Sunday, July 06, 2008

Sabah : Gunung Alab Resort

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.
Posted by JeWeLLe at 13:01:14 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Friday, January 11, 2008

KK : Gayang Restaurant

Because I am not a seafood fan, I am not impressed when folks kept saying how good the seafood are in Sabah. In fact, I will draw a little blank when asked where the best seafood eateries are in Sabah.

However, since my circle of family and friends are mostly seafood fans, I have had the pleasure of knowing about obscure-out-of-the-way-known-mostly-to-locals seafood eatery such as the Gayang Restaurant.

This place, which is along the route to 5 stars hotels such as the Nexus Karambunai and Shangri-La Rasa Ria is a good 20 mins drive from downtown Kota Kinabalu.


It's located on a huge plot of land as they also rear their own fish and prawns. The whole restaurant is built on stilts on water and when we first arrived there in the afternoon, it was low tide and crabs were swarming the riverbed. I was told that you'd get lovely sunset here too.

Even though it's way out of town, it's popular with local diners. This is also one of the eatery which serves tourists and when we were there, 3-4 busloads of tourists also came for lunch.

On that day, we had the usual seafood fare of clams, fish, prawns, vegetable and one of my very few seafood favorite : soft-shelled crabs.


The meal was fine but the crab was sure expensive. That plate cost us RM45.
Posted by JeWeLLe at 16:05:55 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, January 05, 2008

KK : Olde Station KopiTiam

*During my Christmas 2007 trip home to Sabah*

One of my favorite destination for shopping in KK is the City Mall which is along the Kolombong-Penampang highway, which means that it's out of downtown KK.

But don't think that makes it jam-free. I was told that during certain times of the day, it is better to go through the city rather than use this highway! However this area is usually alright on mid day and being less than 5km from my house, of course I had to visit it for some shopping expeditions...

So a few clothing items later, we hit one of the eatery here.

My sister didn't recommend the City Mall Food Court and judging from the smell that was coming out of the place as we walked by, I think they have slight ventilation issues and you know what that means to your clothes.

Instead we went to another one of those chain-restaurant called the Olde Station KopiTiam, located on the ground floor.


When it comes to eating outside without the kids, it means only one thing : Spicy Food!

And once I spotted the word "curry mee" of course, I couldn't pay attention to whatever else they have in their menu! So curry mee was what I had while sis Caneeliea had the "nasi lemak" - which she said was super spicy.


They looked and tasted good : Caneeliea

When we were there the place was busy but we I waited until everyone left I took these pictures.

One funny thing I noticed about this place was that they adopted the customer greeting style you'd usually get at Japanese restaurants and it was a boisterous "Hello!" and "Bye!" by all the staffs to any incoming and leaving customers.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 13:30:14 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Anjappar Restaurant

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.

I didn't need to be told to use my hand because - although I too hate the smell that will linger on my fingers - there is just something that makes Indian food so much more delicious when eaten by hand, don't you think?

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.
Posted by JeWeLLe at 11:25:33 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, December 17, 2007

Tuaran Mee

On Sunday, my friend and I drove to Tuaran town to meet another friend and dropped by the town for the famous local fare, Tuaran Mee.

This coffee shop that we went to was at this block of old wooden shoplots which despite being slightly rundown, looks more interesting than rest of the new concrete shoplots around it.


My friend told me that this outlet is supposedly where Tuaran Mee originated from.

As you know, this thin and flat noodle known as Tuaran mee is available throughout the state although to be honest, I'm not sure what is so special about it besides the unique shape of the noodle.


When we reached the place at 11 am, it was quite full and although I was not too enthusiastic about the condition inside the shop, I was keen to find out the taste of the original Tuaran Mee.


My friend commented that she tasted better Tuaran Mee elsewhere. I actually prefer this as the taste is not too strong and much like the Seria ko lo mee which to the unseasoned tongue will taste bland. Besides you know that most things that tasted especially well are usually because they are heavily seasoned with MSG.

So in short, I like this Tuaran Mee.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 23:31:51 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

Friday, September 14, 2007

Bubble Teas of Kota Kinabalu

Eu and I were looking through our album of the trip we made to Canada in 2002 and it brought back quite a lot of wonderful memories.

One of the funniest has got to be hubby's old classmate who migrated to Canada in the late 80s.

This guy was genuinely surprised that we knew about pizzas and that we have Pizza Huts in Brunei. "In Brunei?" he kept asking. I didn't think he really believed us.

He also insisted that we try the Taiwanese bubble tea which was something new in Vancouver then. As we all know, bubble tea was already in our market for a few years at that time.

I'm not sure if the bubble tea scene is still hot there in Vancouver but in KK, all the youngsters would know about YoYo and EazyWay, the two most popular bubble tea outlets.

I am never a bubble tea fan and actually, neither is hubby. But for some reason, everytime we went back to KK, he seldom misses a chance to drop by either one of these places, which coincidently have outlets less than 3 km from my house in Damai.

Here's the YoYo at Damai.

I'm not sure what is their best drinks but this place is almost always packed. I honestly can't see what is so appealing about this place - but I certainly know why the guys like to hang out here! I usually look like the oldest girl around! I guess, girls my age hang out at CoffeeBean or Starbucks, thank you very much!

This is the EazyWay.

EazyWay is closest to my house and it's not as popular as Yoyo and as far as I know, was never full. But the good thing about this place is that they also offer some items such as spaghetti and ice-cream, which I believe YoYo does not. Their drinks are cheaper too (according to hubby and my brothers) but the interior are not as smart as YoYo, which is probably why the hip crowds are seldom here.

So which is your scene, YoYo or EazyWay?

Posted by JeWeLLe at 11:50:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Celyn Cafe

We were not totally impressed with the Celyn Cafe at its old location in Damai, because its poor ventilation system. So we have never went back until we found out that it has opened an outlet together with its hotel at the new CityMall along Jalan Lintas-Kolombong.

Celyn Cafe at the CityMall is on the upper floor and you could take a lift from the lobby of Celyn hotel.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 17:22:30 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, July 15, 2007

KK : Kohinoor Restaurant

This was actually the first Indian restaurant which I wanted to check out in KK last week. But when Vee, my chauffeur cum dining mate refused to be adventurous, I decided to shelve the idea until I had another dining mate. That happened to be my youngest brother who had a choice of being either a baby sitter or my chauffeur, and the smart man chose the latter.

So it was off to Kohinoor for me, finally.

Posted by JeWeLLe at 00:28:10 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |

Friday, June 29, 2007

KK : Choice Restaurant

I actually wanted to try out a different Indian restaurant but when my chauffeur cum food connoiseur threatened to drop me off the highway if the place I chose is not up to par, I gave in and so we found ourselves at Choice, as recommended by another friend.

I felt a bit wary at first of an Indian restaurant that did not have an Indian name and when we saw that the place was practically empty, save for one table, I thought it didn't look very promising too.

But to cut a long story short, I am glad to report that we were totally satisfied (up to the point of bursting actually).

Posted by JeWeLLe at 23:48:52 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |