Eating Naan at the Taliban

Posted on September 30, 2009
Filed Under >Himayun Mirza, Food, Pakistanis Abroad
15 Comments
Total Views: 115861

Himayun Mirza

This is the story of how I had some of the best naans I have ever had in my life at the Taliban Food Center, a small local restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The name has got nothing at all to do with the Taliban as we know them in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

The name may be worth a chuckle for some – even though it has nothing to do with what you are chuckling about. The food, however, is worth much more more. Its worth eating, worth enjoying and worth talking about!

Since ATP has its running series on the Best Pakistani Food Outside Pakistan and I have read here about eating daal roti in Taiwan, I though I would share with you the story of the Taliban Restaurant in Malaysia.

Last year I went to the second largest city of Malaysia called Kota Kinabalu, in Sabah province. Obviously I was looking for a nice desi place to eat. Most of the local and Indian restaurants there have some sugar in their meat dishes even though they are spicy. I do not like any hint of sugar in my meat dishes.

However, I found a wonderful restaurant with the best naans I ever ate in my life. They had piping hot naan coming out of the oven and we could order from simple to garlic to cheese naan. The whole lunch can be as cheap as 1 or 2 U.S. dollars (Pak Rs. 80-160).

Yes, this is not a misprint!

Initially I was afraid to go to a place called “Taliban Food Center” but the rave reviews and the desire to eat desi food got the better of me. You cannot find better food in this price even in Pakistan and India.

I found more information on the restaurant at the website RaveJoint: Food Matters. It defines teh food ‘type’ as “Indian/Pakistani,” location is described as being “Beside Honda Boon Siew, Inanam,” and average dish price as “RM 3.00” which is slightly under US$ 1. Of the three comments posted there, two are about the naan. One says: “Yeah…. seriously the best naan i’ve eaten here in Sabah. Comes wid lots of stuff.. and u can never get tired of the name of this Restaurant :P,” and teh second one says, “This was my first time eating naan and it was pretty good. Supposedly this is a very famous restaurant for naan. It’s served with kima and chutney. I think the potato curry thing was pretty nice and the naan is great too. There’s a lot of different naan combo sets too.”

If any of you ever go to Brunei then Kota Kinabalu is only a 3-4 hours ferry ride.

15 responses to “Eating Naan at the Taliban”

  1. Enlightener says:

    The title of this article really scared me to death. I’m requesting admin of Pakistaniat.com to please change the title, or even better, remove the entire article. It’s like telling the Jews that the food available at Nazi Hitler Restaurant is the best.

    I’m so grateful to God that this restaurant is not in Pakistan.

  2. rehman chughtai says:

    I read the whole article, hoping to get the answer for, “Why it is called ‘Taliban’ restaurant” ……
    Why is this place called Taliban restaurant

  3. Himayun Mirza says:

    Haroo, the front sign consists of two half curtains that can be raised or pulled down depending upon the sun and day temperature. In this case one half is up while the other half is lowered.

    BTW, I am going there again during the first week of Feb. Cannot go wrong with less than a buck lunch or up to three bucks for a grand dinner! There are six types of naans from a regular to cheese with garlic to keema naan! The people there are so nice and innocent that they do not know anything about Taliban and or English. All you do is point the number on the menu and they would make it for you.

    Thanks for this forum, I have tried Rawi Kabob, in Washington DC for Karhai gosht and chicken and enjoyed it, only a few weeks ago.

    I would like to know about good old fashioned eating places in Karachi, form my visit there in Jan. I am not talking about Westernized and expensive places but things like Burns Road and Jawed Nihari House.

    Regards,

    HM

  4. Haroon says:

    Very interesting.

    BTW, what happened to the sign in the front. Did a drone hit it :-)

  5. Waseem says:

    Taliban food rockz, it can save you even in mountains in any season :D

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