‘Ok, I will meet you at Carpenter Street’. If someone told you so, you might wonder where is Carpenter Street in Penang despite having Victoria Street and Beach Street. However, for those living in Kuching Sarawak, Carpenter Street is a very famous street near waterfront. This street is similar to Penang Chulia Street. However, when someone said that they are waiting for you at Carpenter Street, don’t freak out. This is because it is actually the name of a restaurant. The name of the shop is using the name of a street in Kuching because they are selling authentic food from Borneo.
It is not hard to locate Carpenter Street. If you know how to go to Sunshine Square Bayan Baru, you will know there is a row of shop lots just behind it. Carpenter Street is at the same row as KFC, Secret Recipe and Young Ones. This place will be packed with people. If you want to avoid the crowd, make sure you are there before or after lunch time.
Sarawak Laksa – RM7.90, The soup was cooked with ribs and added with herbs and coconut milk. The choice of noodle includes meehoon (vermicelli), kolomee or a mixture of both. Before served, it was then topped with fresh shrimps, tender chicken slices, bean sprouts, coriander and omelette slices. For those that love sourish and spiciness, this dish comes with a slice of lime and “fiery” sambal balacan.
Sarawak Laksa, the icon of Sarawak. For those who visited Sarawak, this is a must try dish. Visiting Sarawak without trying out the Sarawak Laksa is like coming to Penang without trying the Penang Laksa. To Sarawakians, eating Sarawak Laksa as breakfast is a norm. However, I find it hard to accept this as the coconut milk makes my stomach uncomfortable. I would prefer it to be served during lunch. The taste of Sarawak Laksa is quite similar to Curry Mee in Penang. Just that the soup has the aroma of ribs and rich with coconut milk flavor. The spiciness is moderate and for those that prefer more spicy and sour taste, you can top up with the lime slice and sambal to spice up your dish.
Sarawak Kolomee – RM5.90, The Sarawak Kolomee is available in 3 different types of sauce – dried (kolo), red (char siew oil), black (dark soya sauce) or soup based. Sarawak Kolomee is another signature dish in Sarawak. The popularity level is just like our wantan mee. The dried noodle is mixed with minced meat, bbq pork slices, fried red onions and vegetable.
The famous and most common type of Kolo mee to be ordered is the kolo and the red char siew oil type. The appearance of the noodle for the kolo mee is so similar to wantan mee. However, the taste of the noodle is more springy compared to wantan mee. The aroma of this noodle comes from the fried red onion and minced meat that had been marinated with some spices which made the noodle more delightful. The base of the noodle will be slightly sour and sweet which makes the dish even more appetizing. For those who feel not sourish enough, you can always add on the black vinegar that was given on each table.
Red Rice Wine Mee Sua with Chicken – RM11.90, the glutinous rice noodle (mee suah) is placed in the soup that had been cooked with herbs that consisted of Chinese wine, Red Yeast Rice (Ang Zhao), Mushroom and Chinese Anglica (Dong Gui). It is then served with a big chicken thigh.
The taste of the soup was slightly sourish and sweet. The color of the soup was also red in color due to the red yeast rice. The chicken thigh was cooked until soft and aromatic. It is one of my favorite dishes.
Ang Chow Pork with rice – RM10.90, served with white rice, vegetables and slices of omelette. The stir-fried pork was marinated with ang chow, ginger and a little bit of red rice wine.
The taste of the Ang Chow Pork is quite similar to the Ang Chow Mee Sua. The only difference is the sauce of ang chow and Chinese wine is thicker. The is because the sauce is needed to marinate the pork slices to be more flavourful and tasty. I prefer the taste of Ang Chow Pork Rice than Ang Chow Chicken Mee Sua.
3 Layer Teh See – RM4.50, this drink is very famous in Sarawak. However, lately there are a lot of places in Penang selling this drink too. The tea is accompanied with evaporated milk and coconut flower brown sugar syrup (Gula Melaka).
The reason this drink is called 3-layer teh see is the drink is prepared in a way that the top layer consists of yellowish-orangy tea color, whereas the middle part consists of milky evaporated milk and the dark brownish color is at the bottom layer. The difference of this tea compared to the rest of the milk tea is the use of gula melaka as the sweetener, hence making this drink more fragrant.
There were some small and cute miniature “dishes” placed at the counter.
Overall, the taste of the food here is acceptable and the price is reasonable too. There are abundance parking spaces surrounding the shop lots. However, if you come to this place during lunch time especially on weekdays, all the car park slots will be taken up in minutes.
Editor’s Review (5 Stars Rank):
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Quick Facts:
| Family Friendly |  |
| Parking | |
| Pork Free |  |
| Alcohol | |
| Credit Card | |
| Smoking | |
| Reservation | |
| Private Room | |
Operation hours: 11:00am – 3:00pm; 5:30pm – 9:00pm (7 days a week)
Contact: 04-643 6588
Address: 54, Jalan Mahsuri (Ground Floor), Bandar Bayan Baru, 11950 Bayan Lepas Penang.
GPS: 5° 32′ 66.07″ N, 100° 28′ 61.74″ E
I always wanted to try this place, heard they are serving the best sarawak laksa in town, but judging from the look, i’d prefer house of kolo mee for the kolo mee. Maybe i’ll try the sarawak laksa here. Thanks for the impressive and insightful write up! 😀 😀 😀
hmmm i find their sarawak laksa is not tasty enough, the broth is not gao like what i had in Sarawak. i’ve had enough Sarawak laksa to judge this 😛
Ang Zhao my favourite leh woiiiii!!!