Log | Late Lunch at Lucy's Kitchen

 

After I was done with my errands around 88 Marketplace, I walked in Lucy's Kitchen thinking to maybe just grab something to drink but then I've realized that I haven't eaten anything since this morning so... 

I had Pari Masak Asam Pedas and man, it's been awhile since I last had one. The portion was quite nice for a single person and I appreciate the lots of vegetables but I do think that the fish was quite overcooked but overall taste was quite nice. 

I had this Roselle juice and I haven't had it before so the taste was quite refreshing. 

The brownie tasted so good as I like how it's not as sweet as I've expected and it went well with vanilla ice cream. Wish I could've bought that wafer on top separately 😆

The overall lunch was quite nice I'd say as I was literally dining alone throughout the hour I was in there. I was listening to my usual dining Spotify playlist; Han Geuru's playlist from Netflix's Move to Heaven series and took my time with my dessert. Paid everything with my GrabPay credit and off to CKS supermarket at the mini mall nearby. 

I guess that's the log for today and I'll be seeing you guys on my next post. 

Lunar New Year-themed Traditional Sino-Kadazandusun 5-Course Lunch Sets at D'Place Kinabalu

Looking for something different for your Lunar New Year gathering this year? Why not try local family restaurant for a quick lunch with your friends and family right here at one of the most-known place in Kota Kinabalu to dine-in some traditional Kadazandusun cuisine? Special for this Chinese New Year 2019, D'Place Kinabalu has prepared 5-course lunch sets for group of people that represent us Sabahan; mixture of race, culture and religion in the hope that can bring people together, enjoying the celebration with local traditional food with a twist of Chinese-style cooking. Let's get into it!

First, the ever quintessential dish for Chinese New Year would be the Yee Sang (prosperity toss salad) platter with fresh sliced vegetables, fruits, sauces and instead of fresh-cut fish, hinava; slices of fresh caught fish mixed and marinated with  red onion, ginger, chili, bitter gourd, bambangan seed (type of mango) and lime juice. Yee Sang generally tastes sweet, sour, a little bit nutty and depending on your sauces, it can be a little bit spicy so I'd say the hinava actually blends in pretty nicely. Next course, appetiser!

For appetiser, it's the above 5 different traditional Sino-Kadazandusun dishes arranged in quintuple star that consists of (clockwise) tuhau (pickled wild ginger), tinutuk mangga (young mango salad with anchovies), hinava tongii (sliced marinated fresh mackerel fish), bambangan (pickled wild mango) and deep fried four-colour roll with Thousand Island sauce. Definitely different from the usual star-platter but it's in the continuity of the yee sang that I had prior to this which is nice. I was all over bambangan at this point!

 

Next, we were served with the Chinese Winter Melon Soup with chicken and red dates. The soup was indeed savoury although a little bit salty to my preference so that's where the hinopot (red bario rice) comes in. The rice was nicely cooked and wrapped in that wide linopot leaves which provide the nice scent to the rice itself. Now, let's go to the main course!

First dish would be the above deep fried boneless chicken with butter sauce which was real nice as it was crunchy and savoury especially with the sprinkled chilli powder on top.

Next would be the above sea fish with bambangan curry paste. If you know me personally then you'd know that I'm not a curry-eating person; not even Malay-style curry with lots of santan but the bambangan in this curry sort of tones down the curry spices a little bit and adds in the zest of bambangan which is surprisingly delicious!

Next is the above Tuhau Oxtail Assam Pedas; the meat is chewy a little bit but it was delicious still although I kind of wish it's a little bit spicier and tone down the Tuhau scent a little bit but that's me and it seems that this dish is quite enjoyable still. 

I, for one usually order steamed mix vegetables cooked with oyster sauce and it's always the same formula; broccoli, cauliflower, carrot and mushroom; all kinds of mushroom but it was the first time I had kodop (Wild Rubber Tree Mushroom) in the above braised mix vegetable dish and I actually liked it! Now, onto the desserts!

 

Few minutes after we're all done with the main course, we were served with sweet mung bean with sago dessert. The taste was a bit bland with less sweet and coconut milk but I guess it's better that way as we had some local fruits like watermelon, papaya and pineapple right after that.  Those fruits were fresh and tasty!

Dino (Breeze Magazine) and Carl's Evert (GingKaras) with another customer took part in the Magunatip dance (Bamboo dance).

Last but not least, this Manisan Ambuyat (sweet sago) that has taken most of us by huge surprise especially us Bajau and Bruneian! For over 20 years since I've eaten ambuyat the first time in my childhood years, I've always eaten it with dip made from basung fish boiled with turmeric, tamarind, red onions and salt with grilled eggplants on the side hence a savoury dip but never had I ever thought eating it with anything sweet! It was a regular shaved ice with fillings like grass jelly, cendol, steamed corn, evaporated creamer but added with ambuyat and caramelised brown sugar which I needed to stir a little bit longer to actually savour the taste altogether but it's okay as we were having long conversation at the end of our session that night.

Souvenir corner at the restaurant.

I guess that is all about the food that will be available this Lunar New Year starting 4th till 10th February 2019 and there are 2 sets available as options and the above dishes are actually from Package A so check out below for more details!

What do you think of the above menus? Oh, did I mention that the Yee Sang platter is complementary with your lunch set? Awesome, right?

Such a warm yet lively place to come with your friends and family.

That's all of it! I hope you guys find this post helpful in planning your Lunar New Year celebrations and do let me know your thoughts by leaving comments down below and I'll see you guys on my next post! 

Plaza Shell entrance in Lunar New Year mode.

|||   Information   |||

D'Place Kinabalu

Location | Lot 2.01 - 2.02, 2nd Floor, Plaza Shell, Hap Seng Building, 88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Contact | 088 - 277 319 or Ms. Sandra at 016 - 833 2381 (Reservation)

Facebook | D'Place Kinabalu

Instagram | D'Place Kinabalu

New Rockin' Lunch Sets at Hard Rock Cafe, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

With the upcoming festive season, I bet you guys are eager to gather around with your friends and family members during the holidays (so lucky for those of you who still have lots of annual leave to your calendar) but of course, it's approaching towards the end of the year hence works are just mounting up with annual reports, etc that need to be submitted soon; at least for me. Still, being a typical Malaysian that's always struggling to choose where to eat during lunch hours, not to fret as Hard Rock Cafe, Kota Kinabalu has came up with new rockin' lunch sets with considerably affordable prices starting today.  Have a look!

Available on weekdays (Mondays to Fridays) from 11.30am to 2.30pm, there are 3 choices of entrée introduced every week for the next 4 weeks with 2 sets available:

• RM25 nett - any entrée inclusive of two soft drinks or ice lemon tea or juices
• RM38 nett - any entrée inclusive appetiser, dessert and free flow of soft drinks or ice lemon tea or juices ​

Now, let's go to the galore of entrée!

WEEK 1 |   SOUL (26 Nov - 30 Nov 2018)

These are entrées for this week! There are chicken chop, fish cutlets and you can't go wrong with pasta!

BBQ Chicken Chop

Seasoned boneless whole leg grilled to perfection and basted with barbeque sauce topped with barbeque onions with fries and coleslaw. 

Sweet and Sour Fish

Pan seared fish drizzled with sweet and sour sauce served with steam rice and mixed vegetable.

Spaghetti Aglio Olio Chicken

Succulent chicken sautéed with garlic, onion and mushroom tossed with parmesan cheese and slice red chili.

WEEK 2 |   JAZZ (3 Dec - 7 Dec 2018)

For the second upcoming week, there will be one of Hard Rock Cafe bestselling dish, fish and of course, another pasta!

BBQ Quarter Chicken

Chicken brined then basted with Hard Rock Cafe hickory barbeque sauce and roasted until fork tender.

Being one of core menu of Hard Rock Cafe, you have got to try this quarter chicken especially with the restaurant's hickory barbeque sauce; sweet (think honey and dark brown sugar), ketchup-based sauce that is typically found in Oklahoma City, USA barbeque places.

Grilled Cajun Fish

Cajun seasoned pan-dried fish served with mixed vegetable and tartar sauce.

Photo credit to curiostraveller.com

Spaghetti Chicken Marinara

Original homemade marinara sauce tossed with sliced chicken and mushroom.

WEEK 3 |   PUNK (10 Dec - 14 Dec 2018)

For the third week, Hard Rock Cafe is offering fish pasta, cheesy chicken and chicken salad!

Spaghetti Salmon Pasta

Salmon tossed with creamy lemon sauce topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Chicken Marinara

Grilled chicken breast basted with marinara sauce and topped with melted cheese served with mixed vegetable.

Caesar Salad with Tupelo Chicken

Fresh chopped romaine lettuce, tossed in Hard Rock Cafe homemade Caesar dressing, topped with tupelo chicken, croutons and shaved parmesan cheese.

Tupelo chicken tenders is actually one of Hard Rock Cafe's well-known dish that this theme restaurant pays tribute to birthplace of Elvis Presley with.

WEEK 4 |   ROCK (17 Dec - 21 Dec 2018)

Finally on the fourth week, Hard Rock Cafe will be offering fish, Malaysian classic favourite and vegetable pasta with bacon twist!

Breaded fish with Garlic sauce

Breaded fish deep fried till golden brown drizzled with creamy garlic sauce served with mixed vegetables.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Chicken slice tossed with sweet and sour sauce served with steam rice and mixed vegetables.

Spinach pasta

Fresh spinach sautéed with turkey bacon, onion, garlic topped with chili flakes.

If you're more on vegetables, you can request for Hard Rock Cafe to hold the Turkey Bacon.

The outer area; such a great view!

As I've mentioned above, there's the second set that comes with any of the entrée with appetiser, dessert and free flow of soft drinks, iced lemon tea or juices.

Creamy Loaded Potato Soup

Hearty cream soup with potatoes cube topped with bacon bits, mixed cheese and spring onions.

Hot Fudge Brownie

Vanilla ice-cream and hot fudge on dense chocolate brownie topped with chopped walnuts, chocolate sprinkles and  fresh whipped cream.

Overall, I'd say these dishes offered by Hard Rock Cafe are pretty nice for a short lunch hours within the city. There's choice for everyone; for nasi-eater fellow to pasta-lover like me stessa to so I'm sure you'd find yourself loving any of the entrée along with drinks and I'd definitely will go for the set that comes with appetiser and desserts as I usually go for heavy meal during the day compared to dinner. But of course, if these dishes still aren't enough you can never go wrong with their Classic Nachos!

Tortilla chips piled high and layered with three bean mix, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses, pico de gallo, jalapeños and green onions. Garnished with sour cream.

I guess that's all from me and I'll see you guys on my next post!

||| Information |||

Hard Rock Cafe
Location | Unit G-26/F-28 Oceanus Waterfront Mall Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens, 88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
Phone | +60 88 273 952
Website | http://www.hardrock.com/cafes/kota-kinabalu/
Facebook | Hard Rock Cafe Kota Kinabalu Sabah
Instagram | @hardrockcafekk
Twitter | @hardrockcafekk