Must Try Local Dishes in Kuching (Sarawak)
Part of the Kuching (Sarawak) travel guide — see every topic in All Kuching (Sarawak) Guides.
Sarawak's food is genuinely distinct from peninsular Malaysia's, drawing on Chinese, Malay, Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau and Orang Ulu traditions in a state with over twenty-seven ethnic groups. Kuching is where all of it converges, and the two dishes the city is known for — Sarawak laksa and kolo mee — are both breakfast foods. The state also grows most of Malaysia's pepper, produces its own rice wine, and has a jungle-vegetable tradition you will not meet elsewhere.
Sarawak laksa
Nothing like Penang's sour asam laksa or the Malay curry laksa: a broth built from a spice paste of lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallot, candlenut, chilli, tamarind and Sarawak pepper, finished with coconut milk, over rice vermicelli with shredded chicken, prawns, omelette strips, bean sprouts, coriander and a fierce sambal belacan on the side. It is complex, fragrant and eaten for breakfast. Anthony Bourdain called it the breakfast of the gods, which the city has never let anyone forget. Choon Hui and the Chinatown coffee shops are the classic addresses.
Kolo mee and the noodles
Kolo mee is the other Kuching breakfast: springy egg noodles tossed dry in shallot oil and a little vinegar, topped with minced pork and char siu, with a bowl of clear soup on the side. Simple, and every shop's version differs. Mee kampua from Sibu is the related Foochow dish. Tomato kolo mee, with a sweet tomato gravy, is the local variant that looks alarming and works. All are 6–12 ringgit, all are eaten before ten in the morning, and the good shops sell out.
Indigenous dishes
Manok pansuh is Iban: chicken with lemongrass, ginger and tapioca leaves stuffed into a bamboo tube and cooked over an open fire, so the meat steams in its own juices with a faint bamboo scent. Umai is Melanau: raw fish sliced thin and cured in lime with shallot, chilli and torch ginger — the Bornean equivalent of ceviche. Midin is a wild jungle fern, stir-fried with garlic or belacan, crunchy and available nowhere outside Borneo. Terung Dayak is a sour wild aubergine used in soups.
Pepper, cake and drinks
Sarawak produces most of Malaysia's pepper and it is genuinely good — white Sarawak pepper is a recognised product and the best thing to carry home. Kek lapis Sarawak is the layered cake: dozens of thin coloured layers baked one at a time into geometric patterns, sold by the slab and a Sarawak institution. Tuak is Iban rice wine, drunk at Gawai and offered generously in longhouses. Teh C peng special is iced tea with evaporated milk and palm sugar in three visible layers.
Must Try Local Dishes at a glance
| The dish | Sarawak laksa — spice paste and coconut, eaten for breakfast |
|---|---|
| The other one | Kolo mee — dry egg noodles in shallot oil, RM 6–12 |
| Iban | Manok pansuh — chicken cooked in a bamboo tube |
| Melanau | Umai — raw fish cured in lime |
| Only in Borneo | Midin, a wild jungle fern |
| Take home | Sarawak white pepper; kek lapis layered cake |