Kam Buak Mien

Sibu is a town in Sarawak, East Malaysia. The place where I was born. I left when I was 10 years old and never been back for 15 years until I married a man from Sibu whom I met overseas (talk about fate). The population is dominated by Fuzhou Chinese and as well as indigenous Melanau, Malay, and Iban. And yes, I am a Fuzhou who can speaks the dialect, though it's quite tedious to speak a full sentence of fuzhou with no mixture of other language with the elders.


This picture is taken from wikipedia. Yap. Sad to say, I don't have any picture on Sibu. Maybe I should take some the next time I visit.

So what is so special about the food from my hometown?

Sibu is known for its delicious and affordable local cuisine. I am going to start with a special noodle.

"Kam Buak Mien" noodles (光拌面)(you have to pronounce these name in fuzhou)



Kam pua which means dry plate in Foochow is a Foochow delicacy that has become the iconic dish of Sibu. It costs about RM$1.80.

The noodles are cooked in hot water till they are cooked and then dipped briefly in cold water to prevent the strands from sticking to each other. They are then drained and mixed in plate of filled with lard, oil, soya sauce, spring onions, shallots, MSG & salt. Char Siew slices are used as garnish.

Other versions are:
Kam pua with no meat
That's what my parents will bring when they come visiting us in Singapore because we can't bring any form of meat into Singapore.

Kam pua with chili sauce
I like my kam pua with lots of chili sauce, but not when they are mixing it. I like it mixed by myself. It just doesn't taste the same when the cook mix it. Maybe the few seconds it takes from the stove to my table makes the difference.

Kam pua with soy sauce


Some like it black. I never tried this before. Still prefer the white version.

Kam pua is always served with a bowl of clear pork soup with MSG is served with it. However, I noticed this is only available in Sibu. The soup is not served in Kuching.



Kam pua is sinful food. It's filled with lard and MSG. Without this 2 ingredient, it's just not the same.

Although Kam pua mien is famous in sibu, I have seen Food show where the Foochow in Taiwan also serve a similar noodle dish. It's also called Kam Pua Mien. I wonder if it taste the same.