No one I suppose has come up with that name in any part of Sarawak . Ulu is an Iban word for Upriver or interior. It is similar to the Bahasa Malaysia word "hulu".
It can also cause some people to even laugh at the cafe's name..."ULU". Why? Young people would prefer some modern names like 360 Degrees Cafe or even Bollywood Cafe to name two.
And it is common place to have Chinese names with success all built in like Teck Seng (Get Success) or Chuong Seng (All Win)...and of course you can have names like Ever Win or Ever High...or Jade Cafe. Lotus Cafe would be pretty if lots of Chinese girls are waitresses there.
But Ulu? Upriver?
Yes indeed in Taman Tunku in Miri there is indeed a little corner cafe called Ulu Cafe. And the food served are all Chinese and Malay style cuisine.
I had expected authentic organic wild vegetables and different kinds of meat cooked in bamboo. My friends even got a little excited that finally they could have some ikan tapah and even ikan semah!! (Ikan Empurau would have been too expensive for our pockets.) We had even thought that we might even order some turtle soup.
Our excitement was short lived.
My aunt ordered a noodle soup with lots of local sawi (vegetables)
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| I had the Foochow Chicken Soup Thread Noodles with a hard boiled egg and mushroooms - or Foochow Mee Sua. |
It is good to have the whole menu put up in a white board so that the consumers would know the price immediately. This is an excellent idea too especially if the waiters are not familial with the dishes. Consumers who come from different cultural backgrounds would understand what to order from just one whole board put high above on the wall.
However the whole cafe is too full of young people all speaking in different tongues!! Perhaps that is the only characteristic that the cafe is Ulu.
6 comments:
Nice to see you came to Taman Tunku because I live in Taman Tunku! and just a 3 minutes drive to that shoplot houses. Did you notice a lot of shops coming up!
I was just about to blog about the upcoming shoplots when I read your entry here. Will it be ok if I link this post of yours to my entry later about Taman Tunku's shoplots?
In Wisma Sanyan, Sibu, there used to be a ulu hut which sell kuihs. It is a vendor style stall in the lobby in one of the floors. Dont know if it is still there or the owner of Ulu Cafe and Ulu hut are the same.
Sometime I wish all the dishes served at home can have a bit more creative decor besides the flavours.The mee soup looks a bit plain.
Puan Isah...sure you can do so...TT is coming up fast...and the traffic is so heavy now!!
Anonymous...I would not know if they are the same person...but the idea is a nice one. Especially if they serve "ulu" food. Bamboo cooked fish soup would be extremely nice.
Dear Anonymous...creative garnishing might only be the realm of the 5 star hotel here. However I do hope it will catch on. I would like to see basil and mint leaves etc too....
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