We didn’t have much time to explore Kota Kinabalu town when we were there recently. We were staying in the Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu and just had a few hours to spare. So we put those hours to good use – we went in search of food!
Right behind the Le Meridien is Seng Hing, a kopitiam that sells decent noodles. It’s very popular as the place is busy all the time. We had the Prawns Laksa with extremely fresh prawns swimming in the rich spicy broth. Sweet and bouncy, those prawns were a great hit.
Prawns Laksa
Mee Tuaran was another popular item in the kopitiam and there’re various add-on ingredients that can be ordered. However, we stuck to the plain version just to savour the noodles without too much distraction. The springy eggy noodles were really good!
We also tried the Kerabu Chicken Feet as we saw several other tables had this. However, it turned out to be just average.
Kerabu Chicken Feet
Kedai Kopi Seng Hing
Block G, Sinsuran Complex
Jalan Tun Mohd Stephen
Kota Kinablu
(behind Le Meridien Hotel)
We haven’t had any good Sang Nyuk Noodles (pork noodles Sabah-style) here in KL so we were really looking forward to the real thing in Kota Kinabalu. Kedai Kopi Kim Hing Lee is also in the same Sinsuran Complex and that’s a bonus for us. We lost no time in heading there.
This old-world kopitiam dates back to the 1980’s and is believed to be one of the pioneers to serve Sang Nyuk Noodles. We opted for the dry version (“kon loe”) of the noodles and these came tossed in black soya sauce and fragrant pork lard. Yes, the noodles looked messy with sauce stains all over the bowls but those were some of the best-tasting noodles we’ve had.
Served separately was a bowl of porky heaven – superbly tender sliced pork, slivers of pig liver and intestines in a robust murky-looking pork broth. Every drop was slurp-worthy.
Kedai Kopi Kim Hing Lee
Lot 7 Block F
Sinsuran Complex
Jalan Tun Mohd Stephen
Kota Kinabalu
With stomachs happily full and satisfied, we walked across Jalan Tun Mohd Stephen to the wet market. We had a mission in mind: to buy fresh seafood! We headed straight to the seafood stalls. Even though it was already late morning, there were still plenty of stuff available.
There were giant clams and cockles at one stall. The cockles were huge and really fresh! Many stalls were hawking prawns and lobsters. We zoomed in to one particular stall which had the most amount and variety of fresh prawns. Prices were much lower than what we have to pay back home.
We bought 10kg of prawns here
We chose what we wanted and they packed the prawns for us. The packing was done very professionally so there’s no worry about leakages and the packages were good for either checking-in or hand-carry in the plane. For hand-carry boxes, they were careful to pack only up to 7kg of seafood + ice per box. The packed boxes of seafood with ice can withstand a journey up to 8 hours – when we reached home (KL) and opened them, the seafood was fine 🙂
Professional packing services available!
Lots of seafood choices, so fresh too!
*The Central Wet Market is located by the waterfront along Jalan Tun Mohd Stephen, next to the Filipino (handicraft) Market. We only had time to check out the seafood stalls. There are of course other sections selling vegetables, fruits, meats and dry goods.
I can certainly get behind that bowl of laksa!