UFO tarts

Sandakan speciality:

(UFO from Kelly Bakery)

UFO, or ngau si dui (cow dung cake), or there might be some other names that you call it. We've talked about it here and here. Nothing comprehensive; have yet to really look for it - too busy, or
our timing are always off. There are quite a number of places offering this piece of delicacy. You can mostly find them at old coffee shops which sells breads, cakes and pastry items.

UFO cake/tarts or whatever you describe it is actually a thin piece of cake with some pastry cream on top and topped with meringue ( Egg whites ). The process is not as easy as it seems (or maybe it is) So it is somehow savoury and sweet at the same time. Soft and fluffy sponge cake with smooth pastry cream and light meringue. How great is that. Despite all the things I've said, I am unable to provide all the locations where this little jewel can be found, thus;I shall update on locations of UFO next time, or you can just ask us- we know some of them.

Never did I know that our own Sandakan only pastry managed to make it overseas. Yes, over sea. There is this lady selling UFO tarts in Singapore.For more information, head to her site =)

The Boss Fast Food & Juice House

I do not intend to criticize but this is by far the worst place I've ever been to for tea. Literally 'tea' as it is usually referred as yum cha by locals and chinese. The Boss Fast Food & Juice House is located at Indah, just behind Hong Leong Bank (the ex- A&W location), opposite Parkwell Supermarket. It is pretty noticeable cause the signboard is black and the text is in red. Striking.

Went there a couple days ago with some friends around 4pm. We do not want to have anything heavy hence plan to order some snacks, but the price for the among is not that worth it, and in the end we ordered the following :

Salted Plum Drink
This is the worst salted plum I've ever drank. I don't know, it seems that this is just a cup of salt water with some ice and the plum we saw is for decoration. Like seriously. My friend did not touch it after the first sip.

Plain Water
Yes, a normal sky juice. I'm not sure of the taste, but the cup is obviously so dirty that your mind would tell you that it is dangerous to drink this. You might not notice it but the bottom and the sides of the cup is dirty and yellow. Too lazy to scrub the cup?

Lime Juice
What can ever go wrong with this simple beverage? Wrong. Despite having so much of it in the glass, I hardly tasted any lime. Okay, it might be exaggerating, there are SOME taste.

French Fries
Believe it or not, this thing cost us RM3. Like seriously, that portion. Hotel rates are not even at that standard whereby this portion charged at the price. The fries are not being fried 'properly' it is soft and not even hot when served. Terrible.

I went to this place before and you can read about it here and it was decent during that time and I am not sure what happened with the kitchen. Staff wise, I do not enjoy their service. Their rice items used to be average. I'm not sure about it now. But if you ask me will I come again? It's obvious.Although I MIGHT, come back to try out their cooked dishes.

Rating.. how to rate?

1 Nation Restaurant Sdn Bhd

Face it, who doesn't like to indulge with desserts especially after dinner. Desserts are so wonderful where it suits every single age group. And so, we went to this place to try out their ABC.

ABC is Ais Batu Campur or sometimes known as Ais Kacang Which literally means mixed ice. Mixed ice is a simple desserts where the main ingredients are shaved ice,milk (condensed milk), palm sugar(gula melaka), or sometimes syrup. Traditionally, just like the name it is just shaved ice and beans but now,the condiments ranged from various jellies to ice creams, syrups and fruits. Basically it is something that can be mixed with almost anything.

Our destination to try out their ABC

Shaved ice with Fruits
As you can see, there are various types of item in here.
Red bean, corn, longan, papaya, honey dew and water melon
served with condensed milk and strawberry syrup on top while underneath the whole pile of stuff is the palm sugar.
Sweet? It varies as the among of ice is so much, sometimes it is hardly too sweet for anyone. As I said, it depends though.

ABC with Ice cream
Note the huge bowl. It is really so deep and big and to be honest, I did not finish this. It's too much to handle after a great dinner.

As you can see, you can't actually see any fruits. I did not order any fruits in here, hence this is just ABC with jellies and ice cream. Various jellies are found here together with sweet corn and red bean.

Again, I'm sure the size of the ice cream do catch your attention. Yes, instead of 1 scoop which usually most place cater, they serve 2 scoop of ice cream. This is strawberry flavour. However, I don't fancy this ice cream. It's very rough, I can taste the powder in it, very powdery not smooth at all. I hope they can improve over time.

The verdict? Yes, the portion is very big and I bet 1 bowl can be share with 2-3 persons. It's bigger than Restaurant Yum Yum2. Taste wise, I still prefer the latter. It is not to say that this place is bad, it's just that I don't like the ice cream here.

This place don't just serve ABC, they have a lot of choices to choose from, I mean food. 1 Nation Restaurant is located at Prima Jaya, just enter the junction towards Taman Tinosan. It is just located north east (2 o'clock) of Restaurant Yum Yum 2.

I'll rate it 4 over 5.

-Unable to generate a map from google map, Sandakan map is not updated-

-Tsa-

Restaurant Yum Yum 2

Went to this place before, but just that I kinda like this place. The food is fine and the price is too. This place is forever flooded with people. I sort of blogged about this place before. You can read about it here.

Yin Yong
Yin Yong is a popular beverage from Hong Kong. It's actually a mixture of coffee and Hong Kong style milk tea. Unfortunately, I have to say this is the worst Yin Yong I've ever tried. No offence, but yeah, it's my opinion. The tea is too thin, milk is too thick. Coffee..where?

Fish Glue Soup

It's the name from the menu. But dear readers, it is actually fish maw. Fish maw or usually known as yue piu in cantonese. Hence this is the famous yue piu kang (Fish maw thick soup)
This restaurant's fish maw soup is nice. I'd say 8 out of 10. Not bad. I kinda like it.

Fish maw is it's actually the air bladder of the fish to keep it's buoyancy. It's from the fish stomach. As you can see, they put generous amount of fish maw and crab meat of course. It's sweet and just right. I compliment their stock on doing this. Worth trying.

Sweet Corn with Crab Meat Soup
I have to say it is not as nice as their fish glue soup. I think Hawaii served sweet corn soup better. The amount of crab meat is there, it's just the sweet corn, does not made the soup sweet as it should be. It tasted kinda artificial.

Green Apple Chicken Rice
If i ever remember the name correctly, that's what it should be. Green apple sauce! hah! Okay, it's the first time I saw it. Taste? Sort of like Thai-style chicken with green colourings. It taste wonderful nonetheless. Worth trying.

Garlic and Shallots Chicken Rice
Again, if my memory serves me right. The garlic and shallots are fragrant. I like it, but I'd prefer it's not that thick. Too thick for my liking. Garlic are fried to crisp.Shallots are saute till it fragrant. Shallots and garlics are best friend in the vegetable world I think.

Yang Chau Styled Fried Rice
I blogged about this earlier, but yeah, I used to enjoy this dish a lot but it's kinda a let down during this time around. It's tasteless. Yes, it's just like fried rice with egg without any seasoning, so to speak. The previous time I visited, this is very appetizing. Oh well, I think it depends on luck? Still, the prawns are still big and fresh and yes the rice is coated with the wok's 'smell'

Conclusion, again, I'd like to come back to this place again. I ordered a Herbal Chicken, but I've blogged about it and it's still the same. Rich in chinese herbs. Very appetizing. I recommend you to try. The chicken is still juicy and full of flavour. Not to mention their Avocado Juice. It's thick and sinful. It's fattening alright.

In my opinion, it's 4.5 out of 5 for this place.

Hawaii Restaurant

We went for western cuisine during one fine day and we decided to choose to go somewhere which is value for money. Thus, Hawaii Restaurant is our choice. Hawaii Restaurant is located inside City View Hotel at town. Opposite town's Shell petrol station and it is at the same row with Lumen Trading. We had reviewed Hawaii Restaurant before though, you can read about it here.

Hawaii Restaurant offer a variety of food in their menu. Apart from their ala carte menu, they offer Breakfast Set Menu, Lunch Set Menu, Hi-tea Set Menu and their Dinner Set Menu.

Facts :
1) Beef Stroganoff or Beef Stroganov is a Russian dish whereby sauteed pieces of beef served in a sauce with sour cream.
2) Fermented Beancurd or fu-yue is a form of processed preserved tofu. Sometimes people call it as the Chinese Butter.

Sweet corn with Crab meat soup
I never fails to order this every time I come to dine even though the set menu itself comes with soup.

The amount of crab meat they put in is very generous. You can hardly miss seeing any of it in your soup. The sweetcorn itself is very sweet. I like this very much. Please keep in mind to order this in the ala carte menu although sometimes their soup-of-the-day is Sweetcorn with crabmeat soup.

Fried Prawn Fritters
Normal battered fried prawns. The prawn is small. Not that worth it, but just because someone was craving for fried prawns, if not I'd not ordered it.

Beef Stroganoff (Set)
Beef Stroganoff served with buttered rice and vegetables.
I've tried better ones, but this is edible. Nothing that blows my mine here.
It just that I first saw this dish in the Lunch Set Menu. A new item. The sauce is not bad but it could be better. The rice is very fragrant.

Fried fu-yue Chicken Rice
Fried chicken with fu-yue. It is quite dry to me. The fried chicken is not just fried chicken- the way the marinate it is different. You can taste the fu-yue.

Grilled Chicken Chop (Set)
The chicken is grilled with the juice still intake. I enjoy this though. The sauce is just nice for it. Again, there are rooms for improvement.

Grilled Lamb Shoulder (Set)
Who'd missed having lamb shoulder when going out for western cuisine? Their lamb shoulder have nothing to shout out about but they are decent and edible. You hardly ever get their gamey taste and smell here.

Verdict? This place is really a value for money place, for the price of the food and the quality, it seriously worth dropping by. The set lunch we had above is a 4-course meal, consist of Soup of the day with garlic bread, main course, dessert (which we had fruits platter that day), and coffee or tea of your choice. Hi-tea menu is a choice of sandwiches and tea or coffee of your choice.Their set dinner menu is a 5-course meal which include a appetizer.

I used to order their Chinese Wine Meehoon/Rice, but it seems that they does not serve it anymore =(

Overall experience, 3.5 over 5. It could be 4 though.

-Tsa-

Kedai Kopi Yu Heng

Fact : Coto Makassar is traditional food from South Sulawesi - It is a stew made from the mixture of nuts and spices with beef parts or innards (intestines, tripes, liv­ers, kid­neys, lungs) which include beef brain and tongue.

However I never tried a Coto with beef brain and tongue..

Rumor says that the best Coto Makassar is available at the Town area. Hence, we went and tried it out. Kedai Kopi Yu Heng is situated opposite to Cherry Lane Records ( which sells VCD,CD,DVD and etc.) Near to Wisma Sandakan and it is sorta directly 'under' the Town Mosque ( Just because the mosque is sorta uphill)

(Please pardon lack of photography skills and photos are not up to par yet)

Mihun Coto Makassar Special
Consist of everything you can imagine in the stomach of a cow
a.k.a beef innards (intestines, tripes, liv­ers, kid­neys, lungs)

The much hype Coto Makassar at this shop is not really what I'd expect, unfortunately, I've tried better before and to be honest, the beef tripes (ngau pak yip) is not really cleaned. Thus, this somehow disgusted me as I personally love beef tripes. Soup wise, it is so-so to me.

Overall it is edible but not really enjoyable as I see things are not being prepared hygienically. My rating? 2 out 5.

-Tsa-