I found this interesting “Coffee” in Sabah Fest 2007 exhibition. This coffee powder is totally made of rice, and you can make it yourself at home.
(1) First, fry the rice, without any cooking oil, until it turns really dark.
(2) Grind the burnt rice to powder.
Then just mix the powder with sugar and hot water, like how you make a cup of coffee. I tried it and it tastes a bit bitter (like coffee) and pleasure smell of rice favour.
Probably I can mix this powder with Nescafe or Tenom coffee to create a special coffee. Who knows I might discover a million-dollar secret recipe that I can sell to Coffee Bean and StarBucks, haha…
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
Finally I went to Tip Of Borneo the second time with my family. It will take 3 hours to drive from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat, if you use the route that passes through Kota Belud. It is a long way and you will passby many padi field, forest, hills, rivers, coconut trees, oil palm plantation, villages… For those foreigner tourists who never see a coconut or think padi grown on tree, the countryside view should be interesting. For local yokel like me, I will open my mouth wide and take a nap in the car.
The road condition is considered ok overall. When you reach Kota Belud, the famous cowboy town, be extra cautious. Coz you will find many cows roaming on the road. Sometimes they just come out from nowhere. Do not horn them. You will only get two results. The first one is – they ignore you totally. The second response is – they got panic and run like a headless fly, causing accident on another lane. Before you reach Kudat, you would find some wooden stalls by the roadside, where you can stop and buy some local farm products, such as peanuts, coconut, rice cracker, corn… Again, for local yokel like me, I will open my mouth wide and take a nap.
We arrived Kudat around 11 AM, with empty stomach. So we decided to try the famous Kudat Tofu (Soybean cake) Dumpling in Pakka Choon. If you are a muslim, sorry lah, it is not halal coz it contains pork. To get there, if you see the temple below in Kudat (see pictures below), just go straight and you will see a roundabout at the end. Turn to the road that has the sign “Jalan Tomanggong Kurantud”. Follow the main road for roughly 1.5 KM, you will arrive Pakka Choon area, and you would see an old wooden shoplot at your left side. You can see a few yellow signboards such as “Siew Lan Tailor”, “Thart Seng Electrical” there. Hope this info is good enough for you to locate the place.
They offer rich variety of yummy yummy tofu dumpling, e.g. eggplant, mushroom, liver, sausage, curry flavors… I personally like the one with liver. If you are first time trying, you may order a few bowls of different tofu dumpling so you can taste each of them. Each bowl costs around RM4 to 5 (USD1 to 1.25). When I was taking photos of the food, those waitresses hiding behind laughing. Probably they think I am nut. You also can order Ngiu Chap (or U-Chap) there and it tastes quite good.
To have a happy meal in Sabah kopitiam, there are a few things you need to know:
1) Finding a Seat
Do not sit next to a longkang, the active area of rats and cockroach. Unless you want to see them run under your table. When all the seats are taken, go to a table that is halfly done, stand next to them and stare at them, to pressure them to eat faster and leave.
2) Sitting Down
Before you sit down, check the chair and make sure it is clean. And make sure there is no hole around the legs of the chair. Next, push the edge of the table to check how stable it is. Many cheap tables can flip over easily if you place your elbow on it. If you bring a girl, make sure no small cockroach hidding under the table. It could spoil your date.
3) Ordering Meal
The lightest ink can beat the strongest memory. I don’t understand why most of them don’t use a pen to write down what people order. When the food comes, they always ask, “Your kah?” Sometimes they got it wrong and wanted to “force” you to accept it.
To avoid unhappiness, try to repeat saying what you order twice or more. Extra explanation could be helpful. e.g. if you order Coke, ask them not to give you Pepsi (I will be pissed off if they give me Pepsi).
4) Waiting
Use the waiting time to check your spoon and fork. Sometimes they are still wet or not totally clean. You may ask for another set. If the food still hasn’t arrived after 10 minutes, check with them. They probably forget your order.
5) Paying the Bill
When you make payment, double check and make sure you have paid for both the meal and drink. 50% of the time, you will pay these separately to two parties. If you eat out with Chinese, when paying time, do not forget to play “I pay lah, I pay lah…” game with them, though he already says he will treat you. This is considered as good manner to pretend you want to pay.
Overall, Sabah restaurants are doing ok. Tell you, when I ate out in KL, especially those located next to the street, I never dare to touch their chilli and sambal. It has been many times I found fly and cockroach leg in them.
One day I makan in a restaurant in Subang. I found a death fly in my meal, so I complained. The waitress apologised and got me a new plate of meal. Then his lady boss came. She purposely used her finger to pinch the fly into meat ball (destroy evidence?), and said, “This is not a fly lah.” Then she pointed at the light bulb, and said, “See… so many flying ants this evening. Probably the one you saw was just one of them.” I looked at her and didn’t say a word. I didn’t like that she treated me like an idiot. I was a bit mad and almost said, “You put that in your mouth then I would believe that is a fucking flying ant!”. Probably she saw I didn’t believe, so I got a free meal that evening.
Probably this satay is not new to you. But I tried it the first time only a few weeks ago in Kota Marudu. It was night time so I could not see clearly what this satay made of. At first I was attracted by its oily golden color, looked so delicious.
I thought it was chicken nugget, so I bought one. Only RM1, quite cheap. When I bite it, I could feel that it was so “juicy”. “Wah, the meat is really soft and smooth but a bit oily leh.” When I looked closer, it was chicken tail. I was not quite comfortable with eating skin and fat of chicken “butt”, so I did not finish it. Ya, I know many of you love it, but it is a bit hard for me to accept it…
