Saturday, January 10, 2009

Kota Kinabalu : Devi’s Cafe

Because I wanted my baby to be born in 2009, I refrained from having any Indian food even though that is usually my first eating out choice whenever I am back in Sabah.

I knew that it’s a common belief that spice or curries can trigger labour and I had Eu to vouch for this. I had an Indian meal with a friend when I expecting her and within a few days, I went into labour.

So as soon as 2009 arrived, I went for dinner with the same friend - and this time, since I am ready to go into labour, we went for my first Indian meal at a simple eatery at Api Api Centre (just behind Marina Court and Promenade Hotel) called Devi’s Cafe.

My sister recommended this place long ago and the only thing that keeps me from coming here is because it is not air-conditioned. But since it was in the evening and less heaty, we chose this place for the meal-that-will-trigger-my-labour.

When we arrived, an Indian family was just leaving and we took that as good sign - if Indian’s themselves frequent the place, it has to be authentic. Besides us, there were only 3-4 tables occupied.

We decided to have their banana leaf set meal with 3 vegetables, 1 meat dish with biryani rice.

My friend had some chicken curry and I had their mutton curry which the waiter stuffed inside the bowl of rice. We were disappointed that they did not have the potato dish and we were puzzled when the waiter did not understand “aloo gobi” and said that what we meant is “potato masala” (which I have never heard of before).

The accompanying vegetables dishes were nothing special. My rice and mutton were good but it was the mango chutney and another condiment that made me polished my whole bowl of rice - so good we even asked for second helpings of these two condiments!

I was satisfied with my meal (except they could have re-heated their vegetables) and for both of us including a bowl of poppadoms and iced drinks only cost us RM24.

The place itself is simple but it does have some nice ceiling decorations that sets it apart from normal Indian coffee shop.

And again, Indian meal proved to be potent with me as two days later, I delivered my third child!

Posted by Jewelle Tan at 13:33:57 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, September 5, 2008

KK : Spice Garden

Whenever I’m asked where to dine, my family knows that my first choice would usually be Indian food.

What more when I’m back in Sabah.

So when I was home for a short trip last weekend, I finally dined at the Spice Garden with my sister and her fiance as she’s been there before and thought I should try it.

When we arrived for lunch, we were the only patrons - and I’ve noticed that this is also the case for most of the Indian restaurants that I’ve visited in Kota Kinabalu. So unlike most Japanese restaurants - at the same building was the Umai Restaurant and that was packed then.

I was craving for chicken biryani so I ordered their version.


The chicken was buried deep inside…

My verdict : Either their biryani is the authentic version or it’s simply is not that good because I definitely preferred the biryani at Choice Restaurant. For one thing, at Choice, you can see the chicken leg straight away while you had to fish your meat out from the depth of the pot in this.

Anyway at the Spice Garden, we were recommended this plate of tandoori of all sorts - from seafood to meat. While it’s reasonably good, I did not fancy it much because generally I don’t really fancy tandooris.


When they arrived, they were smoking hot!

Of course, whenever I had Indian food, the one must have thing is the Aloo Gobi. And again, this must be the authentic Northern Indian taste because the kind that I fancy - as in the type cooked by my friend’s Southern Indian mother - is different. And those gingers seemed out of place in this dish…



My sister ordered some soup and ordered other biryanis - which I’m sure she will blogged about herself soon.

The place itself was beautiful with lovely paintings of Indian ladies adorning its walls. The service was good and the prices were reasonable - for 3 biryanis, 2 extra dishes and 1 soup plus drinks costs RM100.

Needless to say, we were extremely full. I’m still on the quest for the perfect Aloo Gobi and so far, I liked the Anjappar’s version. There is another popular “fine dining” Indian restaurant which I’ve yet to check out because it has to be at the right time of the day - since it’s without air-conditioners.

Still, Spice Garden is a nice place to dine at and although I was not thrilled with this first try, I think I will come again.

Posted by Jewelle Tan at 08:12:21 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Kota Kinabalu : 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 Tan at 03:25:33 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Saturday, July 14, 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.

This fine dining North Indian restaurant was located at the Waterfront a few doors next to BED and flanked by bars. We went there for lunch on a weekday so I was a little surprised to find that the place was empty.

Entrance

The decor of the place was lovely, with lots of flowing fabrics on the ceiling. It featured an open kitchen concept so it was a little disconcerting to find the eyes of all the chefs (supposedly flown in from India) on the two of us.

I read somewhere that their lunch sets were recommended and that was what both of us had. Since Jay Frediano never had any Indian food before (except roti canai or murtabak), I ordered the mutton set and chicken curry set. I convinced Jay to try the mango lassi and fortunately he was okay with it. I attempted another Indian drink called a Jal Jeera which is a concoction of lime, mint and something else I can’t remember right now. It’s actually quite nice but I think you need to acquire the taste for it.

Of course, as with any other Indian restaurant, the poppadum were served first. Theirs were bigger in size as compared to Choice Restaurant.

This was followed by a plate of pakoras and samosas which I thought were quite good that I finished them all.

Samosas and Pakoras, snacks Indian style

Soon after that, our main dishes arrived. Besides the Punjabi chicken curry, I was served a bowl of long beans masala and daal terkawali.

Long beans and the curry

While Jay’s mutton korma came with Jeera Aloo (supposedly a favorite North Indian dish) and Bhindi Masala (ladies fingers). We thought that the ladies fingers used in the dish were quite tough, perhaps too old.

Bhindi Masala and Mutton Korma

I was actually looking forward to the Jeera Aloo the most. I once had a potatoes with mustard seeds dish cooked for me by a close friend’s MIL and I have been crazy about it ever since. However, I was never sure of the name and since the Aloo Ghobi at Choice, the other Indian restaurant, was cooked with cauliflower, I thought perhaps the Jeera Aloo would be the type that I would prefer.

Jeera Aloo

However, I was a little disappointed as this dish was quite dry and the potatoes still quite hard. I’m sure this was the authentic way of serving this dish but I think I prefer the Aloo Ghobi more than this.

All the dishes were great. The portion was just nice, if a bit too much. In fact, even the plate of rice came with 4 slices of naan bread and salad! Jay, someone who can eat 10 slices of bread in one sitting, was already struggling to finish them off. I should have brought my other brother here (he’s the type who can eat 20 slices of bread in one sitting!).

Rice and naan

There was even a plate of fruits and coffee for dessert.

For a set of RM15++ and RM19++ each, they were really value for money.

I think for a fine dining place, the dishes were reasonably priced. The service was great and the food was lovely. Perhaps the only problem I had with this place was when they let the cooking smoke from their grilling section entered the restaurant. But at least they noticed my frowning face and quickly closed the door.

Also, this place has no toilet but there is a public toilet a few doors down.

Finally, here’s my brother stuffed to the max and I’m sure is so happy now that I’m back to Brunei and no longer around to pester him to babysit Eu and Qi, take her shopping and drive her around town!

But seriously, thanks Jay Frediano!

“Why do I have to be in town when she’s around…” he says.
Posted by Jewelle Tan at 16:28:10 | Permalink | 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).

The menu was not very extensive, and I think their variety is more kedai mamak rather than Indian fine dining. We each took the biryani rice, mine with chicken and Vee had the mutton briyani.

Chicken Biryani

Because we are greedy, I asked for my favorite Indian dish, the aloo gobi (potatoes) and Vee opted for the fried bittergourd.

Aloo Gobi
The aloo gobi had some cauliflowers and I’d actually prefered the all potatoes version, but this is yummy too. The bittergourd may not sound appetizing, but it’s actually very delicious and there is no bitter taste at all.

As for drinks, they were very generous with their ingredients. You won’t get such thick slices of lemon in any lemon tea drink anywhere else!

Their poppadum were slightly different than most. They are small in size, like keropok, and the daal that came with it was delicious.

They even look like keropok!

All these cost us RM45+ which I thought was a good deal.

Half way through, a big group came and when we left, there were about 3 other tables totalling about 40 patrons but because the place was so huge, it still looked very empty. I was told that it’s usually that way too.

I’m not sure if they consulted their Vashtu Sastra on the layout of the place but I think from the feng shui point of view, perhaps the location of the toilet has something to do with it? Because I really don’t see any reason why this place shouldn’t be popular. The prices were competitive, the food was delicious, the service was quick and the place was clean.

So those of you who haven’t tried it before should really drop by. Don’t be fooled by the empty tables.

I got home in one piece so obviously she too was satisfied…

My gorgeous chauffeur - in her most unrecognizable shot
Posted by Jewelle Tan at 15:48:52 | Permalink | Comments (2)