MUG draws prawn lovers

EATING can be a mundane affair or enjoyment, depending on the taste of the food.

Prawn noodles, served at a village destination restaurant, can be considered the latter. The soup has a sweet fresh prawn flavour and the prawns can be very big.

This makes the wooden destination restaurant at Kampung Gumpey, Gedong, about 100km from Kuching, worth visiting — as frequently as possible! To those who love prawns, it is the place for real prawn soup and dishes. And the signature dish is Mi Udang Gumpey (MUG) or Gumpey Prawn Noodle.

I heard about the prawn noodle in Gedong when I went to Kampung Sememban and Kampung Tanah Putih, which were badly hit by floods early this year. At first, I was curious why the group I went with were talking about the dish and wanting to go the village to have a taste of it.

Then, recently, I was invited to join a corporate group, led by Datuk William Wei, for a visit to the restaurant just to try the prawn noodles. Being a big fan of prawns, I went along.

We arrived around 4.30pm. While waiting for our orders, we chatted with the restaurant owner, Bukri Kadri, 61, and his wife Siti Norfaridah Chai Abdullah, 59. Some 15 minutes later, our orders were brought out. The four prawns, together with their big red claws, were arranged nicely above the noodles. The dish, especially the prawns, certainly looked very appetising.

One has to be patient though because eating prawns can be a messy affair, given that the sharp-edged shells have to be peeled with the fingers to get to the fresh sweet meat.

The soup base of the prawn noodle is quite thick — a mild tom yam taste with a bit of prawn essence.

For each plate, there are four big freshwater prawns — locally known as udang galah — to keep one busy for a while.

Alternatively, one can opt for fried prawn noodles (kueh tiaw, yellow noodles and bee hoon or vermicelli).

Other prawn dishes available at this village eatery are nasi goreng udang, udang masak merah, udang masak merah cheese, udang steam, udang bakar, udang mentega, udang mentega cheese, udang lada hitam, udang asam pedas and udang tom yam.

Like the prawn soup noodles, there are also three serving sizes for these dishes.

Property firm assistant general manager Eileen Low said she frequented the eatery because she enjoyed its food.

She said after being told of the eatery’s signature MUG, she tried looking for the place, driving around the village while on her project site inspection.

“I managed to find it three months ago, and this is my fifth time here. The prawn noodles are very nice and the soup has unique taste. The prawns are fresh and crunchy.”

Apart from the prawn noodles, her favourite dishes are chicken chop, lamb chop and wet fried bee hoon.

Low, who ordered prawn noodles and black pepper lamb chop that day, said the dishes are worth every penny.

Too good to resist

First-timer Pei Ching called the prawn noodles “truly fantastic and mouth-watering”.

“I heard about the restaurant some three months ago and when the opportunity arose, it was too good to resist.I came here because I wanted to try the prawn noodles.”

She said the soup is as tasty as the prawns, describing the dish as “not too spicy and not too sour”.

“The prawns are fresh and malleable. Normally, I couldn’t finish a whole bowl of noodle but here, I just did it,” she added.

The price for a large dish is steeper because big fresh prawns are used. Four prawns of various sizes come with one dish and the price depends on the weight of the biggest prawn among the four served.

A dish with the biggest prawn of 400 grams and above costs RM45. If the biggest prawn is 300 grams, then the charge is RM35 and so forth. The smallest dish, according to the menu is RM10.

Even then, it could be costlier in town because the price of big freshwater prawns in the market is higher.

Although the destination restaurant at Kampung Gumpey is quite far from Kuching and the prices higher than most eateries, it is still popular not just among people from the nearby villages but also from the city.

For most people, paying RM45 for a bowl of prawn noodles may seem exorbitant but for the tastiness of the soup and the size and freshness of the prawns, it certainly does justice to its price tag. Whether or not the restaurant serves the best prawn noodles in Sarawak is a matter of opinion but MUG is definitely way up the top.

No specific English name

There is no specific name for udang galah in English. These prawns which have big blue claws are only found in the tropics, especially in the Southeast Asian region. Some call it giant freshwater prawn. It is looks like a lobster but is not. It is not only fleshy but also delicious and nutritious.

Nowadays, it is difficult to get these prawns at the local market as their population is depleting. Even if there are big catches, most are snapped up by restaurants or hotels — and what is left is expensive.

It is believed fresh and big udang galah fetch between RM40 and RM50 per kg in the market, depending on the size.

The MUG destination restaurant uses prawns caught mostly from the Batang Sadong. And the dishes served are all the restaurant’s own creations.

“Our son, Imanudin, is the chef. He creates the menu and fills the orders. Even our black pepper sauce was created by  Imanudin,” said Siti, a retired English teacher.

She said their customers were not only from Sarawak, Sabah and the peninsula but also the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India and China.

“They were brought to our restaurant by their Sarawakian friends,” she added.

Bukri said they got their udang galah supply from the locals who caught the crustaceans in the Batang Sadong as well as the rivers in Simunjan and Serian.

He pointed out that although MUG was the star offering at the restaurant, other delicious dishes were also available.

“Because of MUG, many people think Gumpey is a type of prawn when actually it is the name of the kampung. Gumpey is a type of grass and probably because the grass grew wild here in the early day, the settlers had named the village  Kampung Gumpey,” he explained.

Bukri said he set up the eatery in early 2012 as a pastime business for his retirement, adding that business was slow during the first several months but picked up so much after about a year that Bukri often faced insufficient supply of prawns.

“Since last year, we have been advising our customers to call first because we do not want them to come all the way, only to find our prawn stocks have run out. Some even make reservations a few days in advance,” said Bukri, who was involved in plantations before his retirement.

Weekends are usually the busiest where between 50kg and 100kg of prawns are sold.

Bukri said customers comprised families from nearby villages and afar, friends, office workers and big bikers.

“We have regular customers. They don’t come only for prawn noodle but also for the other dishes.”

Nestled in a green and serene Malay village, about 38km from the Gedong junction, Kuching-Sri Aman Road, the restaurant has a simple setting — neat and tidy with nicely arranged dining tables.