When you come to Kuching, you will see kolo mee or kolok mee everywhere. It is the people's staple like bak chor mee in Singapore.
On the surface, it seems a simple dish. Egg noodle tossed with lard, shallot oil, soy sauce, chili sauce, vinegar, etc., and topped with fried minced pork, char siew (roast pork) and chopped spring onion. That's all.
But, every Kuching local has a personal favourite which they swear by. (There are Halal versions.)
Chai, born and raised in Kuching, brought us to Huat Huat 發發 one of his favourites.
Huat Huat Cafe 發發茶室.
It's one of those hundreds of nondescript eating shops you find everywhere in Kuching. Huat Huat serves only one thing - kolo mee (besides drinks lah... ).
Lim Ming Seng runs his shop with so much joy and passion. It is his life's work, his life.
Lim is the third generation owner of the 70 year old stall, and still makes his kolo mee from scratch with flour and eggs everyday. Lim's day starts at 4am. Making noodles has been his entire life and he is joyfully passionate about it.
You can feel it by the gusto Lim cooks his noodles.
I always felt that stories (memories, personalities, relationships, etc.,) add to flavours, the subjective part of what people mean when they say "taste is subjective".
A bit of Lim's passion, love for life, love of noodles go into every strand making each mouthful taste better.
The kolo mee dish is an understatement - dull Joe or plain Jane looking dish but you will be hooked once you tasted a good one.
Lim's signature house made noodles are slightly crinkly (Huat Huat supposedly invented crinkly qiu noodles). Each strand was coated with an aromatic blend of lard, shallot oil, etc. I love the lardy, savoury, subtly umami taste of the sauce coated soft, crunchy noodles.
Yeah everywhere you go in Kuching, you have kolo mee, and also this three layered concoction of black tea, evaporated milk, and at the bottom, gula apong (local aromatic nipah palm sugar).
Huat Huat Cafe is at Lorong Liu Shan Bang 2.
Who was Liu Shan Bang?
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| Image of Liu Shan Pang at Tugu Pahalwan or Sarawak Warriors Monument |
Liu was the leader of miners from the mining town of Bau in the 1850s. In 1857, Liu led 600 miners in a failed attempt to overthrow Rajah James Brooke over tax and mining rights disputes. Liu and most of the miners perished. The old Bau mining town and its inhabitants were eliminated in retaliation.
Restaurant name: Huat Huat Cafe 發發茶室
Address: Lorong Liu Shan Bang 2b, Kota Sentosa, 93250 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Tel: +6013 821 0000
Hours: 6:15 am - 4:15 pm (close at 12 noon on Sat & Sun)
Written by Tony Boey on 6 Feb 2024
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