KK night out

April 13th, 2007 Posted in Uncategorized

It sounded more like an instruction than a suggestion.We are going out tonight , ok?

Huh,where to? I want to watch the Akademia Fantasia concert,I protested.

We go out and eat, I don’t feel like cooking.

You can’t possibly win if your wife sets her mind on something. In the car we agreed to have Japanese. However, we have been to most of the Japanese restaurants in town. We couldn’t quite agree where to go, then we remembered that there is a new Japanese restaurant at the newly opened Warisan Square shopping complex. We decided to check it out.

We parked at the Waterfront entertainment area that faces the Warisan square. While waiting to cross the road, I took note of the bus stop nearby. There were many people milling around waiting for their buses home. What was noticeable was the amount of rubbish strewn all over the place.A very untidy place, it reminded me of the temporary mini-bus station where Warisan square is now. Only the urine stench was missing.

Warisan looked pleasant enough, with a bookshop, eating joints and sports shops on the ground floor.There was this air of brightness and newness all over the complex. The Fung Shui felt good. We climbed the stairs to the first floor and found the restaurant.

As we entered , I noticed that the restaurant was quite small but somewhat cosy. It has a simple decor, nothing fantastic, I have always liked the minimalist Japanese style. It was three quarters full with diners comprising mainly of family members trying out the latest Japanese restaurant in town. The waitress showed us to our table. We told her that we would order as soon as our son and his friend turn up.

The air con was not turned up full, I felt the stuffiness of the room. However, it was bearable, as though reading my thoughts, the air-con suddenly went cooler. Real magic, this! I was definitely a Japanese in my previous life!

As we looked towards the counter, we noticed the Japanese chef , so we said to each other at least genuine Japanese food, huh! . When our son and his friend turned up we did our ordering. We asked for our usual favourites - tempura.miso soup, and some chicken dish.While waiting, I prepared my favourite wasabi, the green Japanese radish that sends some kind of funny feeling right through your nose. It is a torture, at the same time a real pleasure.Trust the Japanese to get the Yin and the Yang of their food right.

We did not have to wait that long for our food. The waitress was friendly and polite but, you could sense that she was new, the communication skills were not there yet. The food was delicious, all right. Definitely, there is a difference with food prepared by local Chinese chef and Japanese chef. Nothing like the real thing, they say.

My wife liked the chicken dish and decided to ask for a second helping. Here, the kitchen was slack.We had to wait for quite sometime,well over 30 minutes for the dish to come. We reminded the waitress twice of our order and even told the lady at the counter, if it would take much longer we would rather cancel it. She said it would be ready anytime.

We waited patiently, and finally it came.Since it was delicious,my wife decided to forgive everybody. When we asked for the bill, it was quite reasonable for a dinner for four.Less than Rm150.Then,my son’s friend did not eat much.

When done, we decided to go to the Waterfront for drinks. I have always liked this particular part of KK. It is a long line of restaurants and pubs fronting the sea. You could hear the gentle lapping of the waves against the sea wall. With a big stretch of water fronted by the Gaya island, the scene was calm and pretty. There were a few mid-sized ships in mid-stream, just across the water you could see the lights of Sutera Harbour resort.

We decided to walk the stretch,we sauntered towards the Sutera Harbour Resort end first while waiters with menus hassled us to patronise their places as we politely declined. When we got to the end, there was a group of young people lounging around, sitting on the railings talking loudly, some were even lying on the floor. What were they doing? We could not figure out. Chilling out? They were definitely foreigners. That got us a bit uneasy. No police patrols anywhere to be seen.It was not that late either.

We strolled to the other end and decided to occupy one of the tables. The waiter came and we placed orders for our drinks. The sea breeze was blowing gently and it was good for the tired body and soul; while looking at some European tourists being foot massaged under the canopies in front of us, then, we smelled something fishy. There was a band playing further down, but, we could hardly hear them.

We also noticed that many of the people hanging around there were definitely not locals. A couple and a friend were conversing loudly in a Filipino dialect next to us.The couple was rather friendly towards each other, something, we locals will not do, not in front of other people,anyway. were they tourists? Fat chance.

The smell of dead fish was getting stronger, we noticed that it was coming from the direction of the wet market, or , was it from the SAFMA building area? It was a very unpleasant odour, where ever it was coming from.

It reminded me of the same experience at the same place a few years back. It was a low tide night, the stench coming from the sea was overpowering; my wife and I went inside a restaurant to escape the smell, unfortunately,it followed us right through the air-con system of the restaurant. It spoiled our appetite. I vowed that there was no way I would go back to eat there during low tide. Now, a perfect night, almost, and I had to come to terms with another KK perfume.

On the way home ,we passed the wet market, the fishy smell was rather strong here . What we noticed was also the rubbish all over the pavement of the market; discarded plastic bags, old newspapers and some of the wares were still on the pavement unattended by the owners. Unkempt is too good a word to describe the scene. As we moved on, we noticed to our left that there were more lights on Gaya island, maybe the settlement for the illegals is getting bigger. Do I care?

Behind the Hyatt hotel, there were a couple boats tied up at the old jetty, the people hanging around looked like they were waiting for passengers. I thought all boats had to operate out of Jesselton Point, maybe, exceptions are made at night time? I drove along, and my car CD player skipped a few times, as I ran over the potholes on the road.

Welcome all and sundry to Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.