Rendezvous at Mango

As I'm writing this, the rest of Malaysia is tuned in on the Olympic finals of the badminton game between Lin Dan of China, and our very own Lee Chong Wei. Why am I not watching? I'm a badminton fan. I play badminton twice a week. So, I should be watching the game, no? But, the thing is, my tv is not connected to the antennae. Neither is it connected to Astro. And Adelle is asleep. So, being the responsible, sacrificial dad that I am (do I hear a groan somewhere?) I'm home manning the fort while my wife has gone to a friend's house to watch the game. So, I write.

Last night, my little family and I decided to take my parents out for dinner at a new-ish place called Mango Cafe. I got to know about it on Jacq's blog and they have their very own blog as well here. It's a Thai restaurant, located in Kompleks Asia City (another one of Kota Kinabalu's shopping complexes, but it seems like it's not doing very well. A lot of empty lots either for sale or rent). The restaurant has a simple and attractive enough deco with shades of yellow and green on the walls. I've heard good things about the food so that's why I wanted to try out the place.

Since they were five of us (Adelle included), so we could try out a bigger variety of dishes. For starters we had Ta Koo. I presume it's some kind of soft coconut pudding on top with water chestnuts underneath, wrapped with around with pandan leaves. Very good just to whet your appetite. Mom was keen on trying out the Phad Thai so that was the next dish that came out. Slightly different from your usual plate of char koay teow, this noodle dish has a slightly sourish taste to it, but it's really refreshing, not to mention delicious! Next, came the prawn on lemongrass stick which was deep fried prawn balls skewered with lemon grass. This wasn't too bad.

Ta Koo

Phad Thai

Kung Ho Takrai

After that, the main dishes arrived along with our rice: green curry with chicken, mixed vegetables with garlic, and pandan chicken. We all agreed that the green curry was very good (I had the honour to finish it up!) and very appetising. Just the curry sauce is enough to make you go for a second helping of rice. The curry is pretty mild, and apart from the chicken pieces, there's brinjal and also, this small roundish thing (a mini eggplant we're told by the owner). The mixed vegetables was the usual fare. Tasted very Chinese but that was to be expected, so not much to comment there. As for the pandan chicken, I thought it was alright. But my mom thought it tasted a bit bitter. And my wife was quite surprised to find only chicken skin when she unwrapped one. We reported this to the owner and he generously offered to give us another whole set. This time there were no problems.

Geng Gwio Waan Gai

Phad Phak Luem

Gai Hor Bai Dtoei

For dessert, we tried out Red Rubies. The dessert consisted of several pieces of red jelly-like balls (just like the ones topping the ta koo) complemented with thinly-sliced jackfruit all submerged in some pink water which reminded me of air bandung. Not too bad, I say.

Thap Tim Krab

And that was dinner. When we arrived the place was rather quiet (it was already about 8 pm then), but about half an hour later it got rather busy. So, it did take some time for our food to arrive on our table. But, we didn't really mind since we weren't on empty stomachs and we were'nt in a hurry. Just something to consider, if you do plan to visit.

All in all, we're quite satisfied with the food there, and it's reasonably priced. For all the food that we had, we paid slightly over RM50. We'll definitely go back again.

Oh, and on the way out from the place, who should I see but people whom I met at the Sabahan Bloggers Gathering. Julian, Fara, Dinoza...and I'm quite sure there was another person but I can't recall who. Hmmm...it didn't occur to me until later that I should have taken a photo with them. For remembrance, and also to help jog this brain to remember.


p.s. Just got word that Chong Wei has lost in straight sets: 12-21, 8-21. Well, the elusive gold medal for Malaysia still remains that: elusive.