When visitors come food hunting in Sabah , the most common thing on their mind is seafood.
However, the growing food and beverage industry shows that Sabah is more than just a haven for fresh and affordable seafood. Quality steak is getting to be an attraction too.
This is what local restaurant manager Emerson Teoh was trying to promote when he decided on opening up a steakhouse restaurant two years ago.
Emerson outside his restaurant.
A culinary graduate, he has passion for creating good food for people but instead of seafood, he wanted to try something else.
“I found that there are very few steakhouses in Kota Kinabalu itself, let alone in Sabah, even though we have our own cattle producers,” said the 26-year-old.
Therefore, Teoh decided to take the risk after discussing his plans with his parents, and they helped him start up his restaurant in the city.
Having learnt about dry ageing and other food processing methods from his previous internship stints, he wanted to focus more on this as well as use an open fire cooking concept. His open fire concept uses charcoal and wood burning for the cooking process. He thinks he is one of the few, if not the only one, adopting this method in the whole state.
Teoh learnt from his mentors as well as the Internet the various dry ageing processes, and went through hundreds of trials and errors to finally put the items on the menu.
Beef under charcoal grill.
He feels that beef produced in Sabah is just as good as those imported, while the abundance of vegetables and herbs in the country brings its own unique taste and touch to cater to different taste buds.
He said there was now a rise in awareness of beef and steak dishes in Sabah, with more people starting to appreciate it.
“Foreigners also come and actually know that they can find decent steaks here in Kota Kinabalu,” Teoh said.
He said Sabah can thrive in in the food and beverage industry because it has the raw material.
He said what may be lacking is information, and he hopes there would be more programmes to educate the public on Sabah’s local produce and exposure for culinary enthusiasts or for children who have interest in cooking.
Emerson smoking some beef.
“I was one of those children who had developed an interest in culinary arts as well as the hospitality industry since young. I hope more young people will find interest in this industry so that we can push Sabah to be a food, agriculture and hospitality hub,” said Teoh.
