Kopi O "Kao Kao"

This is something special that I don't see in Peninsular's pasars (market). You may frequent Starbucks, Coffee Bean or even Austin Chase for their freshly grinded coffee bean and brewed coffee but I'm pretty sure most of you have not tasted freshly grinded coffee bean from a market.



Kopi grinding machine

 In Tawau's pasar besar, you can see stalls selling kopi powder and they have grinding machines right there to grind the kopi beans.

You can see from the picture below where the kopi beans looks tasty right? Well the kopi beans are roasted with butter and sugar. Every kopi bean is coated with butter and sugar, which is why it looks a but shiny from far. Without me explaining you can probably imagine the aroma of this kopi beans right?

To be honest I don't drink coffee but I do find the aroma of this kopi beans appetizing... I've gave this kopi powder to friends in KL and they love the taste.  

  

 



Grinded kopi powder outlet...




Kopi bean loader of kopi grinder





A worker labelling the packed kopi powder

Pricing - the kopi powder price is very reasonable. 1kg = RM20. That's a little more expensive than a Starbucks coffee tall size! Cheap right?

So next time come to Tawau, please remember to buy some kopi powder home.

Harvesting Pips - A Free education blog on Stocks, commodities & Forex markets.: USD/CAD in focus next week. 30th Jan - 2 Feb

Harvesting Pips - A Free education blog on Stocks, commodities & Forex markets.: USD/CAD in focus next week. 30th Jan - 2 Feb: For loonies trader.. USD/CAD has broken out from a wedge from daily chart and out of the ichikomu cloud which signal super bearish trend ....

Indo Cafe II - Tawau

Had a secondary school friend gathering yesterday, a yearly reunion activity we do every chinese new year. We went to Indo cafe II at Unijaya area.

What's so special about this cafe? Well, first of all this cafe is owned by my cousin brother, his girlfriend and a partner. This cafe is the 2nd branch of Indo Cafe at Fajar area in town.

Now, when it comes to food..... the most popular order will be the Pisang Goreng Cheese... see picture below. This fried banana is garnished with brown sugar and top with grated cheese. It's very very yummy... must try this if you ever come to Tawau...




Pisang Goreng Cheese





 Next must try item is Mango Sago dessert, this dessert can be widely found in KL but this one served in Indo Cafe II is comparable. The mango cube is so much bigger, and a lot of sago in it too.... love this.

Mango Sago

 Ahah.. next dessert... CBA... you must be thinking what the heck is CBA? ABC got lah? Right? HAhaha...

CBA stands for Campur Buah Ais... it's a mixture of fruits e.g. water melon, honey dew, longan and etc and of course blended with ice and milk...



CBA

I've tried the Soto Ayam as well. Soto Ayam is an Indonesian delicacy. It is served with meehoon with the soto soup base and chicken floss. The garnishings are boiled egg, parsley, fried onion and a lime. Squeeze the lime and mix well before you eat.

Soto Ayam

As the crowd in Indo Cafe II was too much to handle, and it was too noisy for a gathering we then switched to another cafe 2 stores away. We went to Eaat cafe for a drink and I've ordered a glass of Honey Rose Tea and I was surprised by the presentation of this tea. The rose tea is in ice cubes. Each ice cube contains a rose bud... the honey is mixed with water... as the ice cubes dissolved you can start to taste the rose tea more... pretty unique I think. You can try to do this at home too.... ^.^



Honey Rose Tea




rose bud in ice cube



Tarap -- the Borneo exclusive fruit...



This is how a tarap looks like.... ugly looking




The whites are the flesh of tarap, each flesh has a seed within it...


Now, let me introduce you to this special fruit which is available only in Borneo island. I've tried searching for this fruit in Peninsular Msia and asked around friends who are from "kampung" if this fruit is available and none of them know about this. Plus, Wikipedia also can't find this fruit too..... but if you google it, you can find it...

Tarap is similar to jackfruit (nangka) and cempedak, I believe they are of the same genre. This exotic fruit skin is spiky (like army hair), green or sometimes yellowish in color. Grows on a tall tarap tree. It is a very delicate fruit. Once it is dropped on the ground, it turn bad easily.

Oh, by the way. To open it, no equipment required. Just use your hands and tear the skin apart, not much effort required. Unlike nangka and cempedak, it doesn't have the sticky juice.

Tarap taste is very unique. It is like the durian concept, you will either love it or hate it. The flesh are extremely sweet, sweet like honey. And the texture is soft.

My parents told me this fruit is good for our kidney apparently.... it helps to clean our kidney... well...if you eat a lot, your urine smells too... hahahahaha... it flushes out the bad stuff from your kidney I supposed...

I love it..... and lucky me, my dad's orchard has these fruits.. I gotta eat these for free  >,<