Seafood in Sabah is like char kuey teow in Penang or tom yam in Bangkok.
If you find yourself in Kota Kinabalu, it is a must to go to one of the many seafood restaurants there and have a meal.
So, on a trip to Mount Kinabalu, the choice was Salut Seafood, a restaurant located within a prawn farm. The restaurant is located by the sea and accessible by car, but if you are on a tour bus, you are out of luck. This place is built for the locals.
Like most seafood restaurants worth their salt in Southeast Asia, there is a smorgasbord of live seafood to choose from.
Crabs, prawns, fish and many others can be chosen from the live tank to be cooked in the method of your choice. A large price list is plastered on the wall to avoid unwanted surprises.
For three people, the order was live prawns, crabs, shellfish and Sabah vegetables with rice.
The prawns and shellfish were prepared using the simplest possible cooking method of steaming to preserve their natural sweetness.
The quality was apparent as the prawns were a lot more difficult to peel than the usual ‘already dead for a couple days’ variety.
There was a side order of snails like those available at Hong Hai in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. They taste like a cross between lala and balitong, so if you enjoy those, you will enjoy this.
The crab, while properly seasoned and prepared, was not as firm and ‘full’ as hoped for, though it was an acceptable dish.
Then there’s the plate of unique Sabah vegetables that are not available in Peninsular Malaysia, with its slightly crunchy stem and soft leaves.
Dinner came to about RM50 per person, which is average for a good seafood meal in KK.
It would have been cheaper without the over ordering, but the diet goes to hell when you are travelling, right?
Salut Seafood
Jalan Sulaman, Kampung Salut,
89200 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
GPS: 6.103970, 116.160311
Tel: (019) 881 8515
Business hours: 11:30am to 9:30pm
Read the original article here.
Trying to influence your cravings since 2005, Kar Yeong was Guest Judge on Versus 1001 Rasa Baba’s 2018, R.AGE Food Fight Judge 2015 and NTV7 Foodie Blogger 2014. To read more about Kar Yeong’s food journeys, visit his blog at KYspeaks.com.