourt during my earlier visit to Kuching in March 2019. Unfortunately this stall was not opened on a Monday! The pork satay stall is also reputed to be excellent but the stall only opens later in the day.

Fortunately, there are a few other excellent food stalls that were in operation.

Here, I tasted one of the best Sarawak Laksa during my 3 days stay in Kuching. Compared to the famous Sarawak Laksa at Chong Choon cafe, the “special’ laksa at Lau Ya Keng is also excellent but comes with better ingredients for a slightly higher cost.  At 10 MYR a bowl, it is still excellent value for money.

The “Sarawak Laksa Special” at Lau Ya Keng Food Court for 10 MYR. This comes with succulent pieces of chicken and large tasty prawns in a delicious curry broth.

Another local dish worth trying is the noodle. The noodle stall offers a variety of noodles, namely prawn noodles, char siu noodles, pork noodles etc. They are basically the same tasty yellow noodles but topped with the different ingredients.

Various options of noodles that our group tried at Lau Ya Keng Food Court.

The popiah at Lau Ya Keng is also worth trying.

Popiah meaning “thin pancake” in Hokkien/Teochew, is fresh spring roll made with a thin paper-like crepe wrapper stuffed with a filling made of cooked vegetables and meat.

Tasty popiah that cost 2.5 MYR each.

Hiang Siang Ti Temple

After breakfast at Lau Ya Keng, we crossed the street to visit the Chinese temple. The Hiang Thian Siang Ti is a 150-year old Chinese Teochew temple sandwiched on both sides by old shop houses.

The Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple was built by the early Teochews of Kuching.

Beautiful images of tiger and dragon flanked the entrance of the temple. A stone plaque told the temple’s history.

From the temple, we strolled down Carpenter Street.

We stopped to buy Chinese pastries and cakes and Sarawak peppercorns at the corner shop at the junction of China Street and Carpenter Street.

As we continued down Carpenter Street, we could see many interesting shops. A casket vendor still plies his trade while an blacksmith could be heard banging away in a nearby shop.

One of the interesting shops along Carpenter Street where some of us bought some rattan-based home products and bags

Detour down Bishopgate Road to the Liza Kek Lapis shop.

Another street bisects Carpenter Street further up. This is Bishopsgate Street, which was the road the British Bishop used during the colonial days to get in and out of the St. Thomas Cathedral behind the shop houses.

We took a detour down Bishopgate Street to check out the Liza Kek Lapis shop.

“Kek Lapis” means layered cake. Those from Singapore are familiar with the Indonesia-style layered cake rich in butter, called Kueh Lapis. In Kuching, the local bakers have been extremely creative to create multi-coloured and multi-flavoured variants. 

In a typical Kek Lapis shop in Kuching, there are colourful Kek Lapis for customers to sample before buying.

After returning to Carpenter Street, we continue down to Ewe Hai Street or Jalan Ewe Hai. This street is named after an early Chinese leader known as Kapitan Ong Ewe Hai.

Along this street, Kim Joo coffee shop is located. This shop is supposedly serving good Kolo Mee, but we already had our fill at Lau Ya Keng Food Court.

Black Bean Coffee

A good place to take a break from walking is at the Black Bean coffee shop. They serve excellent gourmet coffee, brewed with Sarawak's very own coffee called “Sarawak Liberica”, which originates from the hilly southern region of Sarawak. The beans are freshly roasted at the shop every day.

Black Bean Coffee also offers hot and iced coffee brewed from the Arabica and Robusta beans from different parts of the world.

This shop is pretty small. The 12 of us practically took up all the tables and chairs at this tiny shop.

Hong San Si Temple

Another Chinese temple is located at the end of Ewe Hai Street. The Hong San Si Temple was built by the Hokkien clansmen of Kuching.

The front of Hong San Si Temple with its beautiful roof decorations and columns.

Hong San Si Temple marked the end of our morning stroll down Carpenter Street. From there, we walked towards Kuching’s waterfront along Wayang Street.

Hornbill Street Mural

Kuching has plenty of street art to admire. A hornbill mural is located at the busy junction of Wayang Street and Jalan Main Bazaar (a road running parallel to the Sarawak River waterfront). It depicts a rhinoceros hornbill, one of the 8 species of hornbills found in Borneo.

The rhinoceros hornbill is the state bird of the Sarawak. According to the indigenous Dayak, the Rhinoceros Hornbills represent the spirit of God. It is considered good luck to the local community when one flies over the house.

Hornbill Street Mural at the junction of Wayang Street and Jalan Main Bazaar. The pink colour building in the background is the Chinese History Museum.

From this junction, we could see a small pink building which is the Chinese History Museum. This is a museum worth visiting while doing a heritage tour of Kuching’s waterfront area.

Next post: Our visit to the Chinese History Museum.

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Chinese History Museum Kuching

23 December 2019

The Chinese History Museum, located in a small pink building next to the Kuching waterfront, is a highly recommended place to visit for culture and history buffs, especially those who wants to know a little more about the history of the Chinese community in Kuching.  Entry to the museum is free. So why not pop in to take a look.

Exhibits include the early trade routes, major waves of immigration from various regions of China, what the early pioneers did, the formation of trade and community associations, political history and the involvement of the Chinese community in modern, multi-racial Sarawak.

Initial migration from various regions of China.

It is interesting to read about the early Chinese movement and settlement into Sarawak.

The first wave of Chinese immigrants into Sarawak were mainly the Hakkas who move from West Kalimantan, Indonesia into Bau in the early 19th Century. They are actually descendents of Chinese who had settled in Indonesia back in the 15th Century, an era where Admiral Cheng Ho’s expeditions took place. These early immigrants are gold miners from Kalimantan who eventually moved into Sarawak to carry out mining activities in Bau.

First wave of Chinese into Sarawak were Hakka miners from West Kalimantan.

The second wave of Chinese immigrants came by sea and settled mainly in Kuching.  During those days, hundreds of thousands of Chinese people, most of who are from the Fujian and Guangdong provinces in the south east coast of Mainland China, came to South East Asia in the hopes of escaping a life of poverty in China.

Those days, the only mode of transport was the wooden Chinese junk. According to history, they sailed up Sarawak River and landed in the area near the Main Bazaar where the museum was located.

They are mainly involved in trading activities and exporting of local produce to trade hubs such as Singapore.

The second wave of immigrants were mostly Teochews, Hokkiens and later followed by the Cantonese. They came by sea and settled mainly in Kuching.

A model of a wooden junk used by the early immigrants.

What the typical early immigrants had with them when they arrived – a hard case, straw hat and paper umbrella.

The third wave of immigrants came to Sarawak mainly at the invitation of the White Rajah Charles Brooks in the early 1900. 

 

The third wave of immigrants were mostly labourers brought in to work on the farms and open up new land.

The Hakkas were brought in to work on farms while the Foochows landed in Sibu and Sarikei to open up new land. Later on, the other dialect groups also came and moved into other parts of Sarawak.

Pepper is one of the key local produce in Sarawak.

I find the section showcasing the various Chinese dialect groups particularly interesting.
Section showcasing the various Chinese dialect groups who had immigrated to Sarawak.

Information about where from China they came from, their early life in Sarawak, trades and even prominent members of the community were presented.

We had a lot of fun listening to the actual recorded excerpts of each spoken dialects, with accompanying texts explaining what was actually spoken.

The museum also presents information about Chinese culture and local Chinese festivals.

We visited the museum on Dec 23, one day after the Winter solstice (冬至 Dōngzhì), where the tradition is to make and eat glutinous rice balls or tangyuan.

There were also a lot of musical instruments, jade pieces, Ming Dynasty ceramics, and many more artefacts that reflect the life of the Chinese in the early 1900’s.

One of the Chinese musical instruments on display. This string instrument is called a “gu cheng”.

A chart showing all the Chinese family names was interesting. Try finding your own surname in the chart.

We ended our visit to the Chinese History Museum with taking a look at a very colourful Chinese/Taoist temple located directly across the road. The Tua Pek Kong Temple (also known as the Siew San Teng Temple) is built in the 19th century and believed to be the oldest Chinese temple in Kuching.

Tua Pek Kong Temple as seen from the outside of Chinese History Museum.

Overall, the Chinese History Museum was an interesting and highly recommended place to visit while exploring the Kuching waterfront. It should not take more than 30 minutes in the small museum and it is worth the time spent.

Side note:  One of the map showed the Chinese name of Kuching as “古晋”, translated as “Old Well” in Teochew or Hokkien. Long time ago, there are old wells found in the Carpenter Street, Ewe Hai Street and Bishopgate Street area. This could be how the city got its name which was nothing to do with Cats (or Kucing in Malay).

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