Eating in Kuching - Lunch at Red Dragon Cafe

Red Dragon Café is a very popular eating spot among locals in the know. The restaurant is in Batu Kawa ? near the turnoff to Lundu. The location is not the most convenient - it takes around 30 to 40 min driving time from the town centre, but still it is very popular especially on the weekends. Most people go for the exotic meats such as wild boar, bats, squirrels, monitor lizards, porcupine, etc.


After our Habitat building session, we were all famished. Since the house site is not far from Red Dragon Café, this became our natural choice for lunch. As most of us were not into exotic stuff, the lunch menu was quite ordinary. Still it was delicious and lapped up in record time. We were really hungry !

The most exotic would have been this first dish was a wok braised terrapin (a species of turtle). As I am generally not into eating turtles due to their endangered status (terrapins though, are not), I can?t really tell you what it tastes like.


Next came the ubiquitous midin. This was stir-fried with garlic and dried anchovies. Nice and crunchy, as usual.


This chicken dish was cooked the same way as the terrapin - with chili, ginger and some herbs. A good dish to go with rice.


The wild boar meat looked the same as the chicken and terrapin, though a bit dryer. Taste-wise a bit similar, though the meat was surprisingly tender. Wild boar meat is like pork, but with more bite and gamier in taste.


This is a popular local dish - stir-fried "Mani Cai" with eggs. "Mani Cai" has a bitter-sweet taste which is more complex then the run-of-the-mill vegie, and goes very well with eggs.


Finally, a deep-fried black pomfret. The fish was a bit dry and not as fresh as it should be. As Red Dragon is more of an inland restaurant, this is probably to be expected.


If you are an aficionado for exotic meats, then Red Dragon is a good choice. The other dishes here are quite ordinary but pretty tasty when you're hungry.