Keningau and Satay Buntut Ayam

From Tenom I travelled to Keningau, another small town in the inland of Sabah. On the way to Keningau, the taxi driver brought me to this place:

The Murut Cultural Center of Tenom is situated just by the roadside of Tenom-Keningau road. The place was huge and the architecture of the building was magnificent! With all the pillars made from single tree trunks, one can imagine how difficult the construction can be and finding enough huge and straight tree trunks to be used as pillars.


Sadly, due to low number of visitors, the artifacts and displays of the center had been reduced to minimal and the buildings were basically way under-utilised. I was the only visitor at the centre that morning, yet they welcomed me with gong beating and traditional musics. After spending an hour there, we continued our journey to Keningau. First stop: Keningau Restaurant, for lunch.

It's just like any other nasi campur restaurant with vast choices of dishes to choose from. I was compelled to taste these two vegetables:
The petai. Not as any petai but sprouted petai. Interestingly, the owner said its the way the local take the petai. The petai will have to be sprouted for about a week before cooking them into various dishes. Erm... i think it's a bit to chewy but still love the taste.

And the pucuk labu. Can be found in Cameron Highland but it's kinda common here. Nice too, sweet.

Keningau is just like Kajang but a bit smaller. I stayed at the tallest hotel, which is also the tallest building in town. Standing at 11 storeys, the Hotel Juta was clearly visible from any direction.

I was lucky to have stayed there as the night food stalls were just beside the hotel. At 5.30pm, as the sky was just about to turn dark (Keningau is completely dark at around 7pm), i strolled through the place and found a few irresistible food.

Beside beef noodles, bakso, and some local delicacies, I favoured this stall: the BBQ stall.

They got the famous Satay Sayap or BBQ chicken wing!!! The sweet aroma was so strong that you can smell it at the other end of the stall stretches. I bought 4. Ooops.

And these cute looking love-shaped 'satay' was not just any 'satay', but the famous satay buntut ayam (literally translated as BBQed skewed chicken butt, hahaha). I bought one only. Too fatty for me. The taste? MARVELOUS!

Since i don't think it's appropriate to eat my food while 'cangkung' at the roadside, I enjoyed them in my hotel room.

Simply delicious!! My stay at Keningau was short too, and I continued my journey to KK the next day.

Coming up next... KK, eat-eat-eat.

Tenom and The Coffee

I was away again last week. My destination was Tenom and Keningau of Sabah. As soon as I got to know that I'll be evaluating students in these two places, I googled and found out that they are very far inland. Both are situated along the Crockers Ranch of Sabah, and driving to these places take 3 to four hours, depend on your driving skill. My first meal here in Sabah, a quick lunch at Papar, a small town along the way to Tenom. I had Nasi Ayam Rica-rica: fried chicken with hot and sour belancan sauce. Nice.

I intended to rent a car and drive myself but was strongly opposed by local friends, as the road was too windy and hilly for those who're not familiar with the road. With the help of a friend, he managed to get me a taxi for three days two night at RM600, including visit to interesting places. En. Masdir was his name.

Basically Tenom is a very small town. It took me a mere 10 minutes to cover the whole town by foot.

This is a statue of a well known warrior, Ontoros Antanom.

The lifestyles of the people here are pretty laybacked.

The was the best hotel in town. I put a night there at only RM44 per night. Huge room, king-sized bed, hot shower, air-conditioned and TV were provided.

At night, the town was really quiet. This was the only place with human activities: the restaurants. At 9.00pm, the town is dead.

With nothing much to do, I tried their coffee at various shops.

Tenom is known for it's aromatic coffee. With majority of the farmers planting coffee, coffee powder production company can be found easily. But the famous coffee were from only two major company. This was one of them.

To get fresh and good quality powder, my taxi driver took me to a factory. Vast choice of coffee powder were available. Since many friends and colleagues texted me to get them Tenom coffee, i bought a box full of coffee. The tauke was grinning from ear to ear.

Strangely, a small and plain looking berry like these are capable of making people crazy world wide. A sniff of these aromatic drinks would drive a person to heaven, literally.

I was told that Tenom is also known for the white water rafting activities. Too bad that I could only spend a night there. I headed to Keningau the next day.

Interesting Food at KB

My buddy Nik brought me to Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah and some warung makanan for some interesting food (especially cakes and desserts) which can only be found in the east coast.


Not that I have not been to Kota Bharu, in fact I'd been there twice before this, but without a good tour guide, those food are alien to me. Thanks to Nik, and his descriptive explaination, now I know.

First to introduce: Etak. Hm.... I thought they were raw. But then Nik told me that these bivalves were either sun dried, or grilled. My colleagues Puan Susu and Puan Tod-tod who're also from Kelantan, told me that some are boiled and dried. Too bad, I was too full to try any when we encounter these bivalves.

Next, the 'Tahi Itik' or duck manure. Well, the name was given because of the appearance. Nik told me that it's main ingredient is egg white. I tasted one, it's sweet, with subtle egg smell.

The 'Nasi Tumpang', as featured in my previous entry. A unique way to pack a meal.

This is the 'Sukun Bersira' or breadfruit with sugar syrup.

Two kuih made with egg yolks: the 'Jala Emas' on the left, and 'Kuih Buah Tanjung' on the right. Sweet too, with rather strong egg yold smell. I figure they must be nutritious.

The 'Kuah Apom' (kot, betul ke Nik?), very similar to the 'apam balik' but this one softer and fluffier.

The 'Kuih topi'.

We strolled around the food stalls there and saw these big and inviting prawns. I took one. But don't ask me the price, Nik paid for it. ;-D

For those who are not so adventurous or faint hearted, stop reading. Hehehehe..
This one is the satay perut ayam. The chicken intestine were thoroughly cleaned, skewed onto a bamboo stick and BBQed to perfection, then sprinkled with fragrant peanut sauce. YUMMMMYYYYYY!!!!

Erm.... I didn't try these. Saw these after my lunch. :-P

There're interesting. Aren't they?? I should have stay longer. But i'd booked my flight way in advance.

Nak gi KB lagi lah!

Memorable Kota Bharu Trip

Part of my job requires me to travel to various places, either to do some road shows (yah, road show), meetings, exhibitions and even students evaluations. I was in Kota Bharu to do some evaluation and my trip was planned in advance. What was my plan? To arrange my schedule and get a friend to show me good foods in Kota Bharu!! hehehehe...

Introducing my buddy, and my tour guide Nik.

True to his blog's name 'Pakcik Kopi', Nik is an avid coffee lover. He writes great Malay poems too.

Since he'd just got himself a DSLR, we spent time exchanging ideas, useful tips and what not.


Thanks to my tour guide, i was literally stuffed with food, from the moment i stepped into his car, brought me to various eateries, all the way to the return to my hotel room. I gained 2 kg in two days! hahahaha..

Pictures speaks louder then words. Here're some photos of the wonderful food i had:
Solok ikan. First time trying this one. The flesh of the fish was minced, added with grated coconut and spices before sticking back to the fish head and deep fried. Tasted superb!

Nasi Kerabu, my all time favourite!!! Goes well with the solok and the ayam percik. Well, usually the rice is blue but this one is white. I love the raw vegie!!

Another favourite of mine, the Ayam Percik. In fact, i love all the 'percik' thingy. Ikan percik, perut ayam percik, you name it.


The Solok Lada. Chili stuffed with fish meat and spices. The chili was interestingly crunchy.

First time in hearing and tasting Nasi Tumpang. Interestingly, it tasted like nasi impit with various 'goodies' inside, layer by layer. Must try if you haven't try it.

Another first time: Pulut Ikan Kering. Glutinous rice served with salted grated coconut and deep fried fish. It may look simple, but it tasted awesome!

Me eating away with hand. The blue coloured nasi kerabu was yummy.

I'm salivating as I write this entry.... My thousand thanks to my dear friend Nik that not only he stuffed me with food, he brought me to various interesting places in KB too. Not to mention having thick and aromatic coffee at kopitiam around 1.00am. Hahahaha... Nik, thanks again!

More 'interesting food of KB' coming up.

Preview

Hi readers, sorry for the infrequent update. Been busy and was away for days.

This is a preview of what would be next...

Jeng jeng.......

Cryopreservation Gurus.

It's cryo-preservation. 'Cryo' simply means ultra-low temperature. The cryopreservation is the technique employed to conserve genetic resources under very low temperature, usually at -196 degree Celcius in liquid nitrogen. It's the same technique applied in sperm banks, ovum banks and seed banks to preserve the target materials in viable and good conditions for a very long time, hundreds of years and more.

End of lecture. Class dismiss. :-P

I was privileged to be able to meet up with my old friends, the cryopreservation experts. They were my great gurus and still is.
Prof. C (second from right) is a prominent figure in this field world wide. I was honoured to be able to learn from him for years. At the age of 70s, he is still very active.
I last met Dr. E from France in person some 15 years ago, when i was still, erm.. very young. His publications and writings had always inspire me.

And of course, i was delighted to be able to meet up with my fellow friends too. We did research in the same lab.

My busy schedule had stopped me from updating this blog frequently. But i'm very thankful to my blog readers for the support.

Putrajaya Night Market

I didn't expect Putrajaya to have a night market (pasar malam) right in the middle of the concrete jungle of government offices until i saw it with my own eyes. To my surprise, it was a big one! Not only it's well organised, it's also very clean, with spacious walkways and friendly vendors.

Since my wife was attending discussion at church, my two good friends and I decided to check this place out and do some night photography. It was around 9.30pm when we reached there and the market was bustling with activities. Young and not-so-young, tall and short, big and small, all came to buy some stuff and fill their empty tummy.

Lots of fresh vegetables.

Great variety of seafood to be purchased.

Even an awesome number of potted plants were available at good price.

I was surprised to see this whole 'ekor' of roasted lamb! And the abang was shy-shy-cat when our lenses were pointing at him.

Our favourite kind of stall: The fruit stalls.

We stopped here. I bought 3 kilos of freshly plucked mangosteen for RM10 only. Ah Hock the flamingo (far right) and his 'un-identical twin' bought kilos of mangosteen and pulasan.

Tadaaaa....... sata is available here!! Now i don't have to travel all the way to the east coast to enjoy this delicacy!

For those of you who haven't been there, go! go! go! It's situated right in front of the Ministry of Finance building.