18th Sabah Hospitality Fiesta, Kota Kinabalu

I was at Kompleks Karamunsing this morning. There were a lot of "eats" displayed on tables at the atrium. It turned out to be the 18th Sabah Hospitality Fiesta.

A culinary competition with participants from hotels and colleges.

Including foreign judges, apparently.

Some of the more eye-catching (since no tasting possible) entries are posted here. I wonder if the chef "scented" the Rafflesia!

One rather monochromatic one (chocolate?). Seems to display animals.

Here's one "fruity" looking one.

One with kadazan sumazau dancers.

Obviously, there were a few displays of "finger-food".

Also quite a few tall creations.

A finely decorated one.

A multi-coloured one.

Not forgetting the usual Disney one.

If you are interested, the event is on today and tomorrow (24th and 25th October).

Lucky Draw - Karamunsing Shopping Complex

The Karamunsing Shopping Complex is holding monthly Lucky Draws (May to Dec 2011). The draw date is the 15th of each month with 1 lucky draw ticket for every RM200 spent at participating merchants. The first prize is RM10,000. Since I happened to have bought a printer last month, I was given some tickets, so I came down to see what it was like ...

... I never knew that that many people spent that much money at Karamunsing Complex stores!

Using my camera as the reason, I pushed towards the stage ...

... the venue was terribly crowded, but the draw itself was done very professionally. They gave enough time for each winner to come forward through the crowd to get to the stage.

The 12 prizes were in those red envelopes randomly pinned on the blackboard. The GM of the Complex drew the first lucky draw ticket, then each "winner" picked the next winning ticket. The 12 winners then selected their individual envelopes and the luckiest person got the RM10,000.

It was late, I was hungry; so across to Karamunsing Capital for dinner ...

... the only thing "Old Town" in Old Town was the signboard ...

... now you know what Pappa from PappaRich looks like! ... Dr. John? ...

... and the Chicken Recipe Restaurant seemed to serve fish (according to the nice pictures on the signboard.

So I settled for the Chub's Grill ...

... where it was "Love on first bite", you could "Play with your food", so that "you get it on your shirt if you are doing it right", "carnally", and "why have comfort food when you can have happy food!".

(All photos taken with the Canon EOS 450D in RAW format and processed through Photoshop Elements)

Madness in Kota Kinabalu

The Building on the right is Kompleks Karamunsing, while the new shops on the left is Karamunsing Capital. Kompleks Karamunsing was completed in the early 80s by Promet Dikoyu. It was a bad time economically and the complex was practically empty for a few years. Promet Group was restructured (capital reduction etc..) in 1998 or so. The building had been sold to a sarawakian. They seem to have upset a number of the tenants. The shopping mall is now a warren (Sg Wang style), but still popular because of the number of IT related shops there.

The new shops in Karamunsing Capital were completed this year. I haven't been around the shops there.

This is the "madness" in the Post Title. They have blocked off the connecting bridge between the two areas! I can understand it if they put up a carpark toll-gate. But to block off THE PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC is pure madness!