Day 2 in Kota Kinabalu on 1 Jan 2010 (Freshwater Fishing Competition in Sabah)

Despite sleeping past midnight, we got up at 6am the next morning for the freshwater fishing competition I had signed up for. Cititel Express's breakfast (buffet) cost RM12 but we decided to explore the hotel's surroundings for grub instead. We came across this coffeeshop on the left side of the hotel (the side where the bak kut teh coffeeshop is).

The stall owner was from Sarawak. I decided to have the Wantun Mee (yes, spelt this way) for breakfast. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. For such a cheap dish (RM 6), the noodles are springy with just the right amount of seasoning (wasn't thirsty after eating) and the wantun's skin were thin and smooth. The meat inside was fresh too and the soup was delightfully warm and sweet.

We reached the freshwater pond at Parpar after an hour's drive out of KK city center. My tag was 38 which meant that I had to stand at the spot marked with the number 38. The cost of entering this yearly competition was RM100.

The competition was supposed to start at 8am. The prizes were a chainsaw (1st place), grass-cutters (2nd and 3rd place) and a bicycle even (5th place). The winner would be the one with the largest fish caught so this was a competition purely on luck....or so I thought. Anyway, that's me in my usual fishing attire standing at the marker.

If you note the time-stamp on the picture above and the next picture below, there is a time-difference of 3 hours odd. I'd been fishing from 9am to 12.10pm without a single bite at all. I started off with bottom fishing but after one and a half hours and not catching anything, I decided to change to float fishing instead. Bait remained the same - chicken guts. For another one and a half hour, despite some frantic activity around the float each time when I cast after re-baiting, no fish actually took the bait. And THEN, at 12.15 or so, the float went down and stayed down. After 3 hours of no bite, I figured it would probably pop back up but when it didn't and I testedthe line slightly, I realised that I had a fish eating the bait. I jerked to set the hook but stupid me, I had too much slack line out. Mistake No 1. And I thought I had set the hook well because the fish started to run and the line peeled off the reel. Normally, I wouldn't bring a fish in so quickly to the bank (as in the case of Sawai Lake in Phuket where I had just fished in late Nov) but this was a competition and there were like 40 over lines in that pond and I was terrified of losing my fish and crossing lines so I brought the fish in to the side without letting it tire. Mistake No 2. The picture below is the only picture I have of how close the fish was brought to shore and ALMOST netted. The person next to me was about to net the fish but when the fish saw the net, it spooked (of course) and went for a second run...I was fighting to bring it back again without letting it tangle lines when.....SNAP, the line went slack...I lost the fish. Everyone said sayang, sayang, which meant, what a damn pity, because it was the largest fish, if not at least the second largest fish (1st or at least 2nd prize).

I have to confess that when I lost the fish, I wanted to weep. The whole crowd at the pond had been clapping, cheering and watching me fight it. And everyone saw how close I had come to winning. I don't blame the guy for failing to net the fish, I've been fishing enough to know that fishes spook and run when they see the net, I only blame myself for the mistakes I made above. This competition is going to be one that haunts me a long long long time....Anyway, right after the fish got away, there was this awful silence at the pond while everyone watched me to see what I would do. Well, I turned away (feeling really sick and in disbelief) and watched my fingers go through the motions of picking through chicken guts and re-baiting. The competition was supposed to end at 12.30am so there wasn't much time left but some datuk (a minister or some sorts) came and made grand speeches and they extended the competition time to 1pm. I figured that I might as well just do my best - after not having a single fish for 3 hours, I lose the biggest one, and well, if I didn't try I would end up with zero, so what's the harm in trying...I casted out again and waited...10 mins later, the float went down, and mother, did I strike damn hard to set the hook this time. Everyone stopped talking and watched me bring in this fish....which put up absolutely no fight cos it was just a tilapia...I gave it to some other dude who helped me unhook it. The fish I lost was a patin and I was in no mood to keep the cheapest kinda fish.

I reached the hotel by 2pm, tired, heart-sore and feeling really lousy. Nothing anyone says or does can ease that awful feeling of having lost a competition, I guess. I tried to console myself that it was an experience and lesson for me despite not winning but my emotions would not be soothed with self-talk. So I went for the only thing that could give me comfort...Yes, durians. This is the first durian I had this KK trip, a 3kg bitter-sweet durian. Despite the appearance, the meat was good. By the way, the durian stall is underneath the overhead bridge at the Segamat area next to KK Plaza and is open from 5pm (not sure, if it's daily but it should be)

The durian seller had some kampong durians which were quickly snapped up. My companion managed to get 1 (RM 12 each) though which we fell upon, attracted to the unique red color of the fruit...And to our utter dismay, the meat was absolutely horrible. And I mean, horrible. The Slog Reviews: -1/10. Talk about an extremely tasteless bland sticky mash. Ugh. I took one bite and spat it out. We gave the rest to a Korean couple next to us.

We were too stuffed from the durians to go for dinner so my companion suggested going to 1Borneo. I'd been there before the last trip but I didn't remember the way there cos we had used the shuttle bus so we got rather lost on our bike. Luckily, my companion could speak Malay v well so he managed to get us there from KK City Center. 1Borneo is located near UMS, as any local there will tell you. This is a picture I took en route there.

Christmas decorations were still up at 1Borneo as you can see from the picture below. We walked around the shops without buying anything...the closest they have to anything branded would be Mont Blanc...and left about 8pm.

It was raining that night so thankfully we managed to reach Sedco Square before the rain started up again. We decided to try a different restaurant and after deliberating between Hua Hing Seafood restaurant below and Sri Mutiara, we decided on Hua Hing Seafood. The lady boss (do ask for the lao ban niang), a youngish attractive lady provided superb excellent service when it came to picking the seafood.

The Slog Reviews: 9/10. If you go Sedco Square, I strongly recommend you eat at Hua Hing Restaurant and ask for the female young lady boss to assist you in choosing the seafood. Not only is she friendly, able to speak English (and Chinese), but also honest (she weighs the seafood in front of you). She makes great recommendation and doesn't hard-sell any of the more expensive seafood to you. As per the picture below, I had a crayfish (mini-lobster) unlike any other sea creature I've seen before, a plate of two female crabs with roe (the lady boss picked them upon my request for crabs with eggs), a plate of veg and hotplate beancurd AND all that for only RM 114. Unbelievably cheap!!! That's only SGD 40+ for fresh live seafood...unbeatable price, service, taste and value.

The lady picked this little fella out for me from the tank - it stood out from the rest of its bros because of its color - the rest were black and white spotted. Cost was RM 10/100gm and this fellow cost RM 53 (SGD 21). This is the last pic of it alive on the weighing scale.

And yes, this is a picture of the little guy above split in half and cooked in the restaurant's recommended style of buttery cream-like sauce. The sauce was slightly oily but combined with the firm whitish sweet meat of the crayfish;....can you say heaven...

This is a close-up picture of the meat removed from the shell. Sigh, what wouldn't I give to be able to go back to KK right now and have more of this?

And finally, these 2 small female crabs steamed in egg white and some wine sauce. The cost was only RM 36 (less than SGD 20) for the 2 crabs which were cooked to perfection. The egg roe (the orange bits) were very tasty and I have to confess, I polished off this entire dish on my own without a pause, glad secretly that my companion did not enjoy crabs - yes, it was that good.

Wang Jia Sha Restaurant at Elements Mall Hong Kong

When in Shenzhen for work, I would often go to Hong Kong over the weekend or for a day. I would buy their Tourist Day Pass (HKD 55) which entitles the holder to an unlimited number of rides on their MTR line (except for Luohu Station which connects to the Shenzhen border) for a 24hr period. The Tourist Day Pass came with two slips of paper entitling the holder too to a HKD50 Voucher which can be used at certain shops at Elements Mall and a HKD20 Voucher which can be used at certain shops at Telford Plaza or Maritime Square upon production of the tourist's passports at the respective customer centers.

One weekend in October 2009, I was wondering what to do with my HKD50 Elements Mall Voucher (the shops at Elements Mall are pretty high-end - Ferragamo, Coach, Gucci and the like so the HKD50 wouldn't go very far there) and decided on impulse to have a meal at one of their restaurants.

Wang Jia Sha, a Shanghai fusion restaurant had a hairy-crab set meal promotion (HKD 228)which caught my eye while I was walking by in search of food. On top of 1 hairy crab, one would get a bowl of soup (I chose sweet&sour spicy soup, middle right pic), daam daam min (noodles in savoury sauce, top right pic), two delectable siú lùng bàau (steamed pork dumplings, middle left pic), very tiny cup of Chinese wine and a choice of dessert (I chose the glutinous rice balls with seasame in ginger soup, bottom pics). However, as I was pretty hungry, I also ordered an appetiser - cold sliced toufu with century egg and pork floss (top left pic).

The Slog Reviews: 10/10. The appetiser is seriously orgasmic and tantalises your taste-buds with the richness of its flavours. Do not miss trying. The noodles were tasty and filling and so was the soup. However, these are not a must-try . The skin of the pork buns were so delicately and exquistely thin that when I put them in my mouth and bit down, my mouth was flooded with the sweetness of the liquid in the buns. Shanghai dumplings are famous for that. As for the dessert, as I don't like eating ginger I removed the glutimous rice balls from the soup and I could find no fault with the glutinous rice balls which were filled with green colored sesame.

The hairy crab (which they provided scissors to open it) deserves pictures on its own so here goes. The crab when it was served.


And here's a picture of the hairy crab which I asked the waitress to assist me in opening with the scissors.


The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Crab-lovers, if you haven't tasted hairy crabs, you are missing out on one of the greatest delicacies ever. Yes, this crab isn't fleshy, there is hardly enough meat. But it isn't the meat that we are interested in, are we? It's the cholestrol-laden egg in the crab and Wang Jia Sha's chef did a damn fine job of cooking the crab just right so that the yellowish roe was not overcooked (too hard, rubbery and tasteless) or undercooked (which would mean many trips to the washroom for you). Instead, it was a sensory delight on its own. The price of the hairy crab meal is also cheaper compared to eating it in Singapore.

I have to confess that I was so impressed with Wang Jia Sha and its menu that the very next week when I flew to Shenzhen again, I made it a special point to go to Hong Kong and to this restaurant again (of course I bought the tourist pass) to try out the other items on its menu. However, being just one person, I couldn't order too many dishes and in the end, I settled for the appetiser I had the last time and this glorious bowl of boiled shark fins, crab meat and rice.

The Slog Reviews: 10/10 - see the thick slices of sharks-fins in the bowl? Enough said. Be warned that the portion is rather small and the cost may thus be considered steep at HKD 55. Still, to a foodie, that is worth every single cent.

Address: Shop 1068-1070, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 852-2382 0101
Nearest MTR: Kowloon MTR Station

Alaska King Crab at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant

Early this month, I got to enjoy the mother of all crabs, the Alaska King Crab.

There are only two restaurants in Singapore which serves this dish apparently, one of them being Ah Yat Restaurant at Turf City. With the 40-50% discount on seafood items (even for dinner) which the restaurant had, the Alaskan King Crab (Red) cost SGD6 / 100gm. As you would know, the Alaska King Crab is a large species and the one that was brought for our inspection was 2300gm. We had wanted the more lively of the two in the tanks but both crabs were reserved in advance so the restaurant had to specially order this one for us. It was either this or no king crab. It is therefore advisable to make reservations in advance. Here's a picture of our dinner crawling on the mat before the seafood tanks before being taken to the kitchen.

The Slog Reviews: 10/10 for the Alaska King Crab. Such mind-blowing tender sweet meat - and so much of that (meat), especially the legs. Ah Yat does a fine job of cooking and presenting the crab so I would suggest heading there to treat yourself and your loved ones to something really good if you have SGD 150 burning a hole in your pocket.


Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant
Address: Turf City 200 Turf Club Road #03-01/02 Main Grandstand
Singapore 287994 (65) 6883 2112
Daily 5:30pm – 10:30pm

The Manhattan Fish Market, A Lam Seafood Restaurant and Durians

I had lunch at The Manhattan Fish Market today at Jusco Tebrau City, JB. I had my favourite course - The Flaming Platter for one which consists of one piece of grilled fish, rice, chips and three "flaming" prawns. The cream on the prawns is simply delicious, I must say. However, the prawns were quite soggy and tasteless, as were the fries. Still, the cost of this course at RM 27.90 is a steal (compared to SG). The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10.

For the flaming platters courses, the waitress/waiter will bring the dish to your table and use a device which emits blue flames to cook the prawns before you for about 1 min. It's quite a sight to watch and how burnt your prawns end up depend on the skill or mood of the waitress/waiter.


I did my nails (classic manicure and pedicure) at the nail salon (De Unique) on the second floor of the mall. The nail salon is nicely decorated (recently renovated) with proper nail salon chairs (comfy with pull-out sinks), good service and the girl who did my nails was well-trained and professional. However, I didn't like that they didn't have any machines for blowing dry my toe nails, and only for the fingernails. The cost of the classic mani and pedi was RM 82 which I felt was on the high side (compared to the usual one I go to at Nusa Bestari) but then again, this is one of the more popular malls amongst Singaporeans.

After shopping at Jusco, I used my handy compasseo GPS (purchased from Carrefour last year at SGD 235) to locate the famous Orang Asli Seafood restaurant at Tmn Perling.


It was about 9pm by the time I reached there. The street lamps along the main road leading to the restaurant were not switched on and the minor road leading to the restaurant was more like a dirt track without clear road markings, very narrow and mostly unlit. The place still had quite a number of large families at that hour having dinner - most of the tables had crabs and cereal prawns. Like Sedco Square in KK, the fishes, clams, prawns, lobsters, crayfish and crabs were kept live in tanks for customers to pick and choose. We had five dishes in all - kailan veg, small clams (commonly known as lala, see top right pic), lemon chicken (top left pic), steamed prawns and 2 steamed crabs. The cost of the meal was RM 150. The 2 crabs cost RM74 and the prawns, RM 20. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Nothing special about any of the dishes which though fresh, did not thrill the imagination or taste-buds. The restaurant is also quite a drive away from the city but makes a refreshing change for dining as it is situated facing the Johor Straits. Note the dangers of driving there though because of the road conditions


After I got home about 12 midnight (there was a slight jam across the causeway due to the Xmas weekend), I opened these two durians which I bought from a illegal durian "stall" . An oldish Chinese couple were selling durians from Yong Peng out of their van which was parked in a semi-unlit area along a double-yellow line. This mode of selling durians/other fruits out of a van along a roadside is quite common in Malaysia. The XO durians were selling at RM18/kg and the ordinary ones at RM13/kg and I got one of each for supper.


This is the pic of the non-XO durian which I opened at home. It was about 2.5KG and a tad over-riped.

This is the XO durian - it was very over-riped but oh so bitter which is exactly what I asked for. The bitter bit, that is. The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. The cost of the durians are on the high-side but then again, it isn't exactly durian season now (that's during June - early Aug).


I also got to try for the first time in my life, this unique fruit found only in East Malaysia. I am not sure what it is called but it tastes rather sweet and very much like our smooth-skined longan. While the skin of the fruit is a strange color (greenish-black) which is rather unappealing, the meat inside makes up for it. The skin is quite thin - if one's nails are long enough, one can use it to pierce the skin. The Slog Reviews: 8/10.