Location: Good Taste Bak Kut Teh

I heard about it before I came. I was told must go there when I arrived. And I was warned not to leave Miri without going there.

Good Taste Restaurant is perhaps the most famous culinary institution in Miri, possiblly the whole of Sarawak when it comes to Bak Kut Teh. The establishment is so big that they even owned a whole building named after their Bak Kut Teh.

We couldn’t help feeling impressed by looking at the building. They want to build a whole empire, they want to become the Donald Trump of Bak Kut Teh, I thought to myself.

The time was 3pm and there’s not even one table that was available. We were astonished by the good business, especially at this hour. Finally after 10 mins I reckoned, we managed to locate seatings, waiting for the waiters to clear the carcasses on the table.

Even before we ordered, the female waitress hastily informed us that all the side dishes were finished already. We could only order the Bak Kut Teh with limited ingredients.

It was fairly easy decision really. Not that we could choose or anything. So we ordered a Bak Kut Teh Special for one person, priced at RM 9.

And so we waited. And waited. It’s really interesting that what this restaurant has done was basically to modernize the Bak Kut Teh business into high class environment with fancy decors and furnitures. There is a strong marketing brain behind all these, I thought to myself again.

Our drinks arrived first. The Ginseng Red Date Tea was really refreshing. It tasted sweet and “ginsengly” bitter. Priced at RM 2.80.

Then the rice arrived later. I tasted the rice first. Interestingly the rice was not any normal plain rice. It had Lemongrass fragrance similar to chicken rice. I thought this little attention to detail was nice. But sad to say, the rice used was not of best quality.

After 30 minutes, finally the Bak Kut Teh arrived. The ingredients inside the pot were pig’s kidney, liver, dried tauhu, streaky pork, sliced button mushroom and some pork ribs.

From the looks, I had to say, I wasn’t totally convinced how good would it taste like. The soup looked muddy to me. But I gave it a try anyway.

Well, had to say, I thought the soup was really good. Strong garlichy and herbal flavor, served in boiling temperature, which was really heart warming. At the beginning the soup tasted salty but slowy you could taste the sweetness with some heat and spiciness aftertaste. After giving it few more tries, I reckoned the soup also added white pepper as a key ingredient. The soup was also very light but rich in flavor. The balance between garlics and herbs was really spot on. You could taste the both without one dominating each other.

Onto the meat, I thought the liver was perfectly cooked, the kidney was crunchy, the streaky pork was tender, the tauhu and beancurb absorbed all the goodness from the soup. I was beginning to wonder had we arrived early, what other ingredients would we get. But so far, I thought it was really good.

The rice was little bit undercooked unfortunately. Mixing the rice with the Bak Kut Teh soup was really appertizing and I could easily ask for another bowl of rice.

Around 3:30pm, we noticed that they had stop their servicing. That was when I learned that their business hour is from 7am - 3pm and 5pm - 10pm. Many late comers returned with disappointment.

We were also delighted that we were offered to add free boiling broth to our pot which was almost nearing empty. We were also been given some discount vouchers to enjoy certain percentage cut during our next visit. Marketing marketing.

Well, I thought we had a good meal. But for RM 9 per person, judging from what we had today, we thought it was a bit expensive. Not to mention that we waited full 20 mins for the food to arrived.

But anyway, I am not a Bak Kut Teh fan, but I thought I really enjoyed the meal today.

I will return to Good Taste Bak Kut Teh the next time I visit Miri and will see if they deserve anything more than 3 Stars.

Chinese Specialty, News

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Location: Batu Niah Food Court Centre

Its a shame to learn that there’s so many Sarawakians who have never visited The Niah Cave in their entire lives.

Shameful indeed. Including myself.

The closest I ever reached was the Batu Niah, a small resting point outside the Niah National Park. The driver was feeling sleepy after a long drive. We decided to let him some deservable rest.

We were on our way to Miri. We stopped by for a quick snack in Batu Niah Food Court Centre. This is always my favorite spot. Inside the foodcourt are many food stalls serving many local delights. But besides the food, like many, I am attracted to the display of some exotic wild animals particularly the Ancient Dragon Tortoise. You could see many cash notes and checks were donated to the tortoise in order to ask for good wishes. Its a magnificent site by just looking at this evil-looking ancient beast swimming gracefully in the tank.

We forgot to take the photo. Sorry about that.

Anyway, we ordered the Batu Niah Rojak priced at RM 5. No particular reason. Just thought want to eat something light.

Pretty normal Rojak but way too spicy for our preferrence. Half way through the eating, we tasted some really bitter and tarty cucumbers. When looked carefully, it was actually wedges of lime skins. I thought a touch of lime juice did bring refreshing tangy taste to enrich the Rojak. But large pieces of lime with skin were not very nice at all.

Well, to think of it, the soury Rojak did wake him up totally.

He no longer felt sleepy and we continued the journey.

The next time I come here, I will definitely stop by again to see the tortoise. But I might want to skip the 2 Stars Batu Niah Rojak.

Foodcourt, News

Location: Shanghai Seafood Centre, near Mega Hotel.

Finally, we had been ripped off!

Mark the day, mark the date, mark the location!

The story was simple. Me and my foodie friend were searching aimlessly looking for something special to eat. And we saw this cafe. I always like Shanghai food especially its small eats.

And so I convinced him to follow me.

We entered and studies the pictorial menus on the walls. But surprisingly I couldn’t see some of my favorite Shanghai food. Instead the waiter strongly recommended us to try the seafood. We could see tanks of live prawns, crabs, fishes and frogs located nearby the main entrance.

I had yet to try seafood prepared in Shanghai style. I thought this could be a good time to start. We ordered the Frogs and Fresh Water Prawns. I also ordered a She Chuan Crispy Fried Mee.

And so we waited patiently and watched Birmingham City battling Aston Villa for a Saturday football show. By the way, I’m a huge Arsenal fan for life!

Anyway the noodle dish arrived first. We gave it a try. You know, She Chuan is famous for its hot and spicy food. The use of She Chuan pepper especially is a signature ingredients in most of their food. But in this She Chuan Cripsy Fried Noodle, there’s no She Chuan pepper, its not spicy and the certainly the noodle wasn’t crispy. It tasted very normal like any ordinary noodle dish.

Well dissapointed. But that was only the beginning.

The Frog dish arrived. Its basically Frog stir-fried with onions and gingers. Nothing Shanghai. And it tasted very expectfully. Not a bad dish, but that’s not what I was anticipating.

Then came the last dish, the Fresh Water Prawns steamed with egg white. The apprearance of this dish was really nice. The prawns were in beautiful glowing red, bedded with the snowy egg white, garnished with ginger strips, fried onion paste and sprinkles of green onions.

I grabbed one and straight went for the prawn head, which was usually the best part. But it wasn’t the case. I tasted a strong raw overpowering alcohol rush in the prawn. When looked carefully, this dish was actually dressed with generous red rice wine. For me, steamed fresh seafood should be prepared in simplest way to retain the ingredient’s natural sweetness. I just thought the red wine really spoiled it. The egg and prawns tasted bitter and tarty. The fried onion paste was overdone and bitter as well.

There’s really not much flavor overall. The prawns were fresh, we could all see that. But I just thought the way of preparing the dish was really low standard and ruining the fresh ingredients.

And so we thought this was just an average meal. There’s no Shanghai or anything in the food. Very misleading indeed.

But guessed what? The She Chuan Noodle costed us RM 12, the Frog costed RM 42 and the steamed prawns RM 35!

For this absolutely average meal, we paid RM 89!

The food was average, the price was extraordinary!

This is a ripped off.

Shameful 2 Stars for a very unShanghai meal!

cafe, Foreign Specialty, News

Location: Restoran Al-Asna Sdn. Bhd.

It was Sunday and raining heavily. For some reasons, many eateries in Miri were closed. We were walking in the rain searching for food to keep us warm.

My friend remembered that there’s a nice place eating some hot curry. And so we arrived at Restoran Al-Asna, next to the Air Asia.

We ordered Egg Thosai and Egg Roti Canai, together with Curry Dahl. A simple light meal that I always like to have. But there’s no Chatneey, no Lassi and no Chapati. I was quite dissapointed.

I just never seemed to get into the idea why a restaurant selling Indian cuisine didn’t have all the mentioned.

So how do we call a restaurant like this? Indian restaurant? Mamak?

The Thosai was okay. The Roti Canai was slightly better. But the Curry Dahl was superb. Very creamy, thick and spicy. Perfect for the weather occasion. We ordered the Curry Dhal on the double.

And suddenly the Thosai and Roti Canai actually much tasted better with the curry.We give both 2 Stars.

Indian Specialty, News, Restoran