The arrival of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon, is just around the corner and across the globe the Chinese community is gearing up for their annual new year celebrations.

In Kota Kinabalu and Sabah too, the buzz is spreading and the good people at Hyatt Regency Kinabalu invited SabahBah and others over to sample what Chef Tay and his team at The Chinese Restaurant has in store.

Chef Tay has prepared a generous menu of deliciousness with which to have a memorable family celebration.

Salmon Yee Sang

Our taste safari kicked off with Yee Sang.  Vital to any Chinese New Year celebrations, these long life noodles represents longevity and it is said the higher you toss the noodles, the more abundant your returns.

The dish arrives as separate ingredients and was quickly assembled in front of our eyes. Shredded vegetables, fruits, pickles, flour crisps and plum sauce are just a few of the ingredients, which make up this visually pleasing dish.

Chef Tay himself was at the table to add the final touches, before leading the group in the customary tossing of the Yee Sang.

The Yee Sang is available from 16 January onwards at The Chinese Restaurant in the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu.

After the flurry of activity around the Yee Sang, we were treated to fatt choi (black moss) with veggies and chicken, Chef Tay’s signature XO Fortune prawns, Pacific clam with sea asparagus and, my personal favourite, the sweet, salmony taste of crispy friend honey salmon.

Also on the table was soft shell crab. “The soft-shell crab isn’t part of the Chinese New Year menu,” said our host, PR Manager Julia Chan, “but it’s the best in Kota Kinabalu, so a must try.”

The collection of Chinese New Year menus have been designed to incorporate the ingredients which, according to Chinese beliefs, symbolises wealth, health and prosperity.

2 set menus will help you make the most of your reunion dinner, but an ala-carte menu offers you additional choices of scallops. abolone, Pacific clams and silver cod.

Chinese New Year Activities at Hyatt Regency Kinabalu

From 21 – 25 January Hyatt Regency Kinabalu’s The Chinese Restaurant will cater to dim sum fans with an all-you-can-eat Prosperity Dim Sum promo, which is on offer from 9am – 2:30pm.

Other than food, the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu has plenty else going on during the Chinese New Year for those looking for some entertainment in Kota Kinabalu.

From 21 – 25 January Master Calligrapher Huang Poh Lo will entertain with demonstrations of ancient art.

During the 1st 2 days of Chinese New Year Choi San Yeh, the God of Fortune, will spread good wishes amongst hotel guests.

On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, 24 January, the hotel’s parking lot will be the venue for a grand lion dance showcase.

Starting at 8:30am, the Sabah champion troupe of lion dancers will put on a show, which guarantees to thrill, entertain and have you gasping for breath at their seemingly impossible acrobatics, all staged on tiny platforms between 1m – 2m above the ground.

For additional information about Hyatt Regency Kinabalu’s Chinese New Year offerings, or to book your dinner, please contact the hotel in Kota Kinabalu on 088 22 1234.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai!

The Kota Kinabalu Jazz Festival (KKJF) is on this 18 & 19 June 2010 Sutera Harbour Resort right here in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

“One of the striking differences of KK Jazz Festival”, mused Jack Ong, this year’s Organising Chairman, “when compared to the other jazz festivals in the region, is that the KK Jazz Fesitval has more local bands performing”.

If you doubt whether or not that’s a good thing, head on down to the KK Jazz Festival this weekend and judge for yourself. Aside from promoting jazz as a popular music genre in KK, the festival is also a fine opportunity for up and coming young musicians to get exposure to national and international artists.

Two-day passes to the event are RM80 and this year there is no reserved seating, so it’s on a first come first served basis. You can grab your ticket from any Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet in Sabah & Sarawak until 17 June, otherwise buy them at the gate.

Tweet about cans of Carlsberg for less than RM10 and other exciting KK Jazz Festival news by using the hashtag #kkjf – then visitors to the Official KK Jazz Festival page on SabahBah.com can follow the excitement.

At the start of the last decade Kota Kinabalu was but a blip on the cinema entertainment map. Back then it featured the already old, but not so dilapidated 3 screens of the Golden Screen Cinema complex in the centre of town.

Today, as we enter the new decade, Kota Kinabalu has cinema screens galore. There’s the Cathay Cineplex in the town centre, Growball in Centrepoint and the newest of them all, the GSC in 1Borneo. Another GSC is taking shape in the freshly completed Suria KK Shopping Centre near Jessleton Point and will be coming online in a month or so.

With all this competition the old city GSC just couldn’t attract enough of a crowd with it’s run-down facilities to sustain it, and were closed down.

The fact that a cinema was closed down at all should really make operators of other cinema’s sit up and take notice. If there were no competition, that old GSC would have been able to do business in perpetuity.

Where’s the Movie Magic?

Growball’s no.8 theatre is arguably the best in Kota Kinabalu. Huge auditorium, big screen, every seat a winner and state-of-the-art sound.

However, the other Growball theatres are old and creaky with equipment that is starting to fail. Their only attraction seems to be the sheer volume of titles to chose from on any given night.

But more and more regularly a reminder to the projectionist (who switches on the film and goes outside) is required to either fine tune the focus, the aspect ratio or the sound.

Last night, during a showing of Tooth Fairy in Growballs theatre 3 it was obvious that a particular sound channel had something wrong with it. The actors’ voices were distant, shallow and tinny. A complaint to the projectionist uncovered an apology, but at the same time was added that it couldn’t be fix as a hardware part was being awaited from Singapore.

After a visit to the supervisor’s office a refund was offered, but some members of the author’s contingent didn’t mind the imperfect sound and so we all suffered the poor quality movie experience together.

It’s strange that, in light of the growing competition, Growball doesn’t mind running poor quality shows. The part responsible for the sound failure was on order and obviously it wasn’t just this one show that suffered as the problem was known and yet they ignored it.

To add insult to injury, the hammering outside on tiles being replaced could be felt though the whole show and heard during the quieter parts. Thumbs down for Growball on this occasion.

5 Senses

The reason people visit cinemas, as opposed to watching DVDs (pirated or otherwise) at home, is to experience a movie rather than just watch it. You smell the popcorn, you feel the vibrations of the sound in your feat, you see the larger-than-life actors on the big screen, and you taste the anticipation of a good thriller on your tongue.

If any of these senses are compromised, punters will first consider alternative cinemas and then wonder why they should pay RM7 per person to watch a movie instead of buying that pirate DVD with 4 movies for RM10.

Can you really afford for your theatres to smell like urine, Cathay, for your visuals and audio to be less than perfect Growball, or to freeze your customers in their seats, GSC?

Isn’t its time that customers get what they pay for and speak with their feet if businesses don’t deliver?

Join the discussion and share a bit about your highs and lows in the cinemas of Kota Kinabalu…

We’re Generation Now and if it happens later, it’s just not good enough. This is probably the reason why the SabahBah.com Facebook Fan Page is doing so well – people want to interact right this minute.

We launched our Facebook Fan Page on 16 November, and today we’re merrily skipping past the 1000 fans mark as more people join to talk and learn about Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo.

So what’s special about SabahBah.com’s Facebook Fan Page?

The main reason is that you’re instantly surrounded by other people who are passionate about Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo.

You can instantly share your experiences with people who will appreciate it, learn from it, and perhaps even try to experience it for themselves. SabahBah.com is travel information about Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and Borneo and the Fan Page is place where this ideology is perpetuated.

Communication on the fan page is another great thing. If you want to ask a question, get feedback or solicit suggestions then the growing community of active Sabah-lovers are always willing to help. Sabahans love their food, so food questions should get a flood of responses.

Post a fan picture or post one to the wall – Sabah-lovers love to see how other people experienced this unique part of the world, and perhaps we can get ideas of how to experience it ourselves.

Exclusive Content

The transition from 2009 to 2010 was fun. Kota Kinabalu had loads of parties going on, some the biggest in Borneo. This always leaves many people wondering “what should I do?”. The Fan Page was great with a little guidance in that way.

We teamed up with Ice Bar at 1Borneo who was staging possibly the biggest party KK has even seen and we gave away free tickets every day for a week.

And that’s what we’re aiming for on the Fan Page: letting you know about what’s hot and happening and giving you the opportunity to join the fun.

So, if you’re not on the SabahBah.com Facebook Fan Page yet, get over there and get involved in some Sabah chat.

Ice Bar 1Borneo is throwing a massive party with 2 nights in a row featuring dancers, 13 DJs from all over, 16 hours of thumping party music and 6,000 megawatts of bass power for KK’s biggest new year’s eve party.

The 2010 Countdown Fiesta is the traditional new year’s eve party taking place on 31 December 2009 and will say goodbye to 2009 in Sabah in grand fashion. The party starts at 7pm and will go on until the wee wee hours of the morning.

If you’re still standing, then the New Year Power Party on the 1st of January will keep you bopping to celebrate the arrival 2010. This party will start at 7pm on the 1st.

Check out the event’s main page for ticketing details, and don’t forget to drop by Ice Bar’s main page for a peak at their happy hour specials, daily promos and bottle promos which truly are sensational.

If you would like to win yourself 2 double sets of tickets for each of the New Year party events, then surf on over to the SabahBah.com Facebook Fan Page where we will be giving away 4 tickets for the 2 events every day until 30 December (excluding 26 & 27 Dec).

Just answer a few easy Ice Bar related questions and stand in line to win. Then dance away the night with Ice Bar’s Clash of the Titans New Year’s Eve Parties!