Since my mom and siblings have never been to the historical town that is Melaka, I decided to bring the family down for a short day trip during their brief visit to KL for Chinese New Year. We drove down there during the 3rd day of CNY.
St Francis Xavier with his missing right arm at St Paul’s church
After arriving there, we had a quick brunch at Donald and Lily’s corner (another post on another time) and then proceeded to the must-visit spot that is the old St. Paul’s church. You might have noticed that the statue of St Francis Xavier has a missing right arm, this is not an act of vandalism but rather sculptured on purpose to show that the body does lack the right arm. Apparently the pope requested that the arm be severed from the corpse of St Francis 62 years after he died.
After that we walk to Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat), where my sister bought some souvenirs. We also stopped by the same Chendol place I visited last time around, Jonker88. Can’t get enough of that gula Melaka.
Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat)
There’s still quite a lot of trishaws in Melaka. Over here, they are decorated heavily with plenty of fake flowers, and many of them come equipped with loud stereo systems churning out the latest Fifty Cent’s tune. Unlike the trishaw in Penang where the passenger is seated in front, the trishaws here have the side by side configuration. Slightly less thrilling I think.
There isn’t really anything much at mini Malaysia
Before heading back to KL, the four of us then went to Mini Malaysia at Ayer Keroh, just a few kilometers from the heart of town. Initially I had though that the park has many miniature buildings and landscape representing the whole of Malaysia, but it turned out that there were merely 13 traditional houses representing the different states. Not exactly worth the RM 12 per person we had to pay to get in, and miles away from the value for money you’d get visiting KL’s bird park.
worst costume ever
However, we did get there just in time for their cultural performance. Basically it was just a lot of traditional dance routines. It wasn’t half bad, but the costume was something else.
Overall it was a relaxing trip, though we did not manage to go to many eating places nor were the tourist attractions that great.
Sort of like the laksa of Penang, anyone who goes to Melaka should not miss the uniquely Melaka delicacy, the satay celup (celup: dip). It is basically a type of steamboat on with the raw food on the stick to be cooked in a boiling spicy peanut sauce that is similar to those that comes with normal satay. Other than the different medium for cooking the raw food on stick, it is identical to the more recognizable lok lok.
this stuff are absolutely mouth watering
For supper during our Melaka trip, we headed to Ban Lee Siang to fill our stomach with this uniquely Melaccan food. Now some of you may suggest that Capitol Satay Celup is the “better” place to go. In a way, while Capitol is one of the “original” and oldest place serving satay celup, there are simply way over-crowded (with people standing right next to your table waiting for you to get done) for anyone to enjoy a peaceful meal there without rushing. My baba friends from Melaka hence suggested this place, which is just as good.
only 50 sen per stick, pay what you eat
The place was quite packed as well, we managed to get 2 tables right next to each other to fit all 10 of us. We then head straight to the line to get our stuff. At this place, everything is priced at RM 0.50 per stick, no matter if it is prawn, vegetable, fish ball, quail’s egg, cockles, anything. You only pay for what you eat. You can also order some bread too.
some happy diners (notice Kim, on the left, stained her shirt)
Serving is simple, you just put the stick of raw food in the boiling satay sauce/soup, let it cook, and then put it to your mouth. The stuff packs a punch though, in terms of hotness, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who can’t have spicy food. But if you like spicy food and enjoys lok lok, this is an awesome combination.
the map of Ban Lee Siang satay celup at Jalan Ong Kim Wee
After crowning herself with 38 sticks of satay in the afternoon, Kim got the better of us again and devoured almost 30 sticks of satay celup. I only had 2/3 of what she managed, respect.
If you head down to Melaka, do not miss this dish.
Address:
45E, Jalan Ong Kim Wee,
Melaka
GPS: 2.202742, 102.243994
Tel: 606-284 1935
The first thing we fill our stomach with when arriving dead starved (thanks to PLUS highway who decided to repave the road during Saturday rush hour) at Melaka was the pork satay. Situated opposite to the Pay Teck school on Jalan Portugis, the shop is actually just a few blocks away from the famous Jonker Walk.
ooO glorious food
Satay is traditionally a Malay dish, and most of the time prepared by Muslim, hence, with Halal meat, ie: no pork. However, in this historic town of Melaka where you can get fried pork fat in Poh Piah, it is just fitting that pork satay is served too (by non-Muslim of course)
the shop and the satisfied customers
The thing about this Xiang Ji satay shop is that you don’t really have to place any order. After you sit down, they will start to serve you satay soon as they are done from the barbecue pit. We had plenty of pork satay, liver satay and chicken satay, sadly, they ran out of my favorite: the pork intestine satay.
satay with the ketupad, peanut sauce, raw cucumber and onion
The portion of a single satay is not very big here, probably about half the size of those huge Ampang satay, but the taste is different. The pork goes well with their marinate tastes of turmeric and some other sauces that I obviously don’t know (probably their trade secret). The liver though, can be a little dry, but still pretty good. The chicken satay did not disappoint either.
but ARGH, why no intestine!!?! Looks like I’ll have to go there again.
After the satay, we went to Jonker Walk and to have some snack, other than the Poh Piah on previous post, we had the must-eat Chendol and also some very good otak-otak sold on a stall nearby the unmistakable Jonker88 restaurant.
The Chendol in Melaka is poured with the thick and original Gula Melaka (palm sugar) which made all the difference. The rich and sweet caramel taste of palm sugar on top of the finely shaved ice was just absolutely delightful.
Look it! I can even draw up a Melaka map!
Address:
Kedai Satey Xiang Ji
50, Jln Portugis
Melaka
GPS: 2.202817,102.244209
Tel: 019- 667 8868
Address:
Jonker88
88, Jalan Hang Jebat
75200, Melaka
GPS: 2.199570, 102.246644
Tel: 019-397 5665
We rounded up a few noobs and went to Melaka for a half day (was supposed to be a whole day.. well) eating trip last weekend. In a span of less than 7 hours, we had 3 proper meals and plenty of snacks and dessert. One of the snacks we had while walking along the famous Jonker Street was this Poh Piah (similar to the now-retired Poh Piah at SS2).
this stuff is absolutely delicious
The Poh Piah (spring role) comes in two different varieties, the wet and the deep fried. You can get decent deep fried Poh Piah from many places, but the wet role is quite a bit harder to come by. In Melaka, the traditional ingredients for this item are scrambled egg, turnip, fried onion, lettuce, bean sprout, and some fried pork fat wrapped in the homemade Poh Piah skin. Chili paste and a type of sweet sauce are added too, you can usually customize your order to suit your tolerance for chili.
the hawker knows this particular customer for more than 20 years
The Poh Piah is best served right away, if you leave it for a while, the skin, vegetable, and fried pork fat tends to get soggy, and you’ll lose the contrasting texture that makes this snack such an awesome gastronomical experience. The secret ingredient gotta be the fried pork fat, it gives the role the aroma of animal fat that is hard to be substituted. With the freshness of lettuce, the sweetness of turnip, the smell of fried onion, this stuff is just fabulous.
secret ingredient – fried pork fat
If you head down to Melaka, don’t forget to grab some Poh Piah. This particular stall is at Jonker Street, a Poh Piah goes for RM 1.50. These is no discount if you mention Kelvin‘s name even though the old hawker has known him since before his puberty.
it was kerol, horny, and myself
So we were hungry and we were at SS2, if you have ever been to the area at dinner time, you know it’s not easy to find a parking space. When we finally did, we were not far from this Melaka Street Restaurant. After taking a look on the menu to make sure that it was within budget, we were off to the uncharted water.
drool? drool anyone??
The place is reasonably new. I believe they might have taken over the old Vietnamese Kitchen shop lot after the former decided to concentrate on it’s 1 Utama establishment. Interior decoration is pretty basic but rather comfortable. It does try to create an old school Melaka’s atmosphere, I think.. not that I’ve been to Melaka yet..
check out our traffic light drinks!
We ordered fried asparagus with belacan, sambal squid (kerol’s favorite creature to eat), and this fried chicken with the name that has escaped my mind (something like aunty lam or .. .) The asparagus was absolutely fabulous, squid was equally good but not too spicy. As for the chicken, it came with some chili sauce for dipping, the taste gives a hint of belacan and a pretty decent job at marination. The rice served was well cooked and in a pretty soft texture, I usually avoid restaurants with hard rice no matter how good the food is.
Overall the meal was pretty good, though I am not sure if it’s a true representation of Melaka delights. The taste was just right and we did not even need any soya sauce or chili padi that usually goes with every meal. The price was rather reasonable too, for a proper restaurant setting with air conditioning.
So easy to get there..
Address:
Jalan SS 2/66,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.119744, 101.620574
