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.