It never dawn upon me that someone would be interested to know about what type of vegetables are there available in my country. This entry is inspired by a dear friend whom I got to know during my stay in Sweden :) Although, for most of them, I don't know what's it called in English, well I hope the pictures do give you the idea of what vegetables we consume and which I miss so much while being away from home.


Gurka (The Asian Version)


Pandan Leaves ( This fragant leaves is commonly used in Asean cooking) I found this sold at the chinese market in Sweden.


Curry Leaves


Long Beans


Mustard leaves ( I believe that's what it's called)


Spring Onion (used in alot of the chinese dishes)


Lotus Root ( Used for boiling soup)


I don't know what's this is called, usually stir fried with garlic and salt.


Name is unknown (I don't know) and it's used for boiling soup.


Yam


Brinjal/Eggplant (Skinnier than those in sweden but taste alot better)


Spinach ( Looks different from those in Sweden)


Lady's Finger /Okra


Bitter Gourd ( Something I still dislike until today)


Petai ( Not too sure what's it called in English) Usually cooked with Sambal and anchovies.


Romaine leaves


Kai Lan , again not too sure what's it called in English. Stir fry with wine and garlic or boiled and eaten with oyster sauce.


Direct translation from Chinese: Potato Leaves.


Four-angled beans. Stir fried with chili paste or tam yam paste


Kangkung, not too sure what this is called in English. Delicious when stir fried with belacan (a type of pungent ingredient which most westeners finds it appalling)


Not too sure what they are :P

After so many years of visitng my hometown, it never dawn upon me that I should keep blog about those food which I crave so much and never fail to eat when I give this town a visit. Although I failed to take picture of my favourite pork noodle ( i would give up my world for a bowl of it), I hope I will remember to capture it with my digital cam in my next visit.

Ham Jin Peng (Flour dough flavoured with the Chinese 5 spice)
When I first moved to KL, I could not find this, however, they are beginning to sell this at Food Republic in Pavillion and The Gardens.


Stew Beef Noodle




Fried Pork Fillet
Specialty of Sandakan, this pork fillets are eaten with Koay Teow ( flat rice noodle) in their special soy sauce.



Beef Noodle (Kam Heong Ngiau Chap)
A variation to what Vietnam has, the beef noodle in KK should not be missed! Although it's sold at RM 6.5 per bowl, it's worth every single cent! This shop can be found along Jalan Lintas, unfortunately I could not recall the exact street this shop is on.


Till then, this is tentatively all I have. To be quite honest, I have such a long list which I failed to let my tongue enjoy the pleasure of their flavour because of the Chinese New Year break where most of these famous eateries in KK is closed for the holidays.

Day 6

We made a trip to the Cultural village to take a look at the "Orang Asli" houses. Although the initially plan was to visit a real live house but the cost was simply off the budget so we settled with the cultural village, live-like size houses and I must say, for the minor fee od Rm45, you'll get to the all the different houses. Quite a good deal I must say!


Grinding Rice 


The heat was quite unbearable after lunch time and it drobve us to seek shelter in the air-cond room. To kill time we borrowed a box of scrabble and knock ourselves out with it!


An afternoon game 

We then spend the later part of the afternoon stolling along the beach and share our thoughts away!

Casting Shadow 

Day 5

The following morning, we took a flight out of Kota Kinabalu to Kuching. Shortly after our arrival, we got a ride from our hotel and headed off straight to Damai Beach, Kuching.

A perfect gateway for the weary souls of the city! We checked in to Holiday Inn Damai Beach and soon found ourselves wondering off the the beach nearby.


Where the river meets the ocean 

The have a fairly decent beach, which I suspect is man made due to the massive amount of tiny rocks on the shore. The picture above is taken somewhere at the end of the resort, which I think it's really interesting as this is my first time see a river that flows into the ocean! The water in between is actually not SALTY!

Water Taxi 

Day 3

Kota Kinabalu ~ Kinabalu National Park Headquarters
After a good rest last night, we were all set to reach the foot of Mount KK by noon. The journey to Mount Kinabalu National Park takes about close to 2 hours. The scenery was pretty much the same, but we did make a pit stop at the wooden stalls along the way to check out the "Kundasang roasted peanuts" that Sue Ann's mum was talking about and devoured a fresh pineapple. It was RM 1 each and we pay another ringgit to have them peeled for us, it was sweet and fresh!

We reached the National Park headquarter and checked in to the lodge where we are supposed to spend a night. The lodge was simply marvellous! We have a great view of the mountain from the balcony, unfotunately it was covered by the thick midst. After a short break we set off towards Ranau town for lunch.

National Park headquarter ~ Ranau ~ Poring Hot Springs
We had some light lunch of "pau" from the famous "Pau Shop". Their signature dish was the "Tai Pau" with the size of the pau that's one and a half time bigger than my palm. We then travelled for another half an hour before reaching Poring Hot Springs for the canopy walk and a hot bath.
The milky hot water is a natural resources of the earth and is believed to be good for the skin. You can make use of the little tubs around the around the area but please take note that it takes like forever for the tub to be filled, we gave up when the water reaches only up to our waist (sitting down).

Milky river of the hot springs Canopy Walk

Our day ended with a delicious dinner at one of Ranau's local restaurant.

Day 4

We rise early to catch a glimpse of the Majestic Mount KK. To our disappointment, due to the heavy fog, we could only catch its shadow silhouetting behind the thick fog that hangs around the air.


Our Best view

Up in the mountain, especially a well known national park such as this, one would expect that having meals at the hotel restaurant would cost you a bomb but we were so wrong. We had breakfast at the Hotel right beneath the foot of Mt KK and the food was cheap considering the portion served was big! To add on, the ambience was superb... surrounded by thick green forest.


Breakfast at the foot of Mt KK

After breakfast we headed toward the Timpohon trail ( which leads you all the way up to the summit of the Mt KK if you track long enough and all geared up for it)... we managed to track as far as 800 m... I consider that a great success. Our walk back to the gate was slightly unpleasant as it started to drizzle rather heavily. Thank God we managed to track back to the car without any injuries.

We then moved toward Kundasang town, headed for the Desa Cattle farm, Mesilau Golf Course and finally to the Mesilau Resort (another track to the summit of Mount KK). If you are looking for some peace and quiet, Mesilau resort is the perfect place. Sitauted way above the hills, the Mesilau Resort is hidden away from the eyes of passerby along the main street of Kundasang. A Toyota Pajero finds it difficult to climb to the altitude at which the resort is situated.


Timpohon trail leading to the summit of Mt KK



L-R: Desa Cattle Farm, Mesilau Golf Course and Mesilau Resort Activity Center

Simpang Mengayau, Sabah

Day 2

Kota Kinabalu ~ Tuaran
Our journey begins as early as 8 am. Thanks to my uncle's pajero, we were cruising comfortably along the bumpy roads of Sabah. We headed off Foh Sang for breakfast before setting out to Tuaran town via the Tuaran Link Road. The journey to Tuaran town takes about 35- 40 minutes. We paid Aunty Jenny a visit and headed off towards the sunday market where the hanging bridge is, a common structure to get across rivers in Sabah.


Tuaran's hanging bridge "Sa Bak" sold at the market...wished I could buy them

Tuaran ~ Kota Belud
We cruised through the vast padi fields of the Sabah's countryside. There are not much development done to this part of the state and it's a wonder how one can passes their time here. I can't never imagine staying here for more than a day! I supposed these people spend quite a fair amount of time watching the satelite tv as the wooden houses along the road have at least one Astro satelite attached to its roof...I supposed life here it's not so boring after all.
Along the road, there were many wooden huts where the villagers would sell their harvests such as rice, potatoes, vegetables,fruits and also roasted corn to passer-by like us.


Roast Corn...don't be deceived by the burnt husk, the corn inside is nicely roasted and sweet :)

After about an hour plus we arrived at Kota Belud town. My attempt to look for the "Tamu", open air market, was unsuccessful. Nevertheless we got a glimpse of how this town looks like, pretty much like Tuaran. According to my dad, whose last visit to Kota Belud was about 20 years ago, this town is much more developed than it was before.

Kota Belud is known as the cowboy town of Sabah. Most of the Bajaus resides here and in the olden days, they were the famous horse riders. Although the only horse(a skinny one too) i see was the statue in front of the town's welcome board, I am sure there are some horses to be found, most likely somewhere away from the town.


Kota Belud Town

Kota Belud ~ Kudat
It took us another hour from Kota Belud to Kudat. Half way through the journey, it started to drizzle, we were quite worried that we might not be able to get good shots of the tip in this kind of weather. On the way, we managed to get some Kudat's famous Peanuts roasted in sand in one of the wooden huts by the road side. Although I am not a big fan of roasted peanuts but after tasting the Kudat's peanuts, I seriously think that they roast pretty good peanuts!

Fortunately it was bright and sunny when we arrived at Kudat town. Although the weather was on our side, to our dismay, this town looks deserted when we arrived. We were expecting some crowd as it is a sunday but I guess the people in Kudat seems to be resting at home. 98% of the shops were closed so we headed towards the fishing dock for a short visit before setting out to hunt for fresh seafood for lunch. Seems like there are more actions in the fishing docks than the town itself! I think some fishermen have just returned from the sea when we got there. There were workers sorting out fishes and there were loadful of fishes all over. We managed to braced through the unpleassant fishy smell and took some shots of the dock.

Lunch was pretty hard to find in Kudat town on Sunday unless you don't mind settling down for KFC. However, we managed to find a place, right behind the fish market, for good seafood at unreasonably cheap prices. We had a fried fish (medium sized), two types of shell fishes and another dish of prawns. The bill came out to about RM 30+ only!


We had this for lunch... yummy!

Kudat ~ Simpang Mengayau
The road to Simpang Mengayau (Tip of Borneo) wasn't all tarred. Most of the journey was on a paved dirt road so it was like sitting on an OSIM chair. We passed by the Rungus longhouse, Honey bee Farm and the Gong Maker's place but unfortunately we did not stop by to any of these places.

Our journey takes less than an hour to reach Simpang Mengayau. The moment we arrived, we were mesmerized by the beauty of the white sandy beach. The beach is well perserved. There were only two families were picnicking there. Right by the side of the road, village children were selling sea shells they collected in a wooden hut. You'll find some polished crowie shells, some rare shells and salted fish for sale.


Sue Ann and I at the Tip of Borneo ~ apparently where we were standing is the tip of borneo not those rocks behind us.



Although there is nothing much here except the beatiful beach. For those who are interested in spending a night here, wooden huts are available for RM5 per space or you could also choose to have your own private hut (Remember to bring your own mosquito net!). There's a canteen where you can have your meals and proper common bathrooms for your use. For a perfect peaceful vacation with a view of a beautiful beach, perhaps this could be a good choice. Although we were told by the locals that they are not entertaining the idea of developing into a tourist 5 star beach resort, but you'll never know. So if you have the chance to visit this place, my advise is don't miss it.