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!

It’s easy to like El Centro, a new cafe and bar in Kota Kinabalu, where you can go have a bite to eat, indulge in delectable cocktails and have actual conversations with the people you’re with.

So Fresh it still smell of Wood

El Centro, opposite Wisma Merdeka on the block between Kinabalu Daya Hotel on the 1 side and Millemewa on the other, is a welcoming cafe and bar where the furniture are made of re-purposed drift wood, the decor is minimalist, and the emphasis is on people.

Possibly the first non smoking bar in Kota Kinabalu, there’s no smoking inside the restaurant, so if you have to puff, then off to the sidewalk for you.

But with the wide open storefront this is actually quite a social place to be, as you’re not cut-off from the restaurant or the vibe inside.

And now for something a little different

The food is unique amongst Kota Kinabalu’s restaurants. Katie, the owner, has been to interesting corners of the globe and have collected her favourite recipes from her travels, which she is now sharing at El Centro.

There’s tacos, salads and hummus, sandwiches, soups, various sides and desserts.

In her bag of tricks, Katie also has the skills of a bar tender. Bar tenders know cocktails, but Katie knows awesome cocktails.

In May, a delicious flood of tasty cocktails are coming to El Centro and Katie’s friends know what’s in store. Her Bloody Mary has a well established reputation, and already legend of her margarita is rising.

Sunday Brunch

The menu is still evolving to the tastes and feedback of customers, but a few mainstays are well worth having.

Anything with chips is a winner, because El Centro has the secret for the perfect french fry. From amongst the tacos, the Steak Taco is king, and the large Greek Grilled Chicken Foldover or Salad are the most value for money items on the menu.

On Sundays, you can wrap up the weekend with a tasty Sunday Brunch. Fresh, hot breakfast tacos to fill your stomach, and a spicy Bloody Mary to ease you off whatever hangover you might be having.

An easy end to the weekend, and a beautiful start to Sunday morning.

See you at El Centro!

SabahBah went to Bella Italia Pizzeria & Ristorante the other Monday to sample the all-you-can-eat Monday Pasta Madness promo. At RM30 it really is madness.

The Monday Pasta Madness deal is that you pay RM30 and you can order as much as you can eat from the special menu created for this promotion.

The catch is, you have to finish your plate before you can order the next dish. This is all good and well, but the drawback is that you have to wait a while for the next dish, which could take some time if the restaurant is busy.

Moving on, the Monday Pasta Madness menu is fairly concise with 3 choices each across 4 sections, which are Soups & Salads, Tomato Based Pastas, Dry Style Pastas and Cream Based Pastas.

A quick bit of math and you’ll notice you have a choice of 12 dishes in total.

In the time we were there, between 2 people, we managed to have a soup, a garden salad, and 3 pasta dishes.

The soup was Minestrone, which came out nice and hot and was quite tasty. We also had the Garden Salad, which was crisp and fresh, although the dressing was a tad too tangy for our palates.

A must-have pasta dish for SabahBah is always going to be the Aglio e Olio, which is a fairly basic pasta dish with lots of olive oil, garlic and chili. Bella Italia’s version didn’t disappoint, although they were careful with the chili, perhaps because a large portion of their clientele is westerners, who don’t always appreciate chili as much.

The 2nd pasta dish was the Marina; a pasta with mixed seafood & chili. Again the chili was light and the tomato was prominent, but overall not bad.

The final pasta dish, by which time we were already filling up, was chosen from the cream-based section. For the sake of a balanced review, you see? We chose the Salmone, a rich dish with homemade smoked Salmon and parsley. If you’re a fan of smoked Salmon, you’ll love this dish, but beware, it’s quite heavy, so perhaps not on a nearly-full stomach.

Between the laid back pace of us eating, and having to wait in between courses for the next, we actually filled up good, and positively struggled to finish the last dish.

Bella Italia’s Monday Pasta Madness is value for money and compliments their regular menu, which is well worth checking out.

Last month I lamented the demise of the Firefly Burger from their new menu. The LA Burger replaced it, but the secret lies in all the trimmings.

The only beef burger alternative on the menu was the LA Burger, but the standard, bland LA Burger was a big disappointment, especial after I enjoyed what was possibly Kota Kinabalu’s best burger, the Firefly Beef Burger, so much.

Last night the carnivore in me was alive and well and somehow we ended up at Firefly again. Foodie Bah had the Firefly Salad with chicken (#win) and, craving a beef burger, I went for the LA Burger again, this time willing to pay the extra RM1.50 each for the extra egg, pork bacon and Swiss & Cheddar cheese.

Best RM4.50 extra I ever spent, because those additions made the LA Burger one of the best hamburgers I’ve had in Kota Kinabalu.

The LA Burger took on a whole new personality with the egg, bacon and generous helping of cheese elevating the burger to awesomeness. The juicy, peppery flavours of the meaty beef patty was accentuated by eggy sweetness, contrasted by the smoky taste of the bacon and outlined by the sharpness of the two cheeses. Delicious beef burger bliss tied together by soft, sesame bread buns not too thick, and of a bake that didn’t get soggy under the load of the burger.

The only 2 detractors form this heavenly hamburger experience was the price, which with all the trimming brought the price to RM19.50 (before ++), and the Curly Fries which always look re-fried and soaked in oil.

Those two little niggly points aside though, the LA Burger (with all the trimmings) gets a big thumbs up, and is a certain contender for the title of Best Beef Burger in Kota Kinabalu.

Firefly Bar & Grill in KK Times Square on the fringe of Kota Kinabalu, has a new menu and we at SabahBah.com have mixed emotions about it.

The good news is… well, we haven’t discovered the good news yet.

In stead of the Classic Firefly Beef Burger, there is a Firefly Chicken Burger, but we just couldn’t get ourselves to try it, afraid we would spoil the juicy memories of the beef version we still covet.

Instead, we tried the LA Burger. It’s a large beef patty, which, yes, on it’s own is not too bad. But it’s pretty much alone on the burger bun, save for a few slices of what seemed to be pickles underneath. The description on the menu wasn’t quite what we had on our plate.

A light point was the Firefly Salad with extra Pepper Roasted Chicken added. An interesting looking salad, which tasted pretty decent too. At RM15 it’s OK value for money.

Firefly also seemed to have had a bit of staff turn over, and our server Zeck (according to the bill), seemed a bit inexperienced tonight, in fact, he seemed a bit afraid of our table, so much so that he hardly said a word and never actually asked us if we wanted anything to drink.

Maybe it was just an off night. The new menu looks interesting and is definitely queued for further exploration.