Salut Restaurant

Sabah is my most favorite state in Malaysia. Everyone is saying that Sabah is a paradise for seafood lovers, no doubt it is but it’s not always cheap! If you really wish to enjoy cheap seafood, you should look for a place which is away from KK like Salut Restaurant.

Situated at the remote area of Jalan Tuaran Talipok, there is no way to reach without chartering your own transport. We paid RM60 to get a 7-seaters. After entering the gate of Salut Restaurant, we went a little further, passed by some big ponds which look like those that used to rear prawns, before long we saw a wood built restaurant standing erect in front of us.

Since Kiat is a beach boy, he knows well what to order for us. He approached the tanks, checked the prices and eventually picked 6 types of seafood with 1 fried veggie.

See, these cockles are so much bigger than adult’s finger, Kiat said it’s best to boil and eat them with chili dip.

Sea snails (RM12) are getting expensive in West Malaysia. Kiat said some restaurants charge as high as RM1 per piece. The tactic to eat is to dig the tail out from the shell with tooth pick, grab the tail with fingers, pull it gently and the whole content will come out at once. Basically it’s kind of tasteless, but some people may just enjoy chewing its rubber-like texture.

Sapak shell is also quite HUGE as comparing to my colleague Poh Leng's palm, cooked with superior stock(RM12) was yummy too since the meat was rather chewy. Broth was sweet and I enjoyed it very much.

Boiled fresh prawn (RM30) seems to be a “must order” dish here in KK. The prawn is small in size with firmer meat, basically the natural sweetness of the meat could beat any big prawn, tiger prawn & etc miles away. Especially the prawn’s head with hidden orangey roes, one may easily get addicted after sucking a few. ;-)

Deep fried soft shell crab (RM30) was well done too, tasted fragrant and puffy, such a superior tidbit to go with beer.*slurp*

For the green dish, we wanted to try this unique Sabah veggie fried with garlic (RM10), sweet and crunchy, good choice.

Sabah is the place you get to eat steamed LIVE garoupa with reasonable price if you know where to find! The guy told us they were selling RM60 per 1KG for live garoupa, why not!? Kiat chose one with 900gram; he said this is the ideal weight of a fish to be steamed. How true! This garoupa is heavenly good when steamed with premium soy sauce. I’d never realize the distinct difference between a live garoupa comparing the one I carried back from wet market until I had tried this, MAMA MIA!! The flesh of those you get from market turns flaky after being steamed while live garoupa is NOT, the flesh is firm,springy and full of natural sweetness, no strange odor found. In fact, this is the most expensive dish on the table yet I still think RM54 is well worth it!

If you want to have more info about our Sabah Food Adventure, please see our blog @
http://ahkingfoodtalk.blogspot.com/
http://ahkingfoodtalk.blogspot.com/