Syn Ming Hing Cafe & Cake, Sandakan

Many Sabahans like to "Yum Cha" or having a drink at coffee shops. Usually around 3-5pm, to have a break or simply building rapport with clients. People usually will go for kopi (coffee), teh (tea) and etc... and most of the time will complement it with confectioneries or pastries like roti kawin (bread with butter and kaya), cakes and etc.

Syn Ming Hing in Sandakan is one of the popular place for "Yum Cha". Located in the city centre, it is popular for its delicious cakes and pastry. Its something like restaurants and cafes standards but served at coffee shop at affordable price.

My favourite is their cakes, especially those with sponge cake base and chiffon, where it very soft and spongy. To my experience, this the place that serves the best coffee shop cakes.

If you want to try, please go before 4pm for better variety as its going fast.

Taiwan Restaurant, Kinarut

Many people does not realise the existence of a Taiwanese restaurant along the way to Papar from Kinarut. When heading to Papar from Kota Kinabalu, there is a small signboard on the right-hand side with the name "Taiwan Restaurant" pointing to the direction of a small junction leading to the restaurant.

Many people when reaching the car park, are surprised with the uniquely simple design of the restaurant. It's an opened concept with no fancy layout, furniture and even without air conditioning. All it has is natural sea breeze as it's situated on the beach front.

Well, anyway, who cares about the design and layout if it serves good food. Well, the serve ONLY good food. Service? No way! Don't expect any good services except good food in this restaurant. Surprisingly, many people are willing to tolerate the type of services for the exchange of good food. One of them is me, myself.

The most popular dishes they serves is the Braised Pork Trotter. Slowly cooked for hours until all the sauce being soaked into the meat makes every bites a sensational taste. Uniquely, it is cooked with pineapple to gives a bit of extra kick in the flavouring. Best served with steamed rice.

If you planned to go and try their pork trotter, make sure you go with at least 4 person; else, the owner will REFUSE to serve you. Reason being you can't finish the big portion and you will waste the food. Funny isn't it? No matter how you argue, or telling them you are big eater, she just won't serve you the amount of food she thinks you cannot finish. That is why I cannot show you the pictures of more delicious food from this restaurant like their popular Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup, Stir Fried Fragrance Mushroom and etc.

Well, want to try strange services with good food? Just pay a visit on the way to Papar, Beaufort or Sipitang. Last but not least, I also found their blended chilies are unique too. They added in preserved soya bean in the mixture of chilies.

Lok Kyun Restaurant, Tuaran

During my outstation trip to Kota Belud, I usually stop by Tuaran town for lunch. Tuaran is the town for the popular Tuaran Mee (a hand made egg noodle). Tuaran Mee is not only popular among the locals, many of my friends from West Malaysia, Sarawak and Brunei like it very much too.

Tuaran Mee is a hand made egg flat noodle. The texture is tender and usually fried to covered with eggs. It's usually cooked with simple ingredients like BBQ Pork (char siew), eggs roll, veggies and pork. Some stalls might use a more expensive ingredients like prawns.

Although it's very popular, many people when asked, are unsure of the origins of this Tuaran Noodle (the shop that invented it) because too many people are selling it due to its popularity. However, when one visited Tuaran town, many will be introduced to Lok Kyun Restaurant. It's noodle is hand made by their own restaurant. This restaurant has been visited by Jason Yeoh (Ah Sien), the host of Astro AEC's Taste With Jason which introduce good food around Malaysia. When one visited the restaurant, one can see all the pictures taken with Jason and posters around.

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.