My Sabah fasting month

So the Syawal @ Raya month has bid us goodbye. Like way, way long time ago. But that has nothing to deter me from musing over my fasting month experience in Sabah.

OK, so this is the month where you take a break from eating, or so they say. Or technically, give your stomach a break from all the gobbling and shoveling. But when the supposed break during the fasting month becomes the other way round, what more can be said? I’m telling you, it’s amazing, the ferocity of hungry people when they shopped in the bazaar. I can bet dollars to doughnuts that the spending in fasting month could somewhat exceed that of other months, seeing how they spent and how mortifyingly expensive some food stuffs were priced during this time (as in the prices are inappropriate to the taste or meager amount of food packed). But anywhere is the same, so no big surprise.

By the way, among the famous bazaar are the ones in Asia City area, Gaya Street and Indah Permai. But traffic and parking were horrendous with the cars and people packing through and through the area soI skipped the Gaya Street one since it’s too bothersome to find a parking space or get out from one, and instead I usually frequented the Asia City area and Indah Permai ones. However, I wouldn’t dream of going to one at after 5 pm since the crowd was at its worst at this hour nearing fast breaking. Nevertheless, it’s worth the time if I was to come at 4 something since the stalls were just being set up and food still fresh (except “recycled ones”).

As usual, some would live up to expectations and some were just lame copycats without skills. I mean, come on, it’s just way too much when the famous Kelantanese Nasi Kerabu is presented to you as plain rice with taugeh, some cabbage strips, a pinch of maybe – sambal belacan, telur masin and an extra – charged puny piece of fried fish. Luckily this year I did not chance upon any and instead 2 or 3 stalls manned by Kelantanese fellas (or claimed that the dish is prepared by Kelantanese cooks) sold excellent Nasi Kerabu, much to my delight since I really missed it since my last stay in Kelantan. I’m happy to report that the rice was in the right shade of blue (though some bear a suspiciously bright secondary – school – uniform – blue, a tell – tale of food dye disaster, or another odd one is yellow but it tasted fine with the correct presentation format so I let the colour mishap slip), the sambal kelapa, budu, ulam and telur masin complete, along with extra – charged fried fish in flour, sliced roasted beef, ayam percik and some local dishes. I vote the best to be from Indah Permai, sold by a pair of Muslim Kelantanese couple, with many thumb ups for the clean stalls and overall presentation (utensils, pots & pans etc). Even their Nasi Tomato was nice with heaps of ayam masak merah ladled onto the mountain of rice. I really hope next year they’ll make a comeback. Too bad I can’t recall their names.

Murtabak is something I stay away from in Sabah since my last stint with it. I guess I simply can’t let go of Peninsular’s murtabak. Here they deep fry their murtabak in lots of oil on the hot plate or in the wok till it is crisp like the skin of fried popiah @ spring roll and calls it “Murtabak Jawa”. Not my cup of tea I guess (shrug T~T). You may have a try. An experience, a heck of it.

I found some nice roti jala with thick chicken curry in Asia City bazaar. Well, actually 3 stalls sold them but I’ve to say that they all tasted nearly the same, and all sold nearly miniature roti jala RM0.50 for 1. Egad… so not much to comment.

Either my taste buds had gone haywire or the vendors in Asia City area cheated me but pandan soya bean milk and normal soya bean milk tasted the same to me… Since they’re priced the same so not much loss here.

What else did I try? Hmm… ikan bakar. Pretty interesting, the way they marinated the fish in some sort of tangy sambal belacan and wrapped them in banana leaf prior cooking and then served it with asam limau and their prepared chili dip. Recommended would be ikan sebelah (or ikan kayu as they call it here) and ikan pari (sting ray). Good vendors would sell you a nicely done, juicy fish. Just try your luck by random and crowd size. Don’t forget hygiene too.

So far I’d suffer no stomach problem. So my tips when shopping in food bazaar are pretty simple; hygiene, good presentation, crowd size, friendly and tidy – looking vendors and the last one is survey all the vendors first for the best choice.

But nothing beats the bazaar in Jalan Hamzah, Kelantan, except maybe the ones in KL (I’m not a fan of KL by the way). OK, now I’m homesick… Bawl…