If you go to Sabah and not tried their seafood catch, you just lost one of the golden opportunity to try one of the wonderful yet affordable in the region. Having close proximity to the South China Sea allows Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah to be blessed with abundance of seafood. One of the best place to test the cheap yet good seafood is Filipino Market, provided you do not mind about the ambiance and muddy water on the floor. This makeshift (maybe permanent?) seafood market is located right beside Kota Kinabalu market and nearby to Jesselton Point (ferry pick up point to Island).
A stroll across Filipino market will make you spoilt for choices as there are so many seafood stalls to choose from. However, generally all the stalls offer about the same seafood and price should not differ much. Therefore, just take your time to have a detailed look and pick whichever stall you feel good about.
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| Periwrinkle Shellfish |
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| Ginger Clams |
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| Steamed Grouper |
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| Scallops |
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| Sayur Manis |
Business was brisk at all stall during my visit during the evening. There were a lot of China tourists, and the stall owners were seen trying to persuade passerby to dine in their respective stalls, to the extent the Sabahan can speak basic Chinese due to influx of China tourists. When they tried to talk Chinese with me, I told them off "Saya dari Sabah ba.."
It took us some time before deciding to dine in at the random stall. As the customary practice, we got to handpick our preferred seafood and choose the cooking style.
The whole table of 4 dishes cost us RM 68, which we felt was really affordable. Why 4 dishes only while picture above displayed 5 dishes?
This was because we returned the periwrinkles shellfish as it was not fresh. The flesh hardly can be pulled out from the shell, and it was so frail that it breaks into a few pieces immediately upon pulling it out. Upon checking, the stall owner graciously took it off from our table and waived the charges. Amazing services!
Grouper fish was fresh and the natural aromatic taste was fully preserved with the natural steam. Scallops cooked in kam heong style and ginger clams were delicious too.
If there was one thing we were not satisfied, it would be their presentation! The food basically has no presentation but the taste is awesome.
Do not miss out this area whenever you are in Kota Kinabalu for a seafood feast!
Filipino Market Seafood
Jalan Tun Fuad Stephen, Pusat Bandar Kota Kinabalu, 88000, Sabah.
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