The one glaring difference between Kuching and KK is the lack of food “courts” in KK. In Kuching, going to a “kopi tiam” means going to a food outlet where you will find at the very least four different food stalls, with “kolo mee” and “laksa” as “anchors”. In KK, every “kopi tiam” or eatery specialise in a specific food, so you actually go to a particular shop for a particular food, be it “tom yam”, “beef noodles”, “beaufort fried mee”, “tenom fried mee”, etc. I think the concept of “food court” didn’t really take off, and one can only find them in the relatively new shopping centres that are spouting up in the city.
Whenever I am asked for food recommendations in KK, I never really know how to answer apart from the usual seafood (so expensive now) restuarants. More often than not, visitors are more keen to try the local, non-seafood delicacies, ie, what the locals eat when they go out for brunch or lunch.
As we are currently without a domestic helper here, we have been going out for lunch pretty much everyday. Recently we were at Kedai Kopi Syn Lee, Towering (along Penampang Road), where we had the “Tenom noodles”. There was 6 of us, including my two teenage nephews. Except for WW, we all had the house specialty, the noodles. WW opted for the rice with “char siew”.
Note the extra “char siew” in the noodles – a normal plate is RM6, the extra sets you back another RM2. Total bill RM55, including drinks. Yup, eating out in KK definitely puts more dent in the pocket. Including drinks, one would be looking at RM8 – RM10 for lunch, each. (I do wish all eateries just stick to using white plates!)
The more popular fried noodles in the city seem to originate from the smaller districts, a couple of hours drive from KK. Today, we had “Beaufort noodles” at “Restoran Foh Chuan”, really just a “kopi tiam”. The four of us shared a plate of noodles, “char siew” omelette (kids’ favourite), and sweet and sour pork. Bill came up to RM31, including 3 drinks.
As far as noodles is concerned, “Beaufort” tops “Tenom”, in my opinion. I have to say though that I don’t mind not having noodles (of any kind) for the next few days!
The weekend beckons once again, wishing everyone a good one!
Ps. In case anyone is wondering, the first two photos were taken with my mobile phone camera (Nokia N82), and the last three with a DSLR, ergo the difference in quality. 
November 29, 2008 at 1:30 pm
No difference leh? Equally nice…except the sizes! That coffee shop at Asia City that I went to had 3 or 4 stalls selling different things…and the kolo mee imitation that I had was quite nice – better than the dismal efforts we find in Sibu.
No lah, the smaller pics lack definition, and is flat looking especially the noodle pic, when compared to the other 3 pics. Actually I’ve not had kolo mee here for many years. I saw in Terri’s blog that there is one stall serving “sarawak kolo mee” with belly pork, rather than char siew.
November 30, 2008 at 6:45 am
Hahahaha!!! To me, they look the same – just small and big only…or is my eyesight going…going…almost gone from all this blogging? LOL!!!
Must be your eyesight…
December 2, 2008 at 7:31 am
Hey! I’m logging in using my daughter’s laptop. The layout of your blog…so nice lah!!! On PC…not nice, everything on the left and have to scroll down a bit to see first post…the first two photos not side by side like that. How come not same one hor?
Gosh, now I know how you’ve been viewing my blog! The correct view would be the one on your daughter’s laptop! Thank you, the I just chose the layout from a what’s available in wordpress.
December 5, 2008 at 10:34 am
hi – why so long no updates with all the delcious KK food and your bento-ing..to feast my eyes.
haha, haven’t posted any KK food, cos we’ve done “repeats”, and some photos didn’t turn out, or rather, some of the food presentation is not nice, so not worth posting. I think bentos will actively appear again, in January, when school re-opens. May go to Sandakan, so will try and take pictures of all the delicious seafood there.