cafe bavaria

this is a popular one for oue family. our daughter loves their potatoes and we lurve their southern german offerings which are actually quite authentic. the owner is a german herself, married to a local dude and been here for a while. she usually chills out smoking at the restaurant when its not busy, but does the cooking herself. there is a good range on the menu to try out, with their schnitzels as the main choice, but also other things like the foot long hotdog, mash potatoes and farmers lunch. the potatoes of the day are made by parboiling them and then cooked with onions, its addictive! tucked at a corner in one of the blocks in the waterfront (after the row of maybank etc), it seems to be getting busier as time goes by. also worth trying their yummy bananarama drink. desserts are unfortunately a bit of a let down, a nice strudel would be nice, but you cant have them all i suppose.

ipoh kopitiam

my first visit to this place was when i met up with my uncle syed zul having confused him for my boss in a series of hilarious sms ping pong. this place has a simple, well, kopitiam atmosphere (and air con'd too) and serves up traditional fares like kaya toast and half boiled eggs on bread. pretty good, and the ipoh white coffee is also good. the place uses chicken from a halal source and openly declares their menu is pork free. for me thats good enough not to turn down the opportunity. other things on the menu that i plan to try out are nasi lemak, and their goreng stuff. good place to widen your options and they have wi-fi in keeping up with the times. its located at the new block of shop lots on the way to miri marriott (same row as the 'smaller' fratini's).

mee kolok pak wan

back to lutong again as we try out one of the popular joint in this part of town (cant bring myself to call this place a city somehow). they serve up a popular dish called mee kolok, its a simple breakfast made up of curly noodles with a beef broth and some 'erbs thrown in. its delicious, not too heavy and reasonable too (though people are complaining of increases in costs of living reflected by the increase in price of this stuff). pak wan is a chinese who converted to islam as i understand it, so he has the knowledge of the recipe for this dish. his place also serves up other goreng stuff, notables are his 'nasi goreng belacan semua (or all)'. its an interesting one which is worth a try. located opposite the shell station (near the car wash).

mee jawa hole # 9

we heard about this place even before we arrived here. our friends told us about the great mee jawa and fried chicken that they serve for breakfast. the name giveaway as to its location, tucked away next to the hole # 9 tee box at kgm (kelab golf miri). do come early as they are sold out by late morning. patience would come in handy too, so come along with your mates or have some papers handy to read. i quite enjoy dropping by after an early 9 hole round. the secret to the mee jawa (or any mee jawa) is the kuah, here you can ask for the tulang (i.e the meat on the bone - supposed to be juicier) or just the meat on its own. the fried chicken is made fresh, piping hot as it arrives on the table. down it with some nescafe tarik, and you are ready for the rest of the day ahead. apart from that, they also do mee/kuey teow goreng which also taste good.

restoran norhikmah

this is the place i would go to get my fix of roti telur for breakfast. am a big fan of this stuff, and this place serves up the closest thing there is to the popular mamak fare more commonly found in 'malaya' as the locals would say. tucked in the main part of lutong town (opposite the shell station), the proprietors of this place do look convincingly like indian muslims who should know a thing or two about making a nice kuah dahl with sambal to go with the roti telur. ask for roti telur bawang and extra garing for greater effect. goes down well with a nice teh or nescafe tarik, you pick. it also serves up a decent bit of nasi lemak with all the bits on the side, like sambal, egg(s), chicken, timun etc. etc. its open pretty much for all the main meals of the day. a satay stand opens up in the evening and it is also very good, though the kuah kacang can be a bit too oily (some would say thats why it tastes good). we had it at a friends place the other nite, and it was delish. anyway, have a go and try it for yourself.

prologue

food heaven is definitely not the first words that come to mind when trying to match with miri. having said that it does however offer some points of refuge for those who are in the search of good (and halal) makan spots, regardless of other facets like ambience, price, location and even ease of parking. i hope this site provides a small service to the people of this place we currently call home. have fun searching, if you know of good makan, then put your comments in and i will give it a go and maybe even write about it!