The Sweet Happiness of Coconut Soup…and other orgasmic food
I had a rather interesting soup at an eatery called Sweet Happiness the other night. It was herbal, clear, quite healthy; and cooked in young coconut. It was Chinese herbal soup with a twist. There were chicken feet, goji berries, white fungi, herbs and roots, all bunged in a fresh coconut and cooked over direct heat. The coconut husk came out a lovely brown, smoky hue. The texture of the soup was extra smooth and the natural sweetness of the coconut water pervaded throughout.
Traditionally, this was cooked in a clay pot over a wood fire for hours and hours until the bits of chicken feet in it would melt in your mouth. Putting all of that into a coconut was pretty original but it tasted so well put-together that I wondered why people didn’t think of it earlier.
The one serving of coconut soup serves only about 3 to 4 people. Any more than that, more coconuts are needed.
The usual local fare is available at Sweet Happiness – the Kuching staple of stir fried cangkuk manis (Sauropus androgynus) with egg. The Chinese call it “mani chai”. This is a local jungle plant that’s been served on dinner tables in Kuching since time immemorial. In fact, the species is found throughout Southeast Asia and is found on dinner tables everywhere in the region. Few people agree on what it’s called in English, although references are made to it as the “star gooseberry” or “sweet leaf”.
The curry fish is an interesting anomaly. Curry and fish are not a very Chinese combination. Somehow, the chef at SH has managed to combine the two and produced a curry fish that not only has a very sino-traditional taste, but a sino-traditional fishy curry that doesn’t taste too bad at all. I normally take curry or fish and seldom the two together, but I’ll concede that this was not a bad dish, especially when it’s complemented with white rice.
I was rather in love with the three-layered pork and the soft white buns to wrap around it. One could feel the fat and meat give way as one’s teeth cut through it. Sinful and almost orgasmic. Quite a lethal combination in public, I can tell you that.
It was a very affordable dinner, considering that there were 5 things on the table, beer and whatnot. It came to RM17 each. That’s USD5. Five-course Chinese dinners seldom come at USD5 per head. The chef at SH used to work in Kuching’s oldest and once grandest restaurant. So the place does have a good track record.
Sweet Happiness, behind the Stutong roundabout, Kuching. They kept me happy that night.
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