Holiday in Sabah part two (the food)

Fish are good for you

One thing I love and I think everybody else too, when it comes to the holiday season, food and beverage is almost always one of the most important things in the checklist. Here in Kunak, Sabah, I have to say that it has been a fantastic food fiesta for me at least. From junk food to real food, everything was really great.

Front-Fresh cuttlefish, Middle-Venison meat, Back-Some beer

Like I mentioned before, one of the great thing about Kunak is that venison meat or deer meat is still readily available. Most of the restaurants serve this. There are so many cooking styles for you to choose from. My favorite is the one where they cook it with black soy sauce with garlic and stuff. There’s a lighter version of it too with ginger added. Yummy. There’s also ‘mee goreng payau’ (venison meat cooked with fried noodles). Man, that one is a super duper tasty dish I tell you!

Venison meat cooked with ginger and stuff

Other cool available dish is also the wild boar meat. This one you can’t get easily from the shops but just stay here in Kunak for maybe around one or two days you might find them in peoples houses or maybe in one of the gatherings from any of the Kadazan-Dusun people living in Kunak area mainly the ones near Kampung Kadazan area.

Sweet and sour crab

You see, wild boar has since have a good appetite for fresh palm tree seeds. Since Kunak’s main agriculture activity is palm oil, there are abundant supply every where. In Kunak, everywhere you turn is a view of palm oil trees. So, especially when these estates are located next to some forest, chances are there will surely be gangs of wild boar having a blast in the estate area to feast on those really yummy healthy great tasting palm oil seeds.

Some sort of clam.. huge eh? Can’t find this in KL

Seafood in Kunak is also really-really cheap. I’m no expert in identifying fish names but after paying a meal that includes some steamed fish and all, you know you paid way cheaper compared to other places like Kuala Lumpur. Another great place to have your seafood craving satisfied is in Tawau town. Just around 80+ Km from Kunak, (takes about 40-45 minutes depending on how many lorries were in front of you) there are so many places to go for a good seafood meal. Head over to the ‘Sabindo’ area. There are many stalls aligned in one long stretch. It’s somewhere near the public library. There are Chinese and Malay stalls.

Fried noodle for breakfast..precious

Imagine this, five of us in the family had like 7 or 8 types of dishes. They include fish, crabs, chicken, veges, some clam thingy, prawns and some other stuff I can’t recall. I mean we did ordered too much but hey, I am around ain’t I? The bill was just under Rm140. Try doing the same stunt in Kuala Lumpur? You would pray hard that you happened to have extra cash in your wallet or perhaps your credit card still has some ‘allowance’. What a deal man.

The day’s catch at the river

Also another good place to visit is the main market. Here they sell loads of mainly perishable goods and other stuff. Each floor has it’s own group of food type. Just go higher up you will smell the fresh sweet smell of non other than dried fish and sea creatures. Salted fish, dried shark fins, prawns etc. A really great place to touch and feel stuff. You can bargain every item and the price is very reasonable.

Very reasonable price indeed

There are also some ‘pasar malam’ or night market in Kunak. Although they are not open at night. It happened every Wednesday from noon till evening. You can get all the usual stuff you tend to find selling in a Pasar Malam like vegetables, seafoods, readily available food like soto, pisang goreng or normally called ’sanggar’ in Kunak and even ‘nasi kuning’ or yellow rice if you translate it directly. It’s like ‘nasi lemak’ in KL. Very cheap and tasty. It normally comes together with a tasty chilly cooked fish. Really yummy I tell ya! That used to be my lunch whenever I am in town when I stayed in the boys hostel of Asrama Yayasan Sabah tawau.

..we also got this from the river. Can’t get any fresher than that!

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