Edible Mushrooms in Sabah

If you love edible mushrooms, you will enjoy a visit to this little place where they prepare and wholesale DIY packs all ready for small scale home mushroom growing and production.

Mushrooms are popular in most restaurants in Malaysia especially so with the great varieties of delicious chinese dishes that use an equally large variety of mushrooms. Some popular mushrooms include truffles, enoki, chanterelle, portabella, shiitake, and oyster.

Here in Sabah, different mushroom varieties are mostly grown along the highlands where the temperature favours the healthy growth of these fungis and provides a supplementary income for local growers. On a recent visit to one of the wholesalers who supply the prepared mushroom packs to growers I found very fascinating information about the health benefits of eating mushrooms as well.

I met Mr. Hong who is an expert in growing mushrooms and apparently loves the cool temperatures in Kundasang, Sabah . And after some interesting tour of his production facility we ended up purchasing some of the mushroom packs for our own little garden. The packs are all set to produce .. all you need is to take the cotton stopper on the top opening, place them in a nice and cool shaded location, preferable placed on a convenient rack. You will need to spray the battery of mushroom packs with water in the morning and evening and then just wait patiently as you get the first batch of delicious mushrooms coming out of the top opening ! Sounds easy.. and it is !

I must admit I have more mushrooms than I can handle now so have been giving fresh mushrooms to friends whenever I can ! So if any of you are interested.. Just let me know !

The Vanilla Shop

In Sabah, every now and then something comes up that is quite interesting to write about.

Such is the case with my recent visit to the popular tourist destination for both local sabahans as well as visitors from all over. Of course the big attraction here is nothing less than majestic Mount Kinabalu standing as the tallest mountain in South East Asia.

However, that was not the only reason for me to visit this beautiful and cool tourist playground in Sabah. There are many small but cosy family cottages as well as numerous new hotels and chalets that can caters for a wide range of tourist budgets.

But my focus was on a slightly different kind of attraction as we drive past the main kundasang temperate vegetable bazzars and roadside stalls selling anything from freshly cut fruits and cabbages to handicrafts for the bustling tourist market.

I was invited to check out a new venture and a creative new addition to the wide range of products and services available in the Kundasang area. Yes I was going to visit The Vanilla Shop!

Owned and operated by Mr. Robin Ng, The Vanilla Shop is a brand new concept in selling an idea.. The main product is Vanilla of course and hence the name of the shop! But as you walk in to this creative little shop by the roadside along the Kundasang- Ranau highway, you will soon realise that Mr. Robin Ng is not your average businessman. Inside are all the passion he has for this thing called vanilla.. He has live vanilla plants, vanilla perfumes,vanilla cigarretes,vanilla sugar and a wide range of other vanilla related products ! Truly this man qualifies for the title of Mr. Vanilla. Spell this word backwords and you will see that it is the name of the business he runs this shop under !

The shop sells cute souvenirs of vanilla related too and these are specially packed for the tourists who wants to bring back an aroma of memories for friends and relatives. Ask Robin anything about vanilla and if you dont stop him he is likely to take up your whole day visit to this very fascinating vanilla outlet.

I was very fortunate to be able to learn more about what you can do with this very versatile product. You can of course use vanilla for cooking as well. And what about cake making.. ? Vanilla Ice Cream anyone ??

Anyway, if you are planning your next visit to Kundasang, you really should drive the extra kilometer to visit The Vanilla Shop for both as an educational trip as well as a memory trip.. Vanilla is a much taken for granted thing but Robin has it all for real !

Scary Experience

Scary Experience

Hi everyone,
Just a note to apologize for the short break in continuity with this blog. While travelling on our usual 4WD vehicle along the keningau-kimanis highway my husband noted a slight wobble as we passed a steep incline going towards Kota Kinabalu. We thought the wobble was due to the strong gusts blowing from the south china sea as we drove downhill. Little did we know that this was a critical signal that something terribly wrong would occur shortly ! And it did !

Our right rear wheel of the Nissan Safari we were driving was apparently loose and as we avoided a speeding oncoming car the errant wheel flew off in a tangent directly towards the ravine ! Needless to say, we were in total shock as the vehicle came to an abrupt halt on the side of the road scraping the bitumin for a distance !

It seemed like forever before we realised the gravity of what was happening. All we could do was nod and gesture.. we certainly had a very narrow escape! We were lucky the accident did not happen high up in the mountain highway !

We continue to thank our guardian angels for the way we were looked after. It could have been worse and we know it. Every day is a beautiful day now !

Our Nissan Safari is now taking a good rest as we ponder new options. For regular travellers, please take that extra care to do a full check on your vehicles before going on your journey.

You can view some pics at here