Do you know Chendol? I really liked this dessert when I visited Penang, Malaysia a few years ago. This time, I found one of Chendol restaurants in a shopping mall. Sweets are always right. Of course, later I've had a proper dinner at Night market, though.
Chendol & Night market in Kota Kinabalu
What is Chendol?
Chendol is a dessert of shaved ice flakes in a bowl of coconut milk with various toppings. This is known as came from Indonesia, but has been spread across East Asian countries like Singapore, Vietnam, and so on. It looks similar with Korean Ice dessert, bing-su, but more liquid.
The most eye-catching point of Chendol is the very strips of greenary jelly. At first, it looks like very weird since it looks like earthworms. The green color comes from pandan leaf.
Chendol in Kota Kinabalu
This was serendipity out of a journey to buy USIM for Internet. We went to Imago Shopping Mall to find it, and by accident, I found this spot.
Originally, the most famous chendol is on a street of Penang. There is a small food stand with a big round container on it, serving endless bowls of chendol for people in line.
When I tried a chendol there, it was hot and sticky in summer and this sweet juicy dessert made me feel much better out of a long walk for travel. Even though there wasn't any proper table or chair, I remember myself just standing and slurping like the locals.
Chendol and Ice Kacang are the most popular desserts in Malaysia. Both are cold ice desserts but one is milky one, another is no milk version. No milk version, Ice Kacang, is almost the same with Korean summer dessert, Bing-su.
Chendol price is 9.4 RM for original and Ice Kacang is the same. Well, in my memory, back in my previous travel, this was not as luxurious like this, quite suprising, but still not that pricey.
Other kinds of snacks andbeverages are served at this place, but the most eye-catching one is Rojak. Rojak is the must-eat snack when you visit Penang city. Rojak is basically various kinds of deep fried sea foods and fruits, mixed with a sweet & sour source.
If you ever tried Korean style chicken, 양념치킨 (Yang-nyum-chicken), you can immediately imagine what kind of source Rojak has. It looks like really spicy but rather sweet and sour.
I truly wanted to try this one, but we've decided to keep some stomach for later food.
The staff were making my menu right at the counter, wearing Nitrile gloves. Looks so clean compared with my previous experience at a street in Penang. Yeah, but it was way before Covid 19 situation.
The left one with black jelly is Original Ica Kacang. And the right one with green jelly is Original Chendol.
Koreans use sweet red bean paste for Bingsu, but here you can see the sweet kidney bean paste instead.
I liked this Ice Kacang as well, but I didn't like this black colour jelly, because it just tasted like Chinese herbal medicine. The taste of jelly was so strong that all of the other ingredients tasted the same. If you choose this menu, think well before you mix it all.
On the other hand, Chendol doesn't have any strong smell ingredients and has mild coconut milk. This chendol is my favorite, always!!
Too bad it melted so fast. I cannot follow up the speed of melting down. Instinctively, my taste bud realized that this sweek milky soup is going to give me extra fat, but couldn't stop it.
Bye Bye chendol, let's see next time.
(Seriously, if I open this chendol shop in Korea, does it work?)
Where is Kota Kinabalu night market?
Kota Kinabalu night market is also know as Philipino market. As I heard, Kota kinabalu had accepted Philipino refugees before, and they started to gether and sell fruits, sea foods and other foods for survival. I saw local Malaysians also buy their groceries here.
From the shopping mall where I found Chendol, it is in only 20 min walking distance. We've decided to walk there as Google map showed.
But out of sudden, the map led us here in between roads with rushing cars and we had to copy whatever the guy in the picture did.
After 15 min walking along the street yey!! The night market is over there!
As soon as I stepped into the market, fresh coconuts were welcoming. It was suprising that the place was huge and bright.
The first-coming place was for fruits like mangoes, mangosteens, coconuts and so on, and it continued as dried sea foods, ready-made foods and fresh sea foods.
Skewered chicken wings looked tempting. The smoke from this stall packed the whole space. How would I not try one?
Plus, the seller lady spoke Korean perfectly. She kept talking in Korean so we couldn't walk away.
In Korean, she explained 3 parts of chicken; 똥집(gizzard), 가슴(breast), and 엉덩이(buttocks). I thought the buttocks was near leg, but it was really the part of tail. I didn't like it because the texture was so squash and greasy.
Around the sea food corner, there were many philipino sellers calling us. We tried to haggle the price, but it was so hot and steaming inside that we lost the willingness to cut it down.
We ordered 2 tiger prawns, morning glory and rice. If you order the sea food, you can seat at one of the plastic tables behind. It's necessary to order beverages for table fee.
Since many sea food corners share only one kitchen, it took so long time to get our food. Probably 25 to 30 min. We had to push a few times, but I guess this was because we were so called 'short-tempered' Koreans.
Our order was one for butter flavor, the other for spicy chilli.
The size of tiger prawn was not bad but not big enough to make us full. The taste was very good though.
My partner peeled off the shell, and the flesh was so yummy. I guess, in here, prawn is pricey but fish is not expensive. Many locals were enjoying a big steamed fish with their bare hands, and it looked finger-licking good.
I guess the prawn was the menu only travelers wanted.
I made myself full with stir-fried morning glory and steamed rice. But I didn't mind it since I needed some stomach for a dessert. Mangoes!!!
We bought mangoes and mangosteens for 20 dollars. They didn't have the local mangoes though. They said local fruit seasons starts from November, and it was October.
We called GRAB taxi and took off at Tanjung Aru beach. There was a small night market as well.
We'd looked around the small market, hoping there are some fresh tropical fruits. But Fail.
We walked to our hotel, Shangri-la from the market place, since it was very short distance.
I thought it was short but it turned out the way was out of darkness and some of the wild dogs surprised me a few times. If I were alone, I wouldn't walk there at all.
Luckily, we arrived alive, LOL. and gecko in Shangri-la welcomed us here alive, too.
Look what we'd got! Mangoes and Mangosteens. Can you believe that the price of each fruit was the same. One fifth of the mangosteen container costs the same as two full containers of mangoes.
At the hotel lounge, we had a beer and on-the-rock each to celebrate for the very first night of our vacation in Kota Kinabalu.
A long day was over.
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