Big Oven Restaurant

Location: Lot 3249, Block 10, Lorong Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce 12, 93150 Kuching
Opening hours: Tuesday - Sunday, from 4pm - 11pm. Closed on Monday.
Tel: +6082-420733

The first time I visited Big Oven was 3 years ago (I think so?). They had promotion on Groupon. We purchased the voucher for pizza. It was good. Despite we used Groupon voucher to redeem it, the quality of the pizza was not 'altered' for cheap ingredients. This is the third time, I came to Big Oven, one of the fine dining restaurants in Kuching.

The menu: (Pictures are quite blurry and inferior because I used handphone, shall carry my digital camera along next time for better photo quality).








Open kitchen, customers can see them working at the kitchen crystal clear. Their kitchen is hygienic and equipped with air-conditioner.




Our Hawaiian Pizza. Thin Crust and crisply crunchy. We love it...






This is pork chop with bacon. I seldom order pork chop in restaurant because of its texture is very dry and hard. But I got surprised with their pork chop! It's juicier compared to others. Meat hardness is acceptable to me. I like the bacon a lot! Its taste is something like our "bak kwa" Chinese dried meat, but I never like Chinese dried meat. This bacon is sweet and crispy. It has no difficulty to chew. Another credit to note is the mashed potato. Other than french fries, who can resist mashed potato? It's a lot healthier compared to fried fries.



If you would like to make reservation, call them at +6082-420733. Here's their website: http://www.bigovenrestaurant.com/. You can also view their menu from there.

Only in Sarawak

This idea has instilled in my mind for long time after my Penang trip with mum. Penang tourism board has put a lot of efforts on promoting Penang thru its local famous food, authentic Penang food! I enjoyed my food trip a lot. Since then I was thinking what we have in Sarawak can also boost up our tourism industry too. Here I am going to categorize the list of foods which can be found in Sarawak in different region.

My food list will only cover the major cities / towns in Sarawak, a.k.a Kuching, Sibu and Bintulu. Sorry for not being able to cover the rest of the areas: Miri, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Kapit, etc. I think the food is more or less the same. Correct me if I'm wrong, or email me the information which I missed out.

SARAWAK
Bilin / midin / milin - it has different names, perhaps it was because we have different local dialects here. Thus different pronunciations? For those who don't know how does it look like. I derived it online first, will upload a new one next time:



It is a type of jungle fern which can only be found in Sarawak. We Sarawakians love this dish. We normally stir fry it with garlic, some prefer with belacan, some like it with Chinese red wine.

If you plan to visit Sarawak, must include it in your list. It's not possible to export it because its freshness is very short. It turns black after few hours which doesn't look so appetizing.

Umai is a type of dish from Melanau, native in Sarawak. Raw fish thinly sliced, served with shallots, chilies, lime juice. It tastes surprisingly nice. Spicy and sour, syiok!



Tuak is rice wine from Iban / Dayak, native in Sarawak. The alcohol content is high. It's not available in market, but if you visit any long house here, the natives might serve you tuak generously. Be careful, don't over estimate your capability.

Dabai fruit is a type of exotic fruit in Sarawak. Also known as "black olive", taste like avocado. 




Kuching, capital city of Sarawak
Sarawak Laksa
Kolo Mee 哥罗面
Zheng / Cheng
Mattahorn & White Lady
Siobee 烧卖
Sugarcane + Coconut
Tomato Kueh Tiaw
Belacan Bee Hoon
Cha Kueh (Fried Carrot Cake)
Kueh Chap 粿什
Shao Bao 烧包
Bee Pang / Bipang 米香 (Rice Crackers)





O Jian (Oyster Omelette)
3 Layered Tea 三色奶茶
Kek Lapis (Layers Steamed Cake)
Tebaloi / Sago Biscuits 
Dayak Cuisine

Sibu, town of Foochow, where the riches from
Kong pia / kompia / gong pia 光饼 - the bun is quite hard to chew, tasteless but full of sesame aroma. It tastes nice when freshly out from oven. Not many sellers in the market because the oven of making kong pia has to be custom-made.
Kampua 干盘面 - authentic kampua must cook with lard. Normally I like it with dark soy sauce.
Ding Bian Hu 鼎边糊
Zao Cai Bee Hoon 糟菜米粉
River Snails, this only can be found in Rajang river. We normally cook it with ginger and bring it to boil. It's my favourite, too bad it's seasonal.

To eat its flesh, you have to use a toothpick to dig it out.



This is another type of river snails. To eat the flesh, you have to master your sucking skill first.



Salted Crab. This is my family's favourite. I started crave for it when picturing it. It's only available in Sibu and it is seasonal too. Can only be found in market during harvest period. This is not the crab from river or sea, it's a type of crab can be found in rice field. We eat it raw, soak it in lime juice and chilies.



Mee Sua 面线

Chicken Soup Mee Sua 鸡汤面线



Ba Zhen Mee Sua 八珍面线



Foochow Red Wine 红酒

Bintulu, a small town turning into industrial land
Belacan paste 虾膏
Cincalok / Chinchalok / Cencaluk



* This post will be edited from time to time. For easy reference, you may find it at the top menu under the name of "MUST TRY".

The Cozy Cafe

Location: Jalan Song 4, Tabuan Heights, 93350 Kuching


Noticed the new cafe for quite sometime. Finally had the chance to try it with a friend from hometown.





They sell desserts too. Looks nice and price reasonable.




Nice atmosphere and the setting is quite classy.




Their menu is rather simple, printed on white paper and stapled. Guess they are still trying out the menu before send it for printing? Below is what they have in the menu:














Mushroom Alfredo with Turkey Ham at the price of RM22. Tasted nice, I like it and they sprinkled lots of Parmesan cheese on top.




We also ordered pizza. First attempt to try something different: Japanese Chicks at RM24. With cucumber bits and seaweed slices on the pizza, taste wise is acceptable and light, not as great to my expectation though. 



Overall, it is a nice place to hang out with friends. And they have variety of menus to choose from. Burger, Pizza, Pasta, Main Course e.g. steak, Snacks & Desserts. Perhaps it helps in enticing customers to come back for different menu?

Chili's at Empire Shopping Gallery, Subang

Chili's! I'm not an absolute fan of Chili's but can't deny that their food quality is in control and taste nice too. Last month been there with a friend after my 5 hours lesson. Friend wanted to have pizza but unfortunately Vivo doesn't serve alcohol. So we wanted to visit another restaurant which seemed like 'not-so-popular' as we observed the low customer flow. It was peak hour for dinner, if the restaurant is not full that means 'something' ya? I might be wrong. But Chili's had long queue and the waiting time was like 45 minutes! After a round of deciding place to eat, we came back to the not-so-popular restaurant again. But since the queue at Chili's was cleared, we settled there.

My throat was unwell. So when my friend craved for pizza, I started to crave for pasta too. I'm a pasta lover, especially carbonara fettuccine. But browsed through the menu, they only have two menus for pasta. Hmm.. At no choice, I chose one of them. CILANTRO PESTO PASTA - the not spicy one. You can view the menu on Chili's website too.

My choice of pasta: CILANTRO PESTO PASTA. I love it! It tastes a lot better than my expectation! Enjoyed it to the last bite.




My friend insisted to order this WINGS OVER BUFFALO and failed to finish it. In the end, I finished the rest.




My friend's TEQUILA-LIME FISH STEAK. Sorry, I don't how it tastes like. Should be good too I guess?



This is the third time I had Chili's. Sinful but no doubt the food is really good!

Min Feng Hao 民豐號 Congee at Empire Food Court 皇上皇饮食中心

Location: Lot 3638, Ground Floor, Lorong Rock 2, Off Jalan Rock, Taman Timberland, Kuching (3rd Mile)

Ming, the owner invited me to review them in March. Last month, I managed to visit and try their congee with a friend. I am a regular customer of Empire Food Court, I like the fried noodles stall. The fried noodles with wok aroma have better taste. Due to the fast pace of price increment, I cut down the frequency. Then I received review invitation from Ming. Honestly I don't plan to do any food review, but I like to try good food like everyone else. I questioned bro if he noticed any new stall selling congee at Empire (he usually goes there after work). He said yes and his colleague gave a thumb-up. This caused my curiousity to have a try. I visited two times but strangely it was not in business. I could have got the timing wrong or coincidentally it was their off day or something. Anyway, I finally got to try their congee for the first time after my wisdom tooth removal on 19th April. Then I went back again a week after with my bro.

I ordered pork congee and bro had the beef. This should be the beef congee. With deep-fried youtiao aka Chinese cruller or Chinese doughnut on top and sprinkled with spring onion.

To my surprise, their congee is extremely smooth. The texture is like the baby food. Cannot trace any solid particle in bowl of congee. Another credit to add, they also cooked the congee with scallop. You can still taste the shredded bit of scallop in your mouth. I believe everyone will agree that their deep-fried youtiao is the best match of the congee. Very crispy and not oily at all. The portion of minced meat is bigger than my expectation too. A bowl of RM5 is really worth it!

Forgot to mention what do they have in the menu:
雞絲乾貝粥 Shredded Chicken with Scallop Congee
碎肉乾貝粥 Meatballs With Scallop Congee
牛肉乾貝粥 Sliced Beef with Scallop Congee

Visit their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/minfenghao

Note their business hour here:
Mon,Wed-sun 8pm-12mn (close earlier if sold out)
Tuesday: OFF Day