Melaka, historical city (October 2011)

Melaka is the home town of my parents. We come here at least once every year. When I was young, I use to spend my school holidays here and loved it. Somehow, I love historical cities as it has character and also a special feel.

The city has developed tremendously since then. The Government has done a good job. The city is now much cleaner and spruced up nicely especially since they were got the Unesco World Heritage site awarded to them.

The only setback is that the crowds are getting larger and traffic can be horrendous. I suppose that is the price to pay to visit a popular and nice place.

The famous Stahuys area with a number of trishaws for the tourists.

Replica of the Flor De La Mar Portuguese ship.

The popular tower ride which is not operating due to some legal battle.

The popular Wisma Pahlawan area.

Hatten Square upmarket mall.

The evergreen Mahkota Mall Melaka.

Duck tours.

Dusk near the St Francis Xavier Church.

Nicely lit up roads.

Traffic on a Saturday night.

Melaka attracts both the local and overseas tourists (lots of Singaporeans as well). It is very nice to spend 2 or 3 days here. You can see lots of historical and cultural places and also enjoy the many delicious local food. What more can I ask for?

Until the next time, cheers.

Melaka weekend food, food and food

Whenever we are in Melaka, apart from our family matters, the next most important is food!!! So, this article is about the various places that we normally go. The first is actually a small coffee shop along Lorong Bukit China. This place is very near to where my my dad's family used to live.

The shop is at the bend.

It does not have any name.

The shop has only a few stalls but the food is simple and good.

The lady doing the noodles.

The stall selling the wan tan noodles is done the southern way. You can have it without the black soya sauce and add your own chilli sauce as much as you like. Some how the taste is "shiok".

With the black sauce...also good.

Without the black sauce but lots of chilli sauce...yummy.

Another stall sells "curry rice" Chinese style. Simple and satisfying.

Yummy curry rice with pork bone curry and sambal.

They also sell the crispy fried fish cake, fish ball, prawn cake, etc. In Singapore, they call this "ngoh heng". You eat this with the "lobak" kind of sauce and chilli sauce.

Fish cake, fish ball and prawn cakes.

We went there during lunch and some of the stalls were already closed. You can also get mee siam, curry laksa, packed nasi lemak and pan mee.

This is not a "to die" for place but the food is good and cheap and it hits the spot.

All gone....satisfied.

For breakfast, the children wanted chicken rice ball. We normally go to 3 places only depending on the time of the day (due to the crowd). This time we went to the Ee Ji Ban shop in Melaka Raya. The food here is not that great but OK. The good thing, it is not crowded in the morning and easy to park.

Large sign to attract tourists.

Lady boss taking orders.

Signage at the side.

Front counter. They have other dishes too.

We were hungry and again forgot to take pictures until almost finished.

The rice ball is getting smaller and smaller.

Traditional steamed chicken.

I felt that the prices of the chicken rice ball is getting too expensive. At RM 0.30 per ball the size of a "guli" or large marble is too high. Basically, this dish now only caters to the tourists for the novelty of the rice ball.

Not too satisfied, we "ta pau" some noodles to be shared. This noodles come form Second Sister Noodle Shop which is located in front of the Henry Gurney School.

The sell fishball noodles with pork and some yong tau fu. The noodles are simple but nice. The fishballs are fresh and tasty. Again simple and hits the spot.

Yummy noodles.

Good fish cakes.

Remembered to take before all gone.

One other important thing to eat is of course Nonya kuih. I practically give up buying this in KL as it is never done right. My mom went to Heeren street to get this (next to Jonker Street).

Colorful Nonya kuih.

Fantastic apam balik with durian.

I must say the kuih form this shop is really good and cheap too. They also sell Nonya chang. Well so much for this short trip balik kampung.

Until the next time, cheers.

Amy's Nyonya Heritage Restaurant in Melaka

For out recent trip to Melaka, I made some online searches for a good Nyonya restaurant and quite a few pointed me to this restaurant. So, we had to go and try it out.

The location is rather easy to find as it is facing the main road in Melaka Raya. This place is not too commercialised as many other Nonya restaurants. It is run by Amy Tan who is a cousin of the celebrity Nyonya chef, Florence Tan.

My mom, being a Nyonya is rather fussy with the cooking so this will be a good test. After Amy took the order from us, I had a good feeling as she cooks the dishes herself and you can see her pride when we questioned about the dishes.

With a number of hungry teenagers, we ordered a lot of food and Amy told us it's enough......

The side signboard.

The front signage in yellow.

The soup we ordered was the itik tim (duck with salted vegetable). It was good and I forgot to take the photos until it was almost finished.

The itik tim soup came first.

The pie tie (top hot) is another appertiser. They had actually run out of this but Amy said that more were coming. Although it came later, I am showing the photos first. It was crunchy and fresh.

Yummy, crunchy and fresh.

The cucumber salad is a variation of my mom's (and one of my favorites). The lady fingers are good too for dipping with sauce.

Yummy greens!

We are sticking with the traditional Melaka Nonya dished and another is cincalok omelatte. It not not overpowering with the cincalok.

Simple and good!

One of the most famous dishes, ayam pongteh. Then came also the sambal udang petai, udang masak lemak (with large prawns) and assam fish (jenahak). We also had chap chay (which fired mixed vegetable) and tauhu.

Ayam pongteh

Sambal udang petai.

Udang masak lemak.

Ikan assam pedas (fish gone).

Chap chai.

Tauhu

The rice is served in a traditional bakul. Quite a novelty. Well you can have a much rice as you want. The bad thing of Asian food is you need to have the rice to complement the dishes and you will tend to overeat this way.

Our rice "bakul"

I forgot we also ordered fired chicken....well all the food is good!!!

Yummy, yummy.

You can see that we polished off everything. One thing for certain, Amy and the husband were very happy we appreciated the food and her cooking. Even my parents commented that the food here is good.

Although full, we had to try the cendol as most places now use the canned santan or milk rather than the original way. With the passion for originality, I knew they would do it the right way. I was right! Only thing was if they used shaved ice, it would be even better.

Very nice cendol

Lastly, we asked us to try the tapai and we just ordered one pack. It was also really good.

Now we know where to have good Nonya food whenever we go back to Melaka. The owner told us they have 36 dishes and we have tried about 10 of them. Maybe the next trip, we have to go twice and try all the rest. 

If you wish to eat there, the place is not too large (shophouse) so making a reservation may be a good idea. Their address is 75, Jalan Melaka Raya 24 and telephone 06-2868819. You won't regret it!

Until the next time, cheers.