With thousands of kilometers of coastline, hundreds of nearby islands, as well as vast fertile lakes and rivers, seafood has become part of our daily meals. Malaysian seafood restaurants are available at almost every corner from water villages to the vibrant cities. I especially love the way the local restaurants prepare seafood, which they use plenty of herbs and spices. Salted egg crab is my favourite! Yummy!

Situated at the northern part of the Borneo Island, two third of Sabah’s border is made up of coastal land which makes it a seafood paradise. During my trip to Kota Kinabalu, capital city of Sabah, hunting for seafood became my key itinerary.

Sunset at the waterfront in Kota Kinabalu

Our hotel manager told us about Filipino Market in the city centre of Kota Kinabalu. Filipino market sells many kinds of handcrafts and fantastic souvenirs for reasonable prices and most of the stalls are run by Filipino immigrants, thus the name. The reason we visited Filipino market wasn’t because of the handcrafts, we don’t usually shop for handcrafts in South East Asia. We were just curious about the vast variety of BBQ seafood in the market. Besides, I missed BBQ seafood in Bali so much that I was hoping Filipino market would allow me to enjoy the breeze and to savor the delicious seafood like my memorable experience in Jimbaran Beach.

Unfortunately Filipino market is just like any local night market with a grand array of stalls that sell barbecue seafood, noodles, chicken wings, fruits, drinks and local desert. Here we order the food and sit at the simple setup dining table next to the stall. It was by the seaside but not in the beautiful beach. So don’t expect it to be like Jimbaran beach with romantic grilled seafood dinner on the beach with our toes in the sand, while watching magnificent evening sky. Nonetheless, it term of seafood price, Filipino market is way cheaper than what you have to pay in Jimbaran beach.

BBQ chicken wings. We didn’t try it, as it’s very common in the hawker stalls in Kuala Lumpur.

Seafood that you can choose and tell the cook how you wanna cook them. I wouldn’t call them fresh seafood though, as they were dead. I don’t know how long they have been lying in the same tray. In most of the seafood restaurants in Malaysia, we can actually find live fishes in the aquariums that you have no opportunity to question “are they fresh?”. All you need to do is to go to the aquarium where you spotted the fish that you want, point it to the staff in the restaurant and tell them “I want the fish to be alive”. The staff will then fish out the fish alive and bring it to the kitchen to kill it. Of course they don’t cook the fish alive. Malaysia is a civilized country.

I was snapping the photos of the fishes and the boss suddenly posed handsomely with a victim in his hand, so I had no choice but to photograph him. Ok, he was just being sporting and friendly

We ordered snapper and some shrimps and after being consulted by the boss on what’s the best way to cook the fish and the shrimps, we sat at the dining table patiently waiting  for the seafood to be served. Yeah, I know… we always let the boss tells us how to cook instead of we tell the boss what we want. Must pay more attention on what ingredients go well with which seafood in the future.

If you prefer BBQ seafood, you’ll be amazed of a splendid array of BBQ seafood in most of the stalls here. A wide variety of BBQ seafood consisting of different type of fishes, prawns, crabs and squids were placed on the table. As we meandered along the market, we realized that all stalls were selling the same seafood. The quantity of the grilled seafood was so big that we actually wondered if they will be all consumed in a night. The seafood looked as if they had been lying there for a long time though, as they were not warm. Despite doubting the hygienic of the food, we decided to give it a shot. When is the time to be adventurous if it’s not during traveling.

We ordered fish, squids and tiger prawns. The little girl who was an assistant in the stall helped to heat up the skewer of seafood that we picked. The tiger prawns looked big but they weren’t meaty though. One tiger prawn costs RM8 and a fish costs RM10.

Local Malays tradition way of washing your hands with a teapot of water. The reason why I specifically mention ‘Malays’ instead of ‘Malaysians’ is because not all races practice the same way. Chinese restaurants give a bowl of water with lemon in it so we just wash our hands inside the bowl of water. Do not drink the water assuming that it was complimentary lemon juice from the boss especially when the lemon water was served in a nice bowl.

So my opinion of Filipino market? A great place or night market to visit if you have never been there. This place presents opportunities to escape the familiar and to blend into the local/Filipino culture. But it’s not a great place to savor seafood. Just my personal opinion.

How to Get There

• Walk along Jalan Tun Fuad Stepfens across the road from Sabah Parks office within Sinsuran Complex. You will immediately see the wave-liked wood roof structure of the Filipino Market.
• Filipino Market is just opposite Le Meridian Hotel.
• You will be able to see South Chine Sea from behind the Filipino Market.
• The Central Market is just beside the Filipino Market.