Most everyone knows that Kota Kinabalu, being located by the crystal clear and beautiful South China Sea, is famous for seafood when it comes to .. well, food. One of the ways to enjoy this sea bounty without having to bring a crowd to a seafood restaurant is by heading to one the few fish noodle restaurants in the city.
Today, we look at one of the more famous shops – Restoran Wan Wan.
Wan Wan fish noodle, Kota Kinabalu
Wan Wan is located at Bundusan, some 15 minutes away from the city center, which coincidentally, is also nearby another one of my favorite seafood restaurants – the original branch of Welcome Seafood.
Parking isn’t an issue in this part of tow, and being only some 12 mins away from airport, it’s not a bad idea for pre-flight meal, which was what I did.
Wan Wan runs a bit of a self-service kinda operations. While you do get to order from the server and have the food served to your table, you do have to get condiments and cutlery DIY style.
home made noodle with chunky fish fillet
For lunch, I chose jewel garupa with extra fish skin to go with their version of dry noodle.
The fish were certainly worthy to be labeled “KK standard”, fresh, succulent, and certainly super fresh tasting. At Wan Wan they do it super thick cuts too, which I thought retains more of the fish’s own juiciness. The “kan lou” noodle was springy and makes for good companion to the seafood for sure. Soup was packed with seafood sweetness, with very minor tomato note, quite different the stronger tasting Fatt Kee, but rather nice in its own way.
For those who likes it spicy, there’s tomyam soup base, and of course there are prawns, and quite a few other choices of fish to choose, there’s even fish paste noodle too.
jewel garupa is always one of my favorites
If you love fish noodle and likes your fish chunky, this is certainly a place to check out.
Address: Wan Wan Fish Noodle Lorong Bundusan, Hsk Industrial Centre, 88300 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah GPS: 5.924120, 116.092525 Tel: 088-716 698 Hours: 6:30 am to 2:30 pm, close on Tuesdays
On my first visit to Kelantan, we managed to try two meals outside of the “kenduri kahwin” that brought us there, first was the nasi kerabu Liniey, and the second was this quintessential Malaysian breakfast set at Kedai Kopi Wah Mui.
Kedai Kopi Wah Mui, Kota Bahru
This little old school restaurant is located by the main touristy area of Kota Bahru (if you can call it a touristy area at all), just across the road from Muzium Diraja Istana Baru, or the royal museum of Kelantan, a place Sultan Yahya Petra lived from 1939 to 1960. Worth visiting if you’re into a walk down the memory lane for a bit.
Anyway, back to this kopitiam.
Kedai Kopi Wah Mui is operated by a Chinese owner, but the Kelantanese way is such that everyone is a customer so long as halal food is served, and in this case, it is.
I ordered the simple classic mix of roti kahwin (toast with kaya & butter), half boiled eggs, and kopi ais for some afternoon tea time indulgence. It was simple, and for the lack of a more sophisticated word .. tasty! Love the richness of kaya, how the eggs are executed perfectly, and crispy toast bread.
roti kahwin, telur setengah masak, and kopi ais
If you want a simple 1 Malaysian breakfast (or afternoon snack) and a good cup of coffee at Kota Bahru, this won’t be a bad choice.
Address: Kedai Kopi Wah Mui 1448, D1, Bandar Kota Bharu, 15000 Kota Bharu, Kelantan GPS: 6.133082, 102.237111 Hours: breakfast and tea time
We’re definitely blessed with a great selection of street food in Malaysia, from your typical char kuih teow stalls to burger tepi jalan, to nasi lemak shacks.. but if you look harder, you can also find authentic street food originated from neighboring countries, case in point – Little Rara with its authentic Thai fare.
Little Rara Thai Noodle House, Kia Peng
The restaurant is located at the carpark next to Menara HLA by Jalan Kia Peng, a stone’s throw away from Pavilion KL. The set up is as “authentic” as they get, seemingly putting up together by someone who happened to have a set of table saw, hammer, and nails. There’s no such thing as air conditioning or tinted windows, but you are somewhat shielded from rain should it starts pouring.
The place starts operating by 5:30 pm and does work up a crowd pretty soon. While the set up is old school, they do have a proper digital queuing system, color me impressed.
tomyam talay meggi
Like most proper “street food” stalls, the kitchen is pretty much open. There’s a BBQ grill where they prepare beef/chicken/corn, a stall for noodle (wet & dry), plus a drinks’ kitchen.
We started out with their famous tomyam talay meggi (RM 19 for small), it was basically tomyam maggi on steroid. Packed with prawns, mussels, squid, egg, and ultra strong tomyam flavor. Love it.
bbq beef, pad thai
BBQ Beef (RM 13, Australian beef apparently) goes well with the accompanying sauce, and it wasn’t over cooked either. Portion though was a bit small I thought.
However, the must-order from the grill turns out to be their BBQ Corn (RM 7 for 2). They were ultra sweet and almost half caramelized, I need this for movie night!
mango sticky rice & the excellent bbq corn
We also had seafood pad thai (RM 12) which I thought was quite competent, and a dessert in mango sticky rice (RM 8) which turned out to be just average.
Over all thought I really liked the place and the intense flavor of their tomyam & those corns. Will definitely order those two again when I revisit, and perhaps try some of their other dishes.
Address: Little Rara Thai Noodle House Menara HLA, 3, Jalan Kia Peng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.151342, 101.713584 Tel: 012-372 2706 Hours: 5:30 pm to 12 am, Closed on Sunday
A couple weeks ago I managed to check off the list of states to travel in Malaysia, finally stepped foot in Kelantan after all these years thanks to a colleague’s wedding invitation.
ayam bakar, solok ladi, daging bakar
While it was only for a short day-trip and the wedding reception involved food, I can’t help but stopped by one of the more famous nasi kerabu place for a pre-kenduri brunch.
After consulting my brother’s friend who’s a Kelantanese (my brother spent years in Kelantan as a uni student), we decided to visit Liniey Nasi Kerabu Tumis in Kota Bahru town.
The restaurant is just over 10 minutes from the airport. Renting a car to move about in KB is probably the easiest way to move about this town. Pro tips: search with the term “kereta sewa” and you’d usually get it a bit cheaper than “car rental”.
The restaurant was rather busy in the brunch hours when we were there. There was a queue, we lined up for our turn and waited for our turn to pick the version of rice (dagang/kerabu) and lauk (dishes).
liniey nasi kerabu kota bahru
I opted for the blue nasi kerabu (color from butterfly-pea flower) with ayam bakar, daging bakar, and a piece of solok lada (stuffed green chili).
The meat were flavorful if not a bit sweet, as most things in Kelantan often is. If you’ve not had solok lada before, imagine yong tau fu, but also with shredded coconut, and spicier, I love it.
options of dishes to choose from, and that long queue
The brunch at Liniey Nasi Kerabu Tumis was lovely, a word of caution – the drinks was still too sweet despite us ordered it “kurang manis”, you’ve been warned.
Address: Lieniey Nasi Kerabu Tumis Jalan Abdul Kadir Adabi, 15200 Kota Bharu, Kelantan GPS: 6.125033, 102.258844 Hours: 7:30 am to 2 pm
While Klang Valley is one of the best places for those of us who eats out, one has to admit that it is not usually easy to find something that’s genuinely healthy.
It’s easy to find food that’s delicious (that’s what this site mostly concentrates on), and also cafes that offers cool concepts and beautiful dining environment/experience (those “instagrammable” spots, anyone?), so when I was contacted by MEDIFOODS to check out their unique proposition, I was pretty eager to take a look.
MEDIFOODS Lifestyle Cafe, Damansara Kim
The founder of MEDIFOODS is actually a licensed pharmacist, you wouldn’t have guessed it, but it is not a surprised when you really look at the name of the restaurant, right?
What the founder aim to do is to provide delicious food that is also healthy in nature – by the way of preparation and carefully crafted ingredients. For example: non-GMO, MSG free, vegetables from own farm, etc.
FIT meal – 2 protein 1 vege, or 2 vege 1 protein
In addition to these food, they also offer consultation on food selection and choices if healthy lifestyle is what you seek. Like I mentioned above, founder is a pharmacist, and often there’re also nutritionists in house.
I was there a couple weekends ago to check out their FIT Menu – where you can choose from either 1 protein + 2 vege (RM 16.90), or 2 protein + 1 vege combo (RM 18.90). The set is also served with a base of Medifoods rice (parboiled basmati), multigrain brown rice, or quinoa + millet (extra RM 2.00)
fish, steamed egg, and chicken dishes
So, what are you choices of these protein and vege? And most importantly, are they any good?
There are four different fish dishes (farmed raised organic tilapia) – ginger steamed fish, deep fried with ginger, steamed with soya sauce and fried ginger, steamed with assam sauce. Three chicken dishes – steamed with minced ginger, green curry, and with herbs. A couple egg dishes in Chinese style omelet and steamed egg, as well as a four different tofu and mushroom dominated dishes.
I found that the tastes aren’t overwhelming and generally a little bit more subtle in nature, while retaining natural sweetness of ingredients, very.. comforting.
tofu and egg dishes, basmati rice, multigrain brown rice, or quinoa
There’s also over half a dozen different vegetable dishes to pick from as well. I particularly love my bitter gourd with egg, but there’s also bok choi, choi sam, mixed vege, brinjal, and so forth. If paired it with tofu or egg as your protein choice(s), you can easily have a rather delicious set of vegetarian meal without resorting to those “fake meat” dishes, something I find rather contradicting at times.
which one is your favorite vegetable?
As for the base, I’d suggest trying out quinoa and millet, both of which offers higher fiber, magnesium, and antioxidants. But if you are a true Asian who can’t live without rice, there’s they are also available.
The FIT Menu is available daily, if a healthier hot meal is what you look for, this is a place to check out.
salad bar and noodle soup station
On weekends, MEDIFOODS also offer their signature Healthy Breakfast Buffet in the morning. Essentially a buffet spread specifically curated to contain healthier options in the all you can eat format.
At RM 21.80 per person, here’s what you get:
A salad bar with over 20 different ingredients from green peas, cherry tomato, roast pumpkins, cons, to eggs, spinach, and salad greens.
meehun, pizza, fried rice
A noodle station, as well as fried meehun, pizza, and fried rice.
angku, chai kuih, pumpkin cakes, radish cakes, fried fuchuk spring roll
A variety of traditional kuih, pumpkin cakes, radish cakes, fried spring roll, as well as santan free nasi lemak with their home-made sweet/spicy sambal.
oat embryo milk, bread, onde-onde
Bread, onde-onde- oat embryo milk, and free flow coffee and tea. There’s also porridge and two different types of tongsui to choose from.
The buffet is really the option to go if you have a good appetite, not willing to scarify healthy eating, and want a good value all at the same time.
spoiled for choices
Other than Damansara Kim (address below), MEDIFOODS is also presence at the following locations:
Bangsar South – Ground Floor, Tower 1, Avenue 3, The Horizon
Subang Jaya – 61, Jalan SS 18/6, Ss 18, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor
SS2 – 11A, Jalan SS 2/30, SS 2, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
