Dining With Jewelle

We made an overnight trip to my father's hometown in Tambunan when we were in Sabah last month.

One of the highlight on this drive for me is taking a break at one of the simple cafe on the highest point on this Kota Kinabalu-Tambunan road.

I was told that Gunung Emas, the first and oldest cafe which has been operating on this area for more than 15 years (I believe) is still popular - although I think they no longer serve "exotic" dishes like they used to in their early days.

But some folks prefer the relatively newer (about 10 years old I think) Gunung Alab Resort, which is a few km drive from Gunung Emas Cafe, as it is somewhat better in terms of cleanliness.

We made a lunch stop here on our way to and from Tambunan and I am happy to say that I found one dish I enjoyed here.

SOTO!


I tried both their Soto Ayam (Chicken noodle soup - Malay style) and Soto Daging (Beef noodle soup) and I liked them both. With big portion and plenty of meat - at only RM4, it's definitely worth the try if you are around this area.

Anjappar is one of the "new" Indian restaurant in downtown Kota Kinabalu which I only managed to check out yesterday.

This restaurant is located on the ground floor of Kompleks Asia City, more popularly known as KAC and you can't miss the tusk like structure that decorated the front entrance.

When we arrived, the place was quite empty save for 2 tables but it started to fill up towards the end. I quite like the simple decor and that pitcher of water on every table is something which every restaurant should have.

Once we overheard one of the patron giving direction to the restaurant to a person over a phone asking him to look for the "Japalan Restaurant". Anjappar = Japalan? I hope his friend did not take his instruction literally.

Anjappar (and not Japalan) Restaurant specialises in Chettinad cuisines which originated from Chettinad, a region in Tamil Nadu state which basically meant, it's South Indian dishes.

But to me, when it comes to Indian food, I don't care if they are Northern Indian or Southern Indian, as long as they have the Aloo Gobi Masala (RM5).

Anjappar's Aloo Gobi looked and tasted just how I like it and it was a pleasure to indulge in this dish again.

Besides this, we ordered from their set meal menu. I had the Chettinad Non-Vegetarian meal (RM9) which comes with a bowl of very scrumptious chicken curry, cabbages, ladies finger and many small bowls of gravies, yoghurt and rasam.

Because my sister asked for their Banana Leaf Set meal (RM6), at first we weren't sure if this was her dish or mine as underneath the tray was a banana leaf. When we asked our waiter (who was a local), he confused us further by saying that that tray was both the banana leaf meal AND my non-vegetarian meal - at least that was how we understood him then.

Us : We ordered one banana leaf meal (spoken in Malay)
Clueless Waiter : Itulah.. ("That's the one")
Us : And we also ordered one non-vegetarian meal (spoken in Malay)
Clueless Waiter : Itulah.. ("That's the one")
Us : Huh??

We even showed him the names on the menu and he still maintained that that tray was both the meals - until the manager or someone came over and sorted things out.

Turns out that our clueless waiter - friendly though he was - did not order the banana leaf meal.

When my sister's banana leaf meal finally arrived, the Indian manager or something told her that she's supposed to take all the bowls out and pour the contents on the leaf, which she did.

But when told to eat by hand, my sister with her manicured fingernails, declined.

Anyhow, clueless waiter or not, I love the food as you can see from the picture, we enjoyed the food and I look forward to trying out their other dishes next time.