It is 5.00 pm and the oppressive heat of the day has still not subsided, but stall owners are already arriving with their wares and food, arranging them in partitioned stalls lined up in an open space beside the Kuching City South Council building. This almost two football field-size ground is gaily decorated with about 200 food stalls selling all manners of food that this city is famous for. Welcome to the month long Kuching Festival!

For three weeks, usually towards the end of August every year, this colourful fair will open its gates to thousands of visitors from 6.00 pm onward to avoid the steaming heat of the day. By this time, the weather will be sufficiently cooled down to entice people to browse the numerous cubicles selling mostly food like laksa, satay, fried noodle, dim sum and many others. The main theme of the festival seems to be food, food and more food!

By 7.00 pm the crowd starts to arrive. Adults with children shouting with glee at balloon vendors, wide eye, up-country teenagers and groups of young men and women all jostling for space. Cooing courting couples sharing a cone of ice cream, a bunch of giggling schoolgirls, even a lone vagrant whom everybody give a wide berth. There is a stage erected at one corner where a crowd converged to watch a slapstick comedy sketch, to be followed by a singing competition later. The din compounded by the stage loudspeakers has now reach its peak and conversation has to be raised a notch to be intelligible.

The partition stalls are arranged in a straight line along the perimeter of the ground facing the open space where hundreds of table and chairs are provided for al fresco dining/eating. Shoppers only need to browse the food, get their order on the spot and carry them to an empty table, plonk their food down and tuck in! Its simple as that. But you have to elbow your way to get at the food as there are others who are as hungry as you are! and don’t be surprised if strangers approach to ask you which stall you bought your fare!

Bearing in mind the whole fair is swarming with people, thus getting an empty table often become a real hassle, thus you may have to appoint among your mates who to be the “waitress”, so he saunters around and spot a table where the occupants seem to have almost finished eating, then you have to stand nonchalantly next to the table, and jump into a seat like playing musical chair once they got up to leave! That way you “claim” the table for your use even though your friends are still taking their pick with the food. Now come the hard part, triumphantly telling your mates  you’ve succeed in getting a table but where, as the whole ground is almost a melee. Luckily mobile phones come to the rescue and you tell them you are near the big neon sign of Carlsberg Beer or the Coca Cola soft drink stand. While you sit alone guarding your territory, others with food packets in their hands glare at you with envy.  Some cheeky ones might even grap a seat despite your telling him the table is taken. This illegal squatter then grumbled that your mates wouldn’t even return by the time he finishes his chicken wings, while you wait helplessly for what seem like eternity for them to come back with the food.

Finally, they appear grinning, sweating profusely and hands full of glorious food. Now comes the enjoyment part. Good friends, great food, jolly atmosphere, and plenty of sweating, what more could one asks for. Unfortunately the crowd is getting denser by now and you may have a few “nonchalant” bystanders with shifty eyes but you try to ignore them, sometimes they give up, but a few may persist with the tenacity of a vulture. But when all good food have been consumed, after dinner conversation have to give way to civic mindedness as you all get up to surrender your turf for others to use.

As you get to leave the ground, you may want to give it a last look around in case you miss something worth buying. Its like last minute shopping at the duty free airport shop before the loudspeaker announce the plane’s departure! Finally after squeezing through the crowd with tousled hair and sweat smelling clothes you emerged from the exit.

But your sigh of relief was short lived as you watch in dismay as you have to wade you way through the surging crowd to your car in the crammed car park, and you and your friends groan in unison at the prospect of driving in gridlocked road back home. But it’s just once a year and your love your tummy so much you’d sacrifice anything to keep it happy!

 Link to this page

 Link to this page