Bukit Mata Seafood at Permata Kuching on 6th March 2010

I had some time in the evening after visiting the Cat Museum, so I decided to drop by the largest and most modern mall in Kuching - The Spring. This is a pic of the building which I took from the car. The place was packed full of cars as well as taxis along the mainroad and I heard that the parking situation could get so bad that visitors would have to park across the road. The Spring doesn't sell branded goods (LV,Prada,Chanel and the like) but other mid-market brands like Levis, Mango and MPH. There is also a supermarket at the basement level and a cinema on the top floor - if I am not wrong, that's the only mall in Kuching which has a cinema.

After shopping, it was time to go for dinner at Bukit Mata Seafood Centre located at the top/6th floor of Permata Carpark. I had been here before (click here), and read all about it (click here) so I thought I knew what to expect but nah, I was wrong. There was massive renovation and upgrading works going on which meant that the popular stalls like ABC were closed in March 2010. A sign near the lift informed us that the renovation works would only be completed in July 2010 (if I rem rightly). (One should also note that the Centre doesn't open for business during lunch hours but about 6pm for dinner.) So, our group of 4 ended up patronising this stall "Ling Long Seafood" instead.

This vegetable below is unique to Sarawak (tried it for the first time in Sibu) and isn't available in Singapore at all. This is how the vegetable/fern looks before it is cooked.

And this is how the vegetable looks after it has been cooked. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. The taste isn't bitter at all if cooked well and is rather tasty and mushy. But then again, I am partial to dark green vegetables. Still, it is very affordable (RM 10) and well worth a try. I can't figure out though why this veg isn't sold in Singapore and can't be grown here or in West Msia. Readers of my blog, please enlighten me.

The picture below shows the first four dishes which arrived - sweet and sour soup, the unique sarawak veg and another kind of very dark green veg cooked with egg. The other dish was ordinary butter prawns. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10 for the cereal prawns which wasn't too bad but tasted pretty much as any such dish from a local coffeeshop would. It might be more worthwhile for travellers to order the river prawns with blue claws instead.

Forgetting my less than excellent encounter with this species of prawns in KK, I ordered the biggest prawn available at the stall. The prawn filled the entire plate! I think I am into oversized prawns bigtime. :D

And here's a picture of the prawn after it was cooked. The Slog Reviews: 3/10. Do not, and I repeat do not order this dish from Ling Long. While the prawn was not stale (it was dead compared to the live one which we chose at KK), the method of cooking below as recommended by the stall, failed to bring out the flavor of the prawn at all...but then I'm assuming that the prawn should be sweet to begin with. The black sauce and ginger did not go with the prawn thus rendering the eating process a chore rather than pleasure. The cost was RM12/100gm.

I also ordered a fish from the many dead ones packed in ice arrayed nicely at the stall. The stall holder suggested a type of fish popular in Sarawak and which had fish eggs. This is how the fish looked like after it was cooked. The Slog Reviews: 2/10. Again, do not, and I repeat tiredly, do not order this fish with its unique scales - it was terribly bony without much meat and whatever meat there was was cooked to dry blandness. As for the fish eggs (see top left of the plate), the stall overcooked the eggs resulting in flaky tasteless clumps of eggs instead of the delight that this dish is supposed to be. I guess Shee Yaan Restaurant at Muar has spoilt my taste buds thoroughly - that is the restaurant to go to for the best fish eggs (and how cheap they are!) , assam fish head and otak /otah.

The next dish - black pepper crab. The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The black pepper sauce was so cloying and the style of cooking so poor that pne could not taste the sweetness of the crab meat at all. I have eaten black pepper crabs where the smooth slick freshness of the crab meat (esp the crab legs) contrasts pleasantly with the black pepper sauce on the shell. Unfortunately, like the many other nicer and higher-end places that one goes to, because of one's wealthy, well-bred and lofty food companions then, it is not quite possible to take photos of the food. Still, the subconscious has filed away the sights and sensations of the experience and I can say with utmost certainty that the cooking skill of the person who prepared this dish leaves much to be desired indeed.

And the last dish - 2 female crabs. As evident from the picture below, the crabs did come with plenty of orange eggs but....The Slog Reviews: 6.5/10. The eggs were overcooked and the meat so ordinary tasting. What a complete disappointment! All the garnishing did not serve any purpose or add any flavor whatsoever except pose as an additional step to clear away.

To sum up, one would be able to deduce by now that I would not recommend ordering one's fresh seafood from this stall if ever one goes by Bukit Mata Centre in Kuching. Try Stall 25 - that's the best, absolutely best stall for cheap and good seafood. The wait is worth it.

Kuching Cat Museum and 360 Hotel on 6th March 2010

Due to the change in flight timing by Airasia and my reluctance to take an extra day of leave, I ended up with less than 24 hours in Kuching. The shuttle bus to 360 Hotel didn't show up at the airport which caused a great deal of trouble and angst (the cost of a taxi to the hotel was RM30 vs the cost of the shuttle bus RM6 per pax). The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Without taking into account the shuttle bus which never showed, 360 Hotel at Kuching is value for money indeed. For RM88, one gets a clean spacious room with a comfy bed and clean sheets, a mini-safe, LCD TV and hairdryer. Although the room lacks a window/view, an alarm clock, refrigerator, minibar or bathtub, given the price and location of the hotel, I would highly recommend this hotel to travellers who are in Kuching for a short trip.

During my last trip to Kuching, I did not have enough time to go to Kuching's Cat Museum so for this trip, after leaving the bags in the hotel, I headed straight for the Cat Museum which is located quite some distance away from the main city and up a hill. The picture below shows the building where the museum is located with the state's flag fluttering at the top of the dome.

As per the picture below, the opening hours are from 9am to 5pm daily and while there are no entrance fees payable by visitors, if one wishes to use one's camera, one has to pay a nominal fee depending on the type of camera one uses. A sticker to be adhered to one's camera is given upon payment and it was quite a pain to scratch it off later so I would advise against pasting the sticker wholly on one's nice shiny camera.

Just outside the entrance to the museum (but within the buildling), three flags representing the state of Malaysia (left), the state of Sarawak (middle) and the town/city of Kuching (right) can be found side by side.

As I've said, the city is really into cats. The city's flag has not one, but two rather feminine looking cats eyeing a bird-like creature centered between them. Cat City indeed!

The pic below is of the entrance to the museum which is one level above the carpark. I had wondered about the vampire-looking fangs but after googling "cats and yawning", I realised that the structure of the entrance contains no hidden meaning but reflects accurately a cat with its mouth wide open. Despite the turnstile at the entrance, there are no entrance fees payable and therefore no tickets are required.

Near the entrance, if one is minded to capture one's face with ears atop a cat's body, one can play with the exhibit below although I would think that to get into the position for the bottom holes would be most uncomfortable indeed. Maybe the exhibit is meant for kids and the other folks who are not so particular about hygiene issues and willing to contort one's body so as to be captured on film with one's face above a cat body. Much as I have wondered about having a different sort of body, I was not tempted to play with this exhibit at all :D

As one walks further into the museum, one would come across a medium-large friendly-looking yellow cat mascot in a glass case. We learn from the little signboard that the exhibit, safe behind the glass walls actually has a name. The signboard reads "The mascot of Kuching Festival is "Alca" the cat. The name Alca is derived from the first 2 letters of 2 flowers - "Allamanda", the official flower of Kuching North City Hall and "Canna Lily", the official flower of Kuching South City Council."


Unlike Alca the Cat which has one hand on the hip, the other statues of cats which do not display such crone-like characteristics are not quite as well-protected and one is able to take photos of and with them. Below is a pic of the large cat statues placed near the escalator leading to the second floor of the museum which I left my fingerprints on, having being kept from doing the same with Alca the Cat. The second floor appears to be closed to the public.

The Cat Museum is filled with statues, drawings and paintings of cats and out of the thousands of cat/cat-related paraphenalia, one item is chosen as the artifact of the month. For the month of March 2010, the painting/mosaic below of a rather fearsome cat was chosen. One of the more interesting paintings I thought.

And then there is this section below which one should absolutely stop by and read "How Kuching City Got Its Name". A reading of the materials enlightens one that it was in 1876 that the town was officially named as Kuching and this was probably due to the abundant number of cats along the riverbank or due to a river flowing through the town center known as Sungai Kuching.

If one is minded to take a memory of the Cat Museum back at a rather inflated price, there is the souvenir shop located near the entrance/exit (both are located next to each other).

I was tempted for a monent to buy one of the charming bags below sold at the souvenir shop but common sense prevailed and I managed to keep my wallet closed. I didn't notice anyone buying anything from the souvenir shop at all and I really do think it has to do with the prices. I suppose a picture of what I might have bought agrees better with my wallet. :D

The Slog Reviews: 6/10 as an attraction. Recommended only to those who have time to kill in Kuching and those with a deep prevailing interest in viewing all things cat-related. The museum contains a lot more cat-related stuff than that I've posted obviously but unless one is really keen to see/read about cat-related materials, one could give the cat museum in Kuching a miss without any regrets. And no, there are no live cats in or around the cat museum at all.

Kuching on 3th and 4th Jan 2008

Per my earlier post on being in Sibu for the countdown to 2009, I was in Kuching on the 3rd and 4th of January 2008 because there isn't a direct flight from Singapore to Sibu. The only other way to get to Sibu would be to take an airasia flight from Senai Airport and that can be very troublesome because one has to clear both Singapore and Malaysia immigrations by foot first before taking a taxi/bus in JB to Senai airport.

Kuching means Cat in the Malay language and the city seems to have taken great pride in its association with cats. I came across across this large statue of a white cat with its paw raised in a welcoming gesture. Apparently, it is the famous kucing (spelt without the "h" in the Malay language but when it comes to pronounciation, "c" is pronounced as "ch" still like in the Eng lang), the Kuching South City Council Cat Statue.

And also, this collection of cat statues right smack in the city center. The latter appears to be one of the more popular photo-spots for tourists visiting Kuching and I had to wait for my turn to take a picture with the cats.

As we had done absolutely no research on what one could do at Kuching, we spent most of the day wandering around the streets. We also went to the Sarawak Museum below and looked at the various exhibits. The entrance fee, if I remember rightly, is minimal and the exhibits, mildly interesting. There are of course sections in the museum tracing the history of the various towns in Sarawak like Mri and Bintulu (both of which I intend to visit) and documenting the original inhabitants of Borneo Island, the Ibans. There is even a minature longhouse (the type of dwelling that Ibans have) in the museum.

We also went to Kuching's Chinatown. The picture below shows the entrance to the main street. Talk about congestion but our own Chinatown is hardly any different with cars parked along both sides of the road.

Kuching Waterfront is apparently the main focal point of the city center with many little stalls selling touristy and local stuff. Most of the better hotels like Hilton, Holiday Inn etc are situated at the Waterfront area. For a fee, one can purchase a ferry ticket to cruise the Sarawak river. I've heard from a friend that the river has many river-prawns but I didn't see anyone prawn fishing at all - the riverfront was rather deserted in fact.

Ah, and these are some of the local delights that were for sale at the stores along the waterfront. Multi-colored kuey lapis with samples available (in the pink containers) for potential customers. These were really cheap (I think less than RM 15 but I can't remember after all this time) and I bought one back home. No recollection of eating it though - maybe my mother finished it all...

For dinner, we went to the Cat's Eye Place (Bukit Mata Seafood Center), at least, that's the English translation of the Chinese name of the place which you can see in the picture below (the words in blue). 25 is the stall we ate at. Cat's Eye Place is known in Kuching for seafood and indeed rightly so as one is spoilt for choices in terms of the stalls and the variety of seafood neatly arrayed at each stall.

The difference between this place and Sedco Square in KK is that almost all the seafood at Sedco Square is live and kept in the tanks. I don't remember having the choice of live prawns at all (which I would have taken for sure) so I ended up choosing the plate of red prawns (similar to what I had in KK) and 2 of the freshwater prawns with blue claws (these sell for RM10 per 100gm in KK!)

Here is a picture of the reddish prawns fried in the restaurant's special style. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 - the shells were crunchy, buttery and slightly oily which contrasted sharply with the soft sweet flesh within.

I had two of the freshwater prawns steamed with garlic. Each prawn was split length-wise in half with loads of garlic and other garnishing on top. The Slog reviews: 9/10. That's the way to be cooking 'em freshwater prawns instead of how my mum cooked it fried in sambal!

I also had two female crabs steamed with loads of roe (see the reddish-orange bits in the shell). The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Dastardly fresh and cooked in such a way that the sweet flavour of the crab was retained in the meat which filled in the shell nicely. Definitely returning for more!

And guess how much the bill was for the whole feast? Only RM 89 (EGD 36)....unbelievable isn't it? 2 female live crabs, 2 freshwater prawns, about 5 reddish big prawns, 1 plate of Kangkong (RM 6 = SGD 2.40) and 1 other veg dish similarly priced. I'm glad I have a ticket to Kuching already for March 2010!

The next morning before going to the airport, we went to have Kuching's kolo mee at some really crowded coffeeshop near our hotel. It was a nightmare waiting for the food to come because there were so many people ordering and waiting around. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. As you can see, the meat was very thinly sliced and fresh. The noodles were light and springy but overall, I can't bring myself to rave over this bowl of noodles which is particular to Kuching. It's just noodles and some meat to me, if you know what I mean.

I also shared a bowl of Sawarak Laksa with my companion. Again, I would stress that the gravy is far different from Singapore's laksa gravy. This is far less richer in terms of coconut and is thinner. It can't be described as sour (unless you add the lime) but in no way is it sweet either. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Always worth trying local food when in a foreign place but I'll just say that I wouldn't go back for more.

Before we went to the airport, we went to Kuching Civic Center located at Jalan Taman Budaya. Admission was free. We took the lift to the top of the tower where the viewing platform allows one a 360degrees aerial view of the city of Kuching. Do note that the viewing platform is only available for public access during the daytime. We saw a restaurant there but it wasn't opened. Anyway, here's a pic of the lovely city of Kuching taken from the viewing platform.