Tom Douglas

Kota Kinabalu Borneo/ by Eric Tanaka, Executive Chef

In Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, they have a night food market with all sorts of goods for sale.  The array of fruits, veggies, fish, and meats is pretty incredible.  The smell of the market is quite intense.  The fruit is fresh and real so you get the full scent of the mangoes, papayas, and the most lasting impression of durian.  I’ve smelled durian here in the states, but it seemed somewhat muted as the fruit had come from a frozen state. In Borneo, the intense dirty sock scent kind of reached out and socked you in the nose.  I tried the fruit, just harvested, and it has a custardy pudding texture with a slightly sweet and slightly savory vanilla flavor.

In addition to the produce stalls, there are a bunch of food stalls.  Fried everything: bananas, rice, noodles, chicken, pastries, and donuts.  Once again, as in the market in Ubud, Bali, it’s all fried in palm oil which gave me another huge stomach ache, but I soldiered on.  After our appetizers of fried anything, we moved to the heart of the market.  At the north end of the market was a BBQ zone.  About thirty vendors with charcoal grills and piles of chicken wings, fish, prawns, and crab.  You pick from fresh fish or previously grilled fish, sit down at picnic tables, and the vendor brings rice, chili sauce, and drinks if you want.  It’s a night market under a tent with Christmas lights, so there is a wonderful glow and an appetizing smell from the grilling.  Hundreds of people are at the communal tables, not because it’s cool, but because they are communal and friendly.  When the fish is done grillling, they mop it with a chili based sauce, and you dig in with your fingers and chow down.

December 3rd, 2009