By Ashley Sim
KUCHING, Aug 1: The Kuching Festival Food Fair (KFF) is notable for its vast selection of food and drinks with a blend of local and international flavours, as well as for the exotic food and the inventiveness of the stall owners who have created food that is not normally available in Kuching.
KFF, touted as the city’s largest food festival, returns from July 29 to August 21, and tens of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds from near and far continue to visit the popular food festival every night, regardless of the weather.
Even though the festival is scheduled to begin at 6pm, some visitors have been seen arriving at the Kuching South City Council (MBKS) grounds as early as 4pm, which explains the traffic jam that extends from Jalan Sekama to Jalan Padungan.
The first stall DayakDaily noticed upon entering was one selling crocodile meat. Crocodile meat is a popular delicacy in Sarawak, and it was sold by several sellers in KFF a few years before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Crocodile meat, according to the stall owner, is low in fat and cholesterol and high in protein, making it a healthy choice.
He added that crocodile meat is also renowned for its ability to treat coughs, asthma, and other respiratory diseases.
The stall owner recommended crocodile herbal soup, which costs RM10 per bowl. Visitors can also order stir-fried crocodile meat or BBQ crocodile meat.
They said that this is their first time operating a stall at the food festival, and they are eager to see how visitors react to their crocodile herbal soup.
The description of crocodile meat is not the most appetising, but the overall experience is not unpleasant.
If anything, each bite dispels its exoticism by living up to the claim that it tastes “just like chicken”.
The next stall that piqued DayakDaily’s interest was one selling fried chicken drumstick ice cream.
Despite its appearance, the fried chicken drumstick is — well — not fried chicken. It’s actually vanilla yoghurt-flavoured ice cream.
Amy Law, the 26-year-old stall owner, stated that it was a new thing they wanted to test and that they wanted people to question whether it was a fried chicken drumstick or ice cream.
She mentioned they aim to sell 150 chicken drumstick ice creams daily for RM12 each, which come with strawberry and chocolate syrup dips.
No chickens were harmed during the creation of this unique novelty dish; only yoghurt-flavoured vanilla ice cream and cereal crunch were used.
Aside from the bizarre presentation, it’s actually delicious — you get crispy, creamy, and crunchy in one bite and a lot of sweetness. — DayakDaily
