A round belly

It's been a long while since I've written something about one of my favourite activities eating. And since I'm actually feeling a bit peckish at the moment, I guess that this is the perfect reason for me to write something about food...just to build my appetite that much more (and maybe get your own mouth salivating in the process, hehe).

I've actually been wanting to write about one of my more interesting dining experiences at one of the local restaurants here in Kota Kinabalu but I've been putting it off till now. Sometime last month, we decided to try out some provincial Chinese cooking at a restaurant called Moon Bell. It's not exactly new; it's been in operation for at least two years now and that's what piqued my wife's and my interest. You see, the few times we walked past this particular restaurant, we always saw the empty tables inside. The restaurant was open, there were just no customers. You and I know very well what happens to empty restaurants, right? Be empty long enough and the owners will have no choice but to go out of business. Unless of course they are rolling in money.

Anyway, so this restaurant was quite empty every time we passed it, yet it had survived all this time. The restaurant two doors away which opened about the same time as this particular one is already into its third owner! So, my wife and I figured maybe people do come just that we don't see them at the times we actually pass by. So, we decided to try out the food.

Their speciality is this deep fried (or was it roast) lamb with a dip. I remember it being quite delicious though the portion was fairly small for the price: only four smallish pieces, I think, for about RM20. Then we ordered another of their speciality, some stuffed brinjal. This had a rather sweetish taste to it, but it was something we had never tried before and it tasted quite good as well. The price was in the teens, I think, and the portion, like the lamb wasn't very big as well. Anyway, I had rice to go with the dishes while my wife ordered plain (as in empty) soup noodles. The lady owner said that they made their own noodles so it was supposed to be better. We found it to be nothing special, and the price of RM4 for just a bowl of noodles with some flavoured soup didn't justify the cost, I think. And again, the portion was not up to expectations.

The lamb...small portion, but yummy!

A different kind of dish: the stuffed brinjal

Despite all this, we enjoyed the meal tremendously (what little there was of it, anyway!) and thought that maybe we'd come back again, minus an order for the noodles, of course.

Now, that was the Chinese restaurant. Just last Thursday, we went Japanese. It was at Hana, at one of the shopping complexes here in Kota Kinabalu. The food here is quite good, and the portions are reasonable. So, my wife ordered Chicken Teriyaki, which she shared (or rather, traded) with me; I ordered some beef thingy, and we oredered Adelle a kid's bento set. Adelle enjoys coming here as she can eat and be entertained by the train that goes round and round the track bringing plates of sashimi on its carriages. This translates to needing less attention by the parents, and hence, allowing the parents to get some decent enjoyment of the food before them. :)

Chicken Teriyaki


This is my beef dish. Don't remember the name, though.

There was a spot of trouble with our order, however. The picture in the menu for the kid's bento set showed a yakitori, but when the order came, they gave deep fried chicken instead. My wife didn't want Adelle to eat too much oily stuff so she queried the staff about it. They said that the menu was old and that they had replaced the yakitori with the chicken a long while now, Wife said they should have informed us when we placed the order, and asked for the chicken to be changed. The staff (a more senior one) refused. So my wife asked to cancel the order, and she also refused! Threatening to report this to the hotline made the staff to consult her superior (I'm assuming) and it was only then that they'd change the chicken with the yakitori.

This is the kid's bento set. That's the deep fried chicken on the right.

All this for a stick of chicken pieces.

But, we enjoyed our meal nevertheless, and this father was full at the end.

Burp!