Sitiawan and West Malaysia’s West Coast Expressway - Everything Under The Singapore Sun

Why Sitiawan and not some other place more popular with Singaporeans like Genting?

I think it is no secret to most of you reading my blog that we are fans of Axian aka Jason Yeoh and we mostly plan our road trips because his shows. That said, another reason why we put Sitiawan on our bucket list is because I’m part Fuzhou (maternal) and was intrigued when I found out that Sitiawan also had a Fuzhounese history similar to Sibu in East Malaysia and therefore produces Fuzhou cuisine and food that it hard to find elsewhere outside of these two places.

What’s so great about Fuzhou food? Read on to find out why Sitiawan and not Genting!

Getting There (and the new West Coast Expressway!)

It is about a 6 hour drive from Singapore to Sitiawan. We went at a relaxing pace so we took a little longer but we reached the hotel at around 2pm, in time to have a slight early check-in.

When Google Maps routed us to a new expressway called WCE, we were like “Nah” and took the regular North-South Highway until Bidor and had to go west and join up to the West Coast Expressway because Sitiawan is along the West Coast. Then we were hit with the beauty of the padi fields and awesome roads, and realised we were idiots for not trusting Google Maps with the new route.

West Coast Highway in the north – Padi fields

Apple Suites Hotel Sitiawan is one of the few hotels in Sitiawan. It is very basic but clean and enough for our short stay.

Clean simple rooms at Apple Suites Hotel Sitiawan

How Long to Spend in Sitiawan

Sitiawan is not too big so we planned a 3 day 2 night trip only. Most of the first and last day is for traveling to and back so we only had one full day in Sitiawan which happens to be just right for us.

There is no “best time” to visit Sitiawan, things are pretty much available all year round, but if you plan to visit the neighbouring Pangkor island, probably add 1-2 days more for island and beach vacation and pick non-monsoon seasons because snorkeling or swimming in choppy waves are NOT fun.

Sitiawan Itinerary

Snacks: Gong Piah

Check-in to Hotel and walk to the nearby famous Cheong Cia Kong Pian. Be prepared to queue 30 mins for this delicious hot snack. While waiting I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to see how they made the “Guang biscuit”.

And trust me when I say that the smell of the freshly baked biscuits will cause you to salivate, and many will say eat while it is hot, but do wait for it to cool down a little first. It will burn a hole in your mouth as it did to the plastic bag.

Gong piang, gong piah or 光饼 is a traditional Fuzhou snack where the bread dough is made with flour, yeast and lard and then plastered onto the sides of the oven to bake. It is named after the Chinese hero and general Qi Jiguang who invented it.

The ones I ate in Sibu are more traditional, they had a hole in the middle (apparently for the troops to carry them around easily or wear around your neck like a candy necklace — except it’s not!). They are also chewier and have a bread-like texture. Meat fillings can be added in later after baking similar to a burger or bagel. It may sound confusing to you because it is called a biscuit in Chinese but it sounds like I’m describing a bagel, and some people (mostly foreigners I guess) actually gave it the nickname Foochow Bagels.

Most of the ones in Sitiawan are different though. These are baked with feelings… I mean, fillings. You have options like spring onion or char siew or red bean or whatever inspires the chef. At Cheong Cia, they only had the spring onion and the char siew fillings and so we got the char siew ones. These are super crispy, oozing with goodness (and also pork fat) that we had to think of our waistline and just stop at one.

Other than Cheong Cia, we also bought Gong Piah from Cheng Li Biscuit. Theirs are less crispy but also delicious and I think I actually prefer these more than Cheong Cia. And I didn’t even have to wait in line!

But ultimately, I honestly still prefer the Sibu Gong Piah because that’s the taste I grew up with and enjoyed whenever I was in Sibu.

Breakfast: Come To Eat Restaurant – Ding Biang Hu

If you just went Ding Biang WHAT?! it is because this very traditional Fuzhou dish can only be found on West Malaysia here in Sitiawan. It’s a soup dish with a rice flour batter poured around the side of cooking wok to form a thin noodle, then scraped into a stock to simmer and served in broth.

Lunch: Red Yeast Wine Chicken Mee Sua 红糟鸡面线

There is literally nothing more Fuzhou than their Red Yeast Wine and having chicken mian xian is the best way to enjoy this dish. We had ours at the Red Wine House. Let’s just simply say, we walked in and almost staggered out. The restaurant also sells rice cakes for making red yeast wine and red yeast wine.