Bidayuh Food in Kuching: JAK MA'AN’s Midin and Ayam Pansuh on Ewe Hai Street

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When a Kuching food walk reaches Ewe Hai Street, JAK MA'AN gives the old city centre a distinctly Bidayuh stop. The restaurant was built around a simple idea: bring village flavours into a city dining room while keeping the food connected to the people and places that shaped it.

Source — PianoFortePhilia

Midin, the young jungle fern, is one of Sarawak's clearest seasonal signatures. The photographed plate keeps the focus on the curled fern and garlic rather than burying it under a heavy sauce. It is a useful first order for visitors who want to understand the ingredient before moving to the restaurant's more substantial dishes.

Source — PianoFortePhilia

Ayam Pansuh is the other defining stop: chicken cooked in bamboo, presented as part of the Bidayuh table rather than as a generic grilled-chicken dish. The restaurant's story is tied to Magdalene Rosalind Crocker and Nick Jansen, who set out to preserve Bidayuh food culture in the city. Their approach also includes village-linked supplies such as tempoyak and traditional drinks, keeping the cultural story connected to sourcing as well as recipes.

Source — PianoFortePhilia

That makes JAK MA'AN a good pairing with a Carpenter Street heritage walk: the location is central, but the meal points beyond the tourist core to Bidayuh ingredients, memory and technique. The dining room's village-inspired details reinforce that bridge. Visitors can share the fern and bamboo-cooked chicken, then ask what seasonal Bidayuh dish is available that day rather than treating the menu as a standard city-centre checklist.

JAK MA'AN Bidayuh Cuisine
85 Ewe Hai Street, 93000 Kuching, Sarawak
Open JAK MA'AN in Google Maps

For a first taste of Bidayuh food in Kuching, this is the kind of stop that earns time at the table: midin shows the ingredient, while Ayam Pansuh carries the cooking tradition. Would you make the fern your first order, or go straight for the bamboo-cooked chicken?