Kuching Roast BBQ: Fook Ngian (福源烧腊)'s 41-Year Stall at Thompson Cafe, Jalan Nanas
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By mid-morning the queue at Fook Ngian reaches past the drink counter of Thompson Cafe on Jalan Nanas, and most people are ordering takeaways, watching the roast shrink on the rack as the clock moves toward one. It has looked much like this since 1985, when a young Chin Chee Foo turned a three-year apprenticeship into a stall that would simply outlast every neighbouring coffee-shop owner who came and went.
Source: DayakDailyThe craft arrived here through Padungan. Chee Foo's parents were duck farmers who supplied a well-known eatery there, and its owner urged the young man to learn the art of roasting. He trained for three years, then watched Thompson Cafe open in 1985 — the very year his son Chiah How was born — and took the chance, calling it his nasib, his luck. The name Fook Ngian honours the family's ancestral corner near Jalan Benggang, where the Chins still live today.
Forty-one years later it is Chiah How behind the counter. He took over in 2007, persuaded by his late grandfather that an established stall should not be wasted, and he had already worked in a bakery and a well-known restaurant, so the kitchen was familiar ground. His father, now 73, still prepares most of the roasted meat — especially on busy weekends and during festivals — before retreating to his newspaper while the son serves. Everything is roasted in small daily batches: char siu, roast pork, duck and chicken, plated over rice with a light, salted broth, and made in limited quantities because the family would rather sell out than stretch quality.
Source: DayakDailyIf I were planning a lunch around BDC or Jalan Nanas, I would come before half-past twelve: the case empties fast, takeaways outnumber dine-ins, and the stall prefers to close when the batch is gone rather than compromise. One detail stays with me — former customers who left Kuching years ago still come back asking about the old man behind the roast. That says more about this stall than any review could.
Fook Ngian BBQ is inside Thompson Cafe at Jalan Nanas, Kuching, open daily from 8am to 2pm. For enquiries, call 016-855 6635.
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