local food @ Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

what's a trip without trying their local food? hmm? it won't be a trip at all! :) so when we were in KK, our first breakfast was somewhere in town and ate dried noodles (something like wan tan mee - but without the wantan) with either roasted chicken, or duck or char siew. they also had the famous Tuaran Mee and some sour soup or something. well being a Penangite (and i'm not only talking for myself - but all 12 peeps in the group) that 1st coffee shop was not very much to our liking.

but don't worry, after a few days, we got to know that the tour guide who brought us that 1st morning, didn't know where to go for breakfast... so...

anyway... the other tour guide brought us HERE, to fill ourselves before our trip to Pulau Sapi.. and omg.... for someone who don't really fancy or crave for beef noodles... THIS would have u craving for more!

yes, Kedai Kopi Shan Fu is located at one of the old shop lots that's down the road opposite the Sutera Harbour. i don't remember the name of the road but i remember lots of kampung houses on stilts along the way. and this place is quite hidden from the main road.

it's a very simple coffee shop like any other. we were early and i think we were the only ones there. everyone was telling me that beef noodles in Sabah is lovely.. i had a second thought and well why not, i ordered mine with dried koay teow and it was ..... *speechless*

hint: if you don't hear me talking while i eat = food is good = happy me!

:D

since the others didn't want anything meaty/heaty... they tried the seafood noodles (soup style). and they said it was good too. even the fried Tuaran Mee was so much better from our previous tries, though this one was abit oily.

seafood noodle soup

fried Tuaran Mee

after this lovely breakfast (yes it was breakfast, not lunch) we headed towards the islands for some sun, sea and sand! what a way to start the day eh?

*i'm really sorry for not getting proper directions, but i think if u mention the name of this shop, and say it's near Sutera Harbour and near kampungs, i'm sure the locals around would know...

Filipino Market (near Waterfront) @ Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Welcome to Pasar Kraftangan KK (also known as the Filipino Market - don't ask why.. hahahah) it's located very near Waterfront and Warisan Square. so imagine how convinient our apartment was! :)

don't ask what that dude is doing... hhahhaha

this place is like a complex of mini-mini lots, that is all very closeby, narrow and FILLED with things hanging from ceiling to the floor... from pearls, wall features, bags, clothes... u'll get a headache here... AND need lots of time comparing the prices with all the shops here. if not, u got to ee-nee-miney-mo to choose a shop.... u got to bargain too!!

i didn't spend much time here as i was not interested in buying anything.. things here are quite the same as at the Morning Market and gift stalls during our day tours... and i wasn't into pearls.. but i believe, those who are interested in pearls would find that this place has a good bargain... but then again, nothing beat like those real expensive few $K pearls... right?

outside/next to this complex was a shop selling dried foodstuff.. not really food food where u just buy and eat, but these were like dried fish, dried shrimps, dried squid... and well i also found dried sea horse!!! yea man!! have u seen this before!!! i felt sad yet interestingly curious.... i like sea horses when they're alive... but abit geli to see them dried... it's said it's for medicine purposes...

after a hot day out at these markets, we "tried" to chill with coconut water and jelly.. it did for a while untill our next stop... gosh, KK is sooo humid and hot!!! worst than Penang i think! hahahah...

so u shopping kaki, Filipino Market is an interesting place, and if u are lucky, u might find some good deals here :) give it a try if you come to KK ya :)

Rainforest Cafe @ Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Rainforest Cafe was like a heaven for us after walking around at the Morning Market. :D we were hot and sweaty and tired. thank God we found this place for lunch. decent cafe, AIR-CON!! and food's not bad either!!! this restaurant is located at one corner of a row of shops, just around the market area. can't exactly say where cause we just walked around looking for an air-con restaurant. hahahah... oh, i think it's just opposite the taxi stand as well.


the interior is quite interesting. there were fake trees, i guess to give the feeling that we're dining in the forest heheheh... but good try, it's quite comfortable too. and oh, this is where i met my friends sister as well, unfortunately didn't meet my friend - had the flu, poor thing.

cabonara - taste is nice, but just too much cream, it was very thick and creamy, everyone tried and it sort of put us off (jelak) after a bite or two. if it was watered down abit.. i think it'll be nice

set lunch - lemon chicken - quite yummy, if u don't mind chickens breast meat

set lunch - or was THIS lemon chicken? hahaha can't remember - this one had spicy minced chicken meat as a side appetizer.

set lunch - sweet sour chicken (i think) with a japanese side dish - lots of rice this one!


desserts that came with the set lunch - red bean and pudding - so so only

so if u're hot and sweaty and tired from shopping at the morning market, here's a good place to chill :) its very near, don't have to walk too far and it's decent, good food, prices too is not that bad. so i'd give this place a thumbs up :)

Morning Market @ Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

this is how it looked liked on a Sunday morning market in Kota Kinabalu (in town). it's packed with locals and tourists (such as us) and you can find all sorts at this marking. mind you, you have to be here early like maybe 8am or so... cause the stalls will start to pack at around 11+am... so in order NOT to miss any good deals, be there early!

there were 2 sides of the markets - 1st was where the veg & meats were sold.
but we did see these silver belts.. long time since i've seen any - too bad, too short for me.

then there's this stall with cut up pieces of cake - i knew it was SARAWAK layer cake but what the heck, i know we're in Sabah, but it's not like we can get these in Penang, so i got some :)

then among the veg sellers, we saw these packets of these Monsopiad Sago Worms.
they didn't sell these loose so we couldn't try (not that i wanted to hehehe)

after this first section of market, we braved ourselves to the MAIN street where the "action" is. u can hear ppl barganing, weird stuff being sold, live animals, lots of lil souviners, even clothes, jewelry, Sabah's famous pearls...etc whatever la u can think of, they have it, and even things you never thought of! HAHHAH check out SOME of the things that were sold there...

ok, so we came to this market early, without any breakfast, and soon after walking abit in the market (with the heat and all) some of us started to feel hungry, so we found this coffee shop that had some dimsum, thought i'd give it a try. it was so so...

at the coffee shop, there was this guy with his dog that was dressed up! O_O
cute but the dog stank - stank the whole coffee shop, not too nice that

soon after a few of them joined us for some munchies and found out the found huge avocados!
heard it's locally grown and i just had to take a pic of it.. haven't seen such huge avocados!

look who found a new job!!
hahaha found her sitting at a basket picking out these rose-type fruits for herself
she said it's good for the skin and it's of good quality

some of them finished the market earlier, so while waiting for the rest of us, they had their feet massaged by the blind. they were parked at the side of the market. seemed like they were quite famous as they were quite busy with their customers.

Morning Market in KK is quite a good place to go souviner shopping and to get local stuffs (and to mingle with the locals) though i believe it's more for the tourists than the locals. it's just like Batu Ferringhi, u being a Penangite, will not usually go there unless u're bringing a tourist friend/family right? i think it's the same case here, but i might be wrong. as it also looks like a place for grocery shopping and marketing.

i think i would enjoy this market more if there were less people and that it was not too hot, but it's all good, to experience Sabah this way :)

Nightlife @ Waterfront, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

i actually wrote this post earlier but my desktop had to hang and restart, hence lost of everything i wrote here.. sigh... now lets see if i can remember.... need a beer...

what's a holiday without a nite out at the local nightlife area (or at least a drop in to see what's it like) right? and since we were staying just opposite the famous Waterfront KK area, why not! so we got ready one night (eventhough we were tired from the day tour) and walked opposite.

we decided to get into bed (not that bed but the club bed) to check it out, as we heard the live band playing a hit song. the place was not that crowded but it was filled with beautiful ppl (yea, i could cuci mata here more compared to the crowd at home - crowd at home = lame)... surprisingly that there were not cover charge for us... hmm...

anyway, the area is huge, very spacious, high ceilings like a warehouse and there's a big bar - well bigger than the clubs in penang though. the band was not bad too!! singing hit songs in their version - though we sort of found out that they were Filipinos.. we were hoping to catch some locals in action cause we know Sabahans are good musicians.... so after a few drinks and some dancing, we headed home. we will definately be back to try out the other pubs/clubs at Waterfront :)

the next nite, was i think out last nite or something, we headed to Waterfront again but this time we wanted to chill, easy music, chill place to sit and talk yet maybe dance a lil and we found this place.. Cock and Bull (filled with cock and bull stories? i don't know.. hehehe)

Cock and Bull is just next to bed. quite a contrast but then again Waterfront is a stretch of clubs and pubs, you just need to take your pick :D this place seemed nice, the crowd was abit older and there was a 3 piece band (which we found out were locals - YEAY) and a pool table, flat screen tvs which were playing football... and they even have an outside (behind the pub) for chilling and enjoying the water edge. lovely place to catch up with friends over some beers and grub. not as noisy as bed

the outside

we would love to try out the other clubs and pubs but we were running out of time. so for my 1st impression of KK - quite good, Waterfront is decent but i'm sure that there are other clubs in KK around the area that is as happening (or even more) than the places we went. maybe my Sabahan readers can bring me around when i'm there again? hehehe i do hope to go back to KK again.. it's a lovely place!

Fratini's Restaurant @ Warisan Square, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

one of the girls were saying that this place had the best melted chocolate pudding ever!!! and it was "somewhere" in Warisan Square and they saw it while they were shopping - i was a lil sick in the hotel so i didn't follow them for shopping, i didn't get to see the place.

anyhow, after the tour, we insisted we go find this place before we leave KK for good. we were searching high and low for this shop - everyone was tired and blur and lost their bearings.. hahahha poor things and i just follow them blindly. and eventually we found it! wooo hoooo!!

it was kinda late around 9+pm and there were nobody in the restaurant - we were hoping that they were not closed yet and good thing too! they were OPEN!! yes!! so all of us (12 of us mind you) noisily entered and made ourselves at home and started drooling over the menu... hahaha then, the orders came... a few of us had the choc pudding, the rest wanted to try something else... it was gorgeous!

would love to try their meals one day but we were running out of time, so desserts it is! its alil pricey though but heck, for good food, u can't be kiamsap... hehehehe

peach melba

coffee latte? or was it hot choc?

did u see all that goodness ah? oh my oh my....
(btw this is a warm dish)

vanilla pudding - nice and creamy and smooth

orange pancake - light and fluffy :D

so if u want some dessert to indulge in, with clean, air-con premise (we noticed KK was very very hot!) you can try out Fratini's - they sure to put a smile on your face :D