Dining With Jewelle

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!

During our first drive out to 1Borneo for this trip (to send a family friend to their hotel there), we caught sight of this restaurant which was a few doors units between the 4 hotels located at this mall.

Being western food lover, we immediately made plans to try this place out and had our chance a few days later.

When we arrived, the place was perfectly occupied by just the right number of other patrons (we detest busy restaurants where we can’t get any attention and empty restaurants where we get all the attentions).

We had our pick of tables and at first decided on their couch type sections until our friend decided to join us and we moved to a bigger table.

For starters, I ordered their seafood chowder and my husband had their oysters. My chowder was delicious enough although I thought it could do with a more varied seafood. I did not try the oysters but my husband had nothing to say about it so I can assumed that they passed his judgment.

Then I had some grilled chicken dish called Portugese which took an amazingly long time to arrive. It’s a good thing I was not too hungry and we were enjoying ourselves with my friends that I was not too bothered that it only arrived after my husband was halfway through his main dish, the lamb rack.

Taste wise, although it was delicious, it was not worth having to wait that long - what more in a near empty restaurant.

While the lamb rack was good looking enough, my husband proclaimed that the Buccaneer’s (Brunei) was more to his palate - which for one thing was not smothered with mint.

One of our friend had the salmon dish which got no complaints from them.

Overall, we were not too impressed and having so many other choices around town, I doubt we’d make our way back here any time soon.

A few days ago when I brought my kids to 1Borneo for a short visit to see the Christmas displays, we had lunch at the “New York New York” restaurant.

Like many of the restaurants in this mall, the NYNY is huge. It can definitely fit more than 100 patrons at one time. However, when we arrived, there was only one other table occupied.

I was pretty impressed with the choices of food and I would have a hard time deciding if I did not see the lamb shank dish straight away.

And their Moroccan Lamb Shank was what I chose with Eu excitedly supported my choice.

The kids liked the vegetable soup although I was a bit surprise when I saw the clear broth.

As for the lamb shank, it was tender and tasty enough but I thought the sauce was too little. Look wise, it did not look as good as the lamb shank in Charcoal Grill in Bandar Seri Begawan which we had last month.

My mother chose the creamy pasta with fish and we thought the pasta was delicious (although both Eu and Qi did not like it at all). They liked the fish though. My brother ordered their roast chicken and prawn combo.

I thought their food was ok but perhaps I’ll only come back here for drinks as the place is nice to hang out with friends and check out their dessert selections.

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.

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.

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.

Reading some of Brunei’s prominent bloggers raving about the latest restaurant in the country is nothing unusual. What piqued my interest about this latest Italian place in the country was when another blogger chose to be harder to please - perhaps because he claimed to have real Italian experiences and definitely because the others were singing too many happy praises about it.

My sister informed me that she had visited Villa Mauri’s sister restaurant at the Jesselton Hotel in Kota Kinabalu called Bella Italia- which as per Rano’s interview with the owner, was opened 2 years ago.

She was not too thrilled with her main dish then but she adored the celebrated Fantasia Di Maria which was incidently the chocolate pudding I wanted to try.

So last weekend when I was back in town, my sister, her fiance and I met for dessert at Bella Italia and indulged in one Fantasia Di Maria….

And one Tiramisu…

Each of these slices now cost RM12 each - an increase of RM3 from when my sister first had it. The Fantasia Di Maria was delicious but as I quote them “Not as soft and high as before”.

But the chocolate that oozed out from it’s centre, the garnished ice cream and the extra cherry which I noted was missing from both the Villa Mauri’s and my sister’s previous visit to Bella Italia quite made up for it - although to be honest it smelt and tasted quite like the kind of chocolate cake I used to make, minus the gooey centre of course, and I am not even a baker…

The Tiramisu however was what a cake should be - I can’t say if it’s a great Tiramisu though. Soft, light, not too sweet, beautiful to look at but missing the coffee smell - and isn’t that what makes Tiramisu special?

Perhaps it was not the baker’s good day or my expectation was too high or I forgot that I actually don’t really like cake all that much but I quite honestly don’t see why the Fantasia Di Maria is supposedly very famous.

But of course, I will try it again one day just to see if I will change my mind…

So our first dining experience in KK during this trip was at the Wagamama at Komplex Asia City where it was not crowded (plus point) and spacious (plus point). The food selections were typical although I think their sushi range were not as much as Excapade (?).

I thought their food and the service was good.

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.

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.

*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.

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.

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.