Must Try Local Dishes in Borneo (Sabah)

Part of the Borneo (Sabah) travel guide — see every topic in All Borneo (Sabah) Guides.

Sabah's food is genuinely different from peninsular Malaysia's, and that surprises people. It draws on Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau and Murut indigenous cooking, on a large Hakka and Cantonese Chinese population, and on an abundance of seafood, and it produces dishes — hinava, ambuyat, tuhau, sang nyuk mien — that are largely unavailable across the South China Sea. Kota Kinabalu is where to eat most of it, and the seafood markets are the obvious starting point.

Indigenous dishes

Hinava is the essential one: raw mackerel or similar fish cured in lime juice with sliced shallot, chilli, ginger and grated bitter-gourd seed — sharp, clean and nothing like anything in peninsular Malaysia. Ambuyat is a translucent sago starch, eaten by twirling it onto a two-pronged bamboo candas and dipping it in sour sauces; it has almost no flavour of its own and the point is the dips. Tuhau is a pungent pickled wild ginger relish. Bambangan is a preserved wild mango, sour and funky.

The noodles

Sabah's Chinese population, largely Hakka, produced a distinct noodle culture. Tuaran mee is a springy hand-made egg noodle fried with pork, egg and vegetables, from the town of the same name. Sang nyuk mien is pork noodle soup made with a clear pork broth and served with sliced meat, liver and minced pork — KK does it exceptionally well and there are shops that have made nothing else for decades. Ngiu chap is beef noodle soup with every part of the animal, and is a Sabah institution.

Seafood

This is the state's strength. The night markets in Kota Kinabalu, Semporna and Sandakan sell fish, prawns, squid, crab and lobster by weight, grilled to order over charcoal with sambal and lime. Confirm price per kilo and weight before it goes on the fire. Sabah's coral trout, tiger prawns, mud crab and giant clams are all excellent. Semporna and the east coast do it best, being closest to the reefs. Expect 60–150 ringgit for two at a market, considerably more at a restaurant.

Drinks and sweets

Tapai is fermented rice wine, traditional to the Kadazan-Dusun and drunk at Kaamatan and celebrations; lihing is the stronger, clearer version and is also used in cooking, notably with chicken. Tenom coffee, grown in the interior and roasted without margarine unlike peninsular kopi, is genuinely good and a common thing to carry home. Kuih cincin, a Bajau ring-shaped fried sweet, and pinjaram, a saucer-shaped palm-sugar fritter, are the local snacks worth trying.

Must Try Local Dishes at a glance

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