My visit would not be complete without at least trying the infamous Mee Tuaran. Obviously, my parents and I had to make our way to the town where it all started, Tuaran. Being adventurous, we had rented a car for the day to check out towns and resorts in the North area of KK. My dad was not sure where the shop was, so we had to ask for directions from one of the hardware shops in the area. With little knowledge of Mandarin and no knowledge of Hakka, my mom received a new recommendation for another shop that was favoured by the locals, Restaurant Tai Fatt.
The restaurant was an old coffee shop with a few locals enjoying their noodles. They seemed fascinated with our presence as my we were snapping photos as tourists do.
The menu was a big white board on a wall with the different cooking styles of noodles and rice, including a drinks menu. We ordered the kon-lou mee, which turned out to look like the wantan noodles in West Malaysia.
The noodles were springy. I was informed by mom that the charsiew was made exactly the same as in the old days (1960s-70s). The pork sausage slices were mediocre, and tasted like fish cakes. All in all, we loved the noodles and would later share our verdict with my father's friend.
2 days later, we were able to try the actual shop recommended by my father's friend, Lok Kyun Restaurant. The shop was busier than Tai Fatt. It's other specialties included tofu with stuffed meat and braised yam with pork. They had other specialties which I can't remember, and could not try too as we had a full breakfast in the morning at the hotel. As such, the 3 of us ordered 1 plate of Fried Mee Tuaran to try.
The mee was quite oily, but tasted good. The noodles were fried with egg, similar to our char kuey teow but without the bean sprouts, chilli and prawns, then topped with charsiew, some pork sausage slices and pork pieces. The thing with Mee Tuaran is, it reminds me of instant noodles. It tastes a lot like the fresh version of Myojo's Mee Poh Goreng.
All in all, I loved both the kon-lou version and the fried version. I have finally tasted the real Mee Tuaran, both ways.
Tai Fatt Restaurant is located at 7 Jalan Teo Teck Ong, Tuaran, Sabah. Open 7am-10pm daily.
Lok Kyun Restaurant is located at GPS: N6 10.654 E116 13.964. Tuaran, Sabah
