KUCHING: The Mid-Autumn Festival is nothing short of fantastic and beautiful at the Batu Kawa Old Bazaar.
What makes it even livelier is that the festival is well patronised, with hundreds of visitors coming in and coming out, visiting not only the vendors, but also the decoration nearby the Guang Loong Temple.
The festival features over 130 vendors operating, from selling local cuisine, mooncakes, beverages and even durian cuisine.
Some of the decoration during the festival.
Not only that, the visitors are also entertained by some singing performances by either local residents there or the visitors as well.
New Sarawak Tribune observed that among the most unique items or products on offer are the durian fritters and durian french fries.
Owner of Liu De Lian Kuching, Cornan Su, explained that the idea to make durian french fries was when he discovered a few years ago that the people in Kuching created french fries with vanilla ice-cream.
“Somehow, the idea to make durian french fries came because my friend also sells durian, and I figured, why not I create durian french fries.
“And because of that, I feel that our store is the first to create such a unique dish, even though the durian french fries was a last minute decision we made,” he said.
On durian fritters, he said the idea came from a hawker somewhere in the city who created seafood fritters.
“Not to say that we want to compete, but we want to bring something different, and that being said, we decided to do it tempura style.
Cornan, showcased his durian fritters
“Instead of using seafood such as prawn or crabs, we use durian filling and hence, durian fritters,” he added.
He also explained that most of the durian supply comes from Serian and that the fritters are purely durian.
“It is pure durian filling, we do not mix or fill with other ingredients, except of course the tempura mixing.
“And that is why when you have a bite, you can taste the durian filling inside. Plus I know some people when they do fritters, they tend to add other ingredients such as milk and other dairy ingredients,” he said.
Having involved in the business for over two years now, Cornan said he used to work in the bakery and fine dining industry.
“But I do not want to do the same thing as everybody, instead I bring a unique concept of food to the people in Kuching in order for them to have a different experience.
Cornan admitted that the price of most of the dishes he sells had gone up due to the rising prices of raw ingredients.
A hawker selling their dishes
“Despite all that, we are always trying as best as we can to maintain the price so that people still can buy our food.
“It is not that we raise it too high for the customers, but we try to make it as ideal for customers and it is not overpriced as we can see here,” he added.
He also hope to bring his food to the supermarkets in Kuching as there is quite a demand for his dishes.
“But for the time being, I want to build my brand first and see how it goes. If it goes well, who knows, we might expand it to someplace else.
“At the same time, I am very optimistic about the future,” he added.
“As for our future planning, we are not doing this just for various events happening throughout the year.
“We are trying to bring our brand outside of Sarawak, for instance the China market where there are not a lot of durian available, and the durian supply that they get is from Malaysia, Singapore or even Thailand,” he added.
