Borneo Restaurants

The tribal people of Borneo hunt wild boar regularly. In Sandakan it is illegal to hunt it or serve it in most places. But the market near the airport has one stall that is allowed to sell it, and it sells almost every part of the boar including it's face. Every part is used by the people, nothing goes to waste.

Favorite Dish: I was too chicken to try the boar, since the meat was laying around for awhile in unsanitary conditions. Maybe next time I will go hunting with the tribal men and cook it fresh with them.....

If you happen to be in Sandakan, Borneo you will have to visit the early morning market. The market is the least expensive place to try a local soup made with bird's nests.

The bird's nests are made by swallows. The swallows make their nests from their own saliva, and they build them very high up in the caves in the area. Locals need tall ladders and ropes to retrieve them, which make them very expensive to buy.

The nests are then boiled into soup and sugar is added to it. The local people believe that the soup will cure you of any diseases and preserve longevity. There are many stories of it curing cancer, etc.

Favorite Dish: The Bird's nest Soup definately wasn't my favorite, but it really wasn't bad at all. In the market you will have to arrive very early, such as 6 or 7AM to get a bowl of it. The soup sells out very quickly.

You can also buy the dried bird's nests in the airport. They come in a plastic tray and are outrageously priced!

Most people will go to Poring Hot springs after they have climbed Mount Kinabalu for nice relaxing hot baths to ease their aching muscles. On our second night in Poring we went to a resterant called Tropicana. The food was absolutely fantastic. I had the tastiest sweet and sour fish I have ever tasted. everyone else in the group enjoyed their meals and their was about 10 of us. The downside like alot of places in borneo there were big bugs flying in the resterant, the size of small birds.