Sibu Street (Hawker) Food

I finished writing this much later than I planned to. :x Anyway, here's the post on Sibu Street Food! Erm, I don't really know the exact location where we had these, but they are considered pretty common in Sibu. We actually didn't have a lot of hawker food because, y'know, CC's parents are like awesome chefs. But of course we have to try the most famous Foochow food in Sibu. For those who don't know, Sibu is primarily dominated by Foochow (福州) Chinese and CC herself is Foochow.

Possibly the most famous Foochow food to me is Kampua 干盘面. I've been hearing about these noodles for approximately 5 years and they are like, one of the primary reasons I went to Sibu. Hoho. Anyway, Kampua is a noodle dish traditionally made with hand-made noodles, char siew (roast pork) and dried shallots.

The famous KAMPUA...at last!!

Close up of the Sibu celebrity.

I really like it. The noodles are springy and yummy and I think it's a very simple dish that puts everything really well together. The sauce is just right for a dish of dry, yummy noodles, and the shallots are crispy and nice. Definitely not disappointed with it and definitely wishing that Penang has these noodles.

Mad bought her version of Kampua from Kuching - except they're more known as Kolo Mee there. I didn't manage to take a clear picture of the Kolo Mee alone - so have a group picture.

Kolo Mee in two kinds - I forgot what and why though...

It's definitely different from Kampua although they look similar. I can't exactly pinpoint the difference but there is a difference. Kolo Mee is yummy as well and they are served with steamed wantans as well as char siew.

Mad also bought some Sio Bee over - another traditional Foochow food.

Kuching Sio Bee.

It's rather like Siew Mai but I think it's so much yummier than the usual Siew Mai. Being that the 'skin' is thinner than Siew Mai, the Sio Bee is so much meatier and more fragrant. The way the meat is spiced is different, too. I could gorge on the whole plate! :D It's that good.

Next up we have Kompia 光饼.

Not your average burger.

It's a type of baked bread that is crispy, hot and yeasty when it comes straight out of the oven. Traditionally it's plain bread and you eat it with whatever filling you want - but CC's family brought us to this place where they served the Kompia fried with meat. Hot and meaty, the meat juices were soaked into the bread and the first bite is yum. So very good but also so very damaging to a girl's hips. :( CC's parents gave me a bag of traditional Kompia to take home but I unfortunately forgot to take a photo of those.

Backtracking a little, along with our Kampua meal, we had Wantan Soup 云吞汤 as well.

Wantan and veggies and soup.

It's not too different from the Wantan Soup I'm used to, but it's very good. There's a lot of veggies in the soup and the wantan is good and flavourful. Fishballs in the soup are munchy and nice as well.

We also had something called 红酒粗粉 Hong Jiu Chu Fen which translates roughly into Red Wine Thick Noodles.

Red as in red wine.

The soup is cooked with red wine and served with thick, short white rice noodles, black fungus and eggs. I didn't have a lot of it on the account that I can't really have alcohol - but the one sip of soup I had was rather good. The red wine wasn't very overpowering although you can taste it on the tip of your tongue. I think it's a really unusual dish - and I do love the boiled eggs. :D

The last Sibu street food on the list is 鼎边糊 Ding Bian Hu which is a kind of fishball koay teow soup with black fungus.

Fishbaaalls.

I will get the address from CC for this one (to be updated) because this is like one of the most famous dishes in Sibu. The fishballs are handmade and hand-beaten by the owner, fresh, every single morning. They are never NEVER served frozen. And I have to say those fishballs are like ten kinds of awesome. They are just so fresh, springy and tender, and you can really taste the fresh fish in every bite.

We are really spoilt for food in Sibu. ;) Bad news is, I think I haven't lost the weight from what I ate in Sibu...yet. Huhu.

Another restaurant post is in the works!

- Mouse



EDIT: 鼎边糊 Ding Bian Hu and 红酒粗粉 Hong Jiu Chu Fen are both made with black fungus not seaweed. Sorry, my bad and my bad memory. >>;;