Kudat Yong Tau Foo, Kudat

Most of the Chinese population of Sabah are of Hakka dialect. Popular dishes among the Hakkas includes Ground Tea (Hepo Lei Cha), Rice Wine Chicken, Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables (Mui Choi), Pig Trotters with Vinegar, Stir Fried Brinjals with Basil, Fried Meatballs and more. Hakka Yong Tau Foo (stuffed bean curd) is one of the most popular dishes not only in Sabah, but the whole Malaysia.

However, there are differences between the Yong Tau Foo we get in West Malaysia and the one in Sabah. The one the get in West Malaysia usually cooked in soup while the Sabah style are braised. I personally prefer the Sabah's braised type as its more flavourful. The bean curd also usually have finer texture.

One of the most popular place to try Hakka Yong Tau Foo is a nameless shop in Kudat. It is so popular that when you ask any Chinese in Kudat to lead you to good Yong Tau Foo, 99% you will ended-up in this shop. This family business has been operating more than 15 years and people usually refer to it as Tau Foo Shop. If the person you asked don't know about this shop, most probably he/she is not a local from Kudat.

Until today, they are still using the traditional way of cooking the Yong Tau Foo; using fire wood. Thus, it gives an extra taste to the gravy. This shop is not only good in their Yong Tau Foo, they also serves good stuffed egg plant and stuffed curry fried bean curd (Tau Foo Pok). The egg plant are braised until it is soft with all the flavours soaked into it. Every bites are full of flavours. The taste of the curry are just nice with the stuffed fried bean curd. One can feels the gravy flowing out from the fried bean curd with every bites.

If you like a variety, the also have other stuffed dishes like stuffed filament sticks, stuffed sausages, stuffed bean curd skin, stuffed wood fungus, egg rolls and etc. usually cooked in soup.

Restoran Wun Chiap, Tamparuli

Everyone heard of the well known Tuaran Noodle & Beaufort Fried Noodle. There is another well known noodle which is as good as the prior two....the Tamparuli Fried Noodle. All these noodles are named after the town where it was originated.

Tamparuli is a small town nearby Tuaran along the way to Ranau and the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, Mt. Kinabalu. There is a restaurant in the centre of a row of shophouses called Restoran Wun Chiap. This family-run restaurant, located next to Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), is where the famous Tamparuli Noodle originated. There are many other restaurants offering Tamparuli Noodle in their menu, but none of them got close to the taste of its original creator, the Wun Chiap family. Its customers are willing to travel as far as Kota Kinabalu just to enjoy a plate of the original Tamparuli Noodle.

The noodle is hand made and usually fried with BBQ pork (Char Siew), Egg Pork Roll (minced pork rolled with egg, only available in Sabah), eggs and veggies. Sometimes after enjoying a plate, people will order some extra to take-away (tapau) either for their family & friends, or for their own consumption later.

This shop is a must stop for myself everytime I travelled to Ranau for business. No matter where I am heading to, I will stop by to have a plate of Tamparuli Noodle at Wun Chiap. Its a practice since my family brought me there more than 20 years ago.

Have a try and I believe you will never forget the taste! However, please don't go so early as it usually opens late.

Kedai Kopi Fong Seng, Labuan

Labuan is a duty free island where you can get imported products such as chocolates, cigarettes, wines, liquors, beer and many more at a very low price. Some brands you get in Labuan is not available even in Kota Kinabalu. The beers sometimes are even cheaper than soft drinks.

I have to go there to visit my customers every two months. I like the shopping but not the flight schedule. We have to depart as early as 7.05am which means that we have to wake up as early as 5.30am. The flight will take 30 minutes and arrived at the hotel before 8.00am. Sometimes there are no rooms to check-in such an early hour, what we can do is to have our breakfast at the most popular "breakfast restaurant" for salesforce, the Kedai Kopi Fong Seng.

Situated just across the road from HSBC Bank, it serve the popular Foo Chow style dry noodle "Kon Lo Mee". The noodle is originally white colour because it never darkened using dark soya sauce as normal dry noodle do. It just use ingredients such as onion oil and etc for its flavour. However, recently it has started to use dark soya sauce, so we have to special request not to darkened it.

For me, prefer the fried rice noodle with additional sunny egg. I like complement my noodle with my favourite Soup Hati (Liver Soup). The first look will be just a simple bowl of soup. However, when you taste it, immediately the taste of the rice wine will boost your appetite for the rest of it. The soup contains eggs, pork liver and sometimes pork kidney with a dash of rice wine. The rice wine they use is not the common yellow type "wong chau"; its the Foo Chow style "ang chiew".

I don't know how to describe its taste. Just come and try it out!

Kedai Kopi Melainan, Kota Kinabalu

When one talk about Pork Noodle "Sang Yuk Meen", everyone will know Kedai Kopi Melainan in Lintas. There are many Pork Noodle stalls in Kota Kinabalu, and this is one of the popular one.

Pork noodle originated from a town called Tawau and originally cooked with firewood. Firewood cooking usually taste very nice due to the extra flavour from the burning of the firewood (should be). It can be in soup form or dry (gon lou) from the choice between rice noodle (mee hoon), egg noodle (mee) or rice stick (koew teow). The ingredients consist of pork products like the meat, intestine, liver, kidney, tendon and pork ball. It also contains pork dumpling (wonton), veggies and etc.

To judge whether its a good pork noodle, we first aimed at the soup. The soup should be tasty from the pork, not the MSG. Next, we judge the texture of the dry noodle (kon lou). The noodle should not be very sticky and too soft. The sauce they use for the noodle should be able to blend well with the taste of the soup. Next the ingredient used.

Kedai Kopi Melainan is popular in its dry rice noodle. It is well done by not getting noodle sticking together. The soup also tasty and you can see tiny pork meat in the soup from meat boiling.

Another popular dish in this coffee shop is their Stuff Bean Curd (Yong Tau Foo). It is cooked in Hakka style (most people in Kota Kinabalu is Hakka). The texture of the bean curd is very smooth. Next is the Chicken Feet with Mushroom. However, I could not finish the whole things so I did not order this time. Thus, no picture to show you this time. Sorry! I will order in my next trip.

Of course as Malaysian, we like to eat our food with dipping especially chili padi. In Sabah, we like to blend it with other ingredients like garlic, ginger and etc. The result, very hot (due to Sabah chili padi is hotter compared to other region); very nice when eating with pork noodle.

Kedai Kopi Ching Fong, Tawau

There is a special dish that one should try in Tawau is the Baked Crab. It is very special and affordable. The way they do it is like "Yong Tau Foo", but not nothing to do with bean curd. What they did is chopped and mixed the crab meat with other ingredients like prawn and herbs. Then, put the mixture onto the crab shell and covered it with something like bread crumps. Then baked it until well-done.

Previously, its only available 3 days a week. But due to popular demand, its available daily but supply is limited. So better be fast as it is selling hot.

You can get this in Kedai Kopi Ching Fong situated just beside MAS office in Fajar, Tawau. Their stall opens only for lunch and closes sharply at 2.00pm. So better be early.

Other than its Baked Crab, they are very popular with their Chicken Rice too. The chicken they served is very tendered and portion reasonable. They are not using the normal soya sauce based gravy; rather its oyster sauce based.

When talking about Chicken Rice, we usually cannot eat without ginger and chili paste or sauce. Well, their ginger and chili paste is very thick and special. Not only the texture is thick, the taste also thick and can be addicted (at least for me).

Kedai Kopi Len Sheng, Tawau

Kedai Kopi Len Sheng, situated along Chester Road, Tawau; near the popular old Kuong Ming Book Store, serves the most popular Seafood Noodle in Tawau. One you entered the restaurant, there are 2 popular food stalls in front. The left is selling the Tawau's most popular Mongolian Chicken Rice and the right hand side is the most popular seafood noodle.

The Seafood Noodle comes with 2 styles; dry or soup. You can either choose rice noodle (beehon), rice stick (koew teow) or egg noodle (mee).

Not only there are options for the style of cooking, you can choose the ingredients you wanted to be in your soup too. All are very fresh; anyway fresh seafood is the trademark of Tawau. If you got no preference, you can just have a sit and order through the waitress by asking them to mixed all "campur-campur". If you like to choose your ingredient, you have to go to the stall yourself and they will show your the fridge that keeps all the fresh seafood.

You can choose from fish slice, fish ball, fist cake, prawn, fish maw, fish stomach, fish head, sea cucumber, 8 claw clam (don't know the exact name), fish egg (sometimes), squid, scallop, cuttle fish, dumpling (wonton), many types of shell fish and many more....

However, when you have choose your ingredients, we must stress that we don't want it to be mixed with other ingredients. Else, they will like to add in other cheaper or less demanded ingredients like wonton.

For me, the taste is good and special due to the fresh seafood. However, the standard is not consistence. Sometime too salty and sometimes too much MSG. Anyhow, its still Tawau's all time favourite. Give it a try and let me know your comments!

Kedai Kopi Ingat, Tawau

If you ask any salesperson who use to travel to Tawau frequently, most of them will know Ingat. This double story restaurant is located in Fajar just opposite Heritage Hotel in town. They open for breakfast, lunch and dinner; but more popular at night.

Their signature dish is the Assam Fish Head. Honestly, so far I have tried many Assam Fish Head and I think Ingat still serve the best. Not only the gravy is thick and strong in flavour, the fish head is also fresh; as you can taste it and from its meat texture. Anyway, Tawau is well-known for its cheap and fresh seafood.

It is serve together with other veggies like egg plant, ladies finger, tomato, chili and etc. making it a complete meal. The smallest portion can serve 2 person.

Another one of my favourite dishes is the Deep Fried Prawn with Salted Eggs Sauce. Fresh prawn are deep fried and mixed with a special sauce; made by mixing salted egg yolk with milk. Some salted egg white is added to enhance the flavour. Among all this dish I have tried elsewhere, Ingat's Deep Fried Prawn with Salted Egg Sauce is the heaviest in flavour. Some places' cooking....well you can barely taste the salted egg yolk. May be it's expensive.

The next dish one can try is the Fried Cabbage with Egg. They gave more eggs compared to other places. Almost like Fried Egg with Cabbage rather than Fried Cabbage with Egg. Taste?...Quite good.

Sunkist Growers' Selection

Originally I don't like orange juice because I don't like sweet stuff especially orange juice where it accompany with sourish taste. However, during my recently trip in Northen Italy, I fell in love with orange juice. Their juices are freshly squeezed and you can actually see the fresh oranges automatically squeezed inside the machine with trasparent glasses; just by a push of a button.

It goes well with high quality ham, bacon, croissant, salami and scrembbled eggs. Anyway, this is what we are having every morning for more than 10 days.

After returning from Italy, I have difficulty looking for fresh oranges juice for breakfast at home. I have tried many brands but all the taste are very artificial and sweet; even the one with no added sugar. They taste more like cordial than fresh orange juice.

One day while shopping at Giant Hypermarket in 1Borneo, I saw a different type of orange juice by Sunkist. The dark blue coloured packaging also attracted me. I picked it up and saw a new type of orange juice with a premium price; and I decided to give it a final try.

Supprisingly, I can say that the taste is the closest to the freshly sqeezed orange juices I had in Italy. So natural with its natural taste of its pulps. Not only the taste, the color also very close. Now, one pack can only last me for maximum 2 days; mostly 1.5 days.

However, there are 2 drawbacks. Firstly, it has a premium pricing and secondly, the stock is very limited. Not many supermarkets are keeping it and even they do, they only keep minimum stock. Thus, very often I cannot get one when I need it.

So go and give it a try and let me know how you like the taste!

Restaurant Yu Hing, Kota Kinabalu

If you love seafood and noodle, you should try Yu Hing's Seafood Fried Noodle. Situated at Hilltop, along Jalan Lintas, serves my all time favourite fried noodle.

Not only the taste is unique, it also uses good quality ingredients like garoupa for its slice fish. The prawn and squid are of big ones and fresh. The frying style of the noodle is something like the Beaufort style with alot of green veggies "choi sum". Not only the ingredients are of good quality, the noodle also tastily covered with gravy from the fresh seafood.

Because of its quality ingredients, you are expected to pay a higher price. For me, its worth it once in a while for its great taste. In addition, don't expect very good services; but its acceptable to me.

Kedai Makan Dan Minuman Foh Chuan, Beaufort

My job in the sales line gave me the opportunity to travel around and try the good food around Sabah. On Thursday, 7 May 2009, while covering Sipitang and Beaufort, I stopped by the well known Foh Chuan in Beaufort for my lunch.

I believe many of us heard of many Foh Chuan in Kota Kinabalu. The are situated just below the Beaufort Hakka Association behind the primary school.

They serve the most popular Beaufort Fried Noodle. However, my appetite today is to have rice which they are popular in various simple but delicious dishes as well.

The first I ordered was the fried "choy sum" with pork. This is a very popular dish not only in Beaufort Foh Chuan, but the one in Kota Kinabalu as well. It looks simple home dishes but the taste is something different.

The next is friend egg with "char siew". By its look, I believe not many people can fry into its texture. All the "char siew" is covered inside the egg. The edge is crispy when you eat it hot. Both are simple dishes, but the taste is a bit different from home cooked; and make them one of the most popular dishes in Beaufort.

For a good simple lucnch in Beaufort, Foh Chuan is a good choice to consider.

However, due to the busy crowd, the place is not very tidy. Sometime you can find tissue paper on the floor. I don't mind as long as I can get a good affordable lunch.

My next trip to Beaufort I will order the most popular Beaufort Fried Noodle and let you all see the picture.

LKK Black Bean Garlic Sauce Not on Shelves

Lee Kum Kee's Black Bean Garlic Sauce is one of my favourite "One Step Recipe Sauce". Great in taste and easy to prepare. When properly use (mean using the right amount and timing), you can create delicious Steamed Black Bean Spare Ribs or just add a little into wok fried bitter gourd.

However, I am not able to find one on the shelves of supermarkets and hypermarkets for the past 2 years. Now my current bottles are from Hong Kong bought during my holiday.

Introduction

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