Homely dishes cooked with flair

Coffee-shop stall Tracy’s Sarawak Kitchen serves old-school dishes with a homemade taste. The stall, run by Ms Tracy Liaw, attracts many East Malaysian customers, especially on weekends. 

The 41-year-old Singapore permanent resident wants to uphold the food traditions she learnt from her Hakka parents, who used to operate zi char eateries in Sarawak.

Go for the Original Kuching QQ Noodles With Char Siew (Kolo Mee, $5). The cream-coloured eggless noodles, from a factory owned by a Sarawakian, are extraordinarily springy. 

The noodles are lightly seasoned and go well with the small avalanche of ingredients in each bowl – thinly sliced char siew, stir-fried minced pork, fried shallots and sliced spring onion. Customers can help themselves to the housemade pork lard. It is aromatic, though I prefer the nuggets to be crispier.

The stall also provides housemade garlic chilli. But the noodles are so tasty and no further adornment is needed.

Ms Liaw, who has a degree in housing, building and planning, came to Singapore in 2006. She worked in the construction industry as a quantity surveyor for 16 years, before trying her hand at entrepreneurship.

Armed with recipes she learnt from her mother, Ms Liaw started her business selling kolo mee in December 2021 at E-Centre @ Redhill in Jalan Bukit Merah and operated there until May 2022. She moved to the current Geylang location in June 2022. 

A signature dish she learnt at her parents’ eatery is Fried Taugeh Kolo Mee ($6.50). The name is misleading because there are ingredients apart from taugeh (bean sprouts). Plenty of char siew, fish cake slices and egg go into the mix, along with two sea prawns.

The noodles are smoky and aromatic due to the pork and vegetable ...