When it comes to Kota Kinabalu, seafood is undoubtedly the number one choice of food. The city is blessed with access to the surrounding ocean that’s a rich habitat for a wide variety of fish, shellfish and crustaceans. This means an availability of very fresh ingredients from the ocean at prices that are often a lot more favourable compared to other parts of Malaysia.
During my recent trip there, I met up with a local who proposed that we go to Sasa Seafood Restaurant, one of the lesser known seafood places at Penampang that’s just a short drive away from Kota Kinabalu city centre.
“Sasa” got its name by combining the first syllable of both Bornean states of Malaysia – Sabah and Sarawak – and they pride themselves on representing real Bornean cuisine. The place was rather busy even on a weekday night, and by the looks of it the clientele was possibly over 90% locals, which is always a good sign.
For the two of us, we got ourselves some butter crabs, boiled prawns, steamed grouper fish, boiled snails and fried jungle fern, to go with some steamed rice.
It was a very satisfying seafood dinner, definitely a place worth revisiting. I hope the tour buses never figure out this place.
Opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and food is at his own expense.
KY Teoh has been trying to influence your food cravings since 2005. He was NTV7 Foodie Blogger 2014, R.A.GE Food Fight Judge 2015 and Versus 1001 Rasa Baba’s Guest Judge 2018. Read more about his food jaunts at KYspeaks.com
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Steamed garupa was the only fish we ordered. It was perfectly prepared with superior soy sauce and went really well with steamed rice. — Photos: KYSPEAKS
The boiled marine snails were served with an interesting condiment – fermented tofu – a combination that I haven’t come across before, but one that works quite well indeed, something you have to try to appreciate.
Equally great with rice was the unique vegetable dish we ordered – fried jungle fern. I simply love the crunchy texture and fresh taste offered by this unique Bornean vegetable. Wish we could have this in KL too.
We chose to have the prawns prepared the most popular way in most seafood restaurants in Kota Kinabalu, by simply boiling without any seasoning. This was the best method for prawns that were still swimming in the tank just a few minutes prior to cooking, letting the natural sweetness of the seafood take centre stage. A dip in their superior soy sauce mix is all you need to enjoy this dish.
I wish I had some steamed or fried mantao to enjoy more of the sauce from the butter crab which was equally tasty, but alas, our stomachs couldn’t keep up.
