As you might have guessed by now, we like food in this family. One might even go so far as saying we are obsessed with finding new things to eat, but I am not so fond of that word. Passionate, that is a word I like, we are passionate about food.
So this is a post about what and where we ate in Melaka. I will start with the most boring and bland experience. After finishing our visit at the Oceanarium we were starving. That is not good as we all get really bad tempered when we are hungry. Sadly, the food court at the Shore (the Oceanarium is located in a shopping mall) was still under construction. It looks promising but you never know with those shopping mall food courts. In any case, we ended up having lunch at Starbuck’s. My spicy chicken pocket was actually pretty good and the ice tea, or “iced shaken lemon tea”, was lemony and no too sweet. I still think RM 62.20 for a lunch is just ridiculous when all we had were drinks and sandwiches. But sometimes you grab what you can to avoid the family imploding!
The food in Melaka is amazing, if you like seafood you will have so much to choose from it will make your head spin. Be sure to try a Nyonya restaurant, it is an interesting version of Chinese food going back to the first Chinese immigrants in the city. I had a laksa that had so many layers of flavour it was more than yummy. My youngest daughter loved it too, she ate nearly half of it, spicy as it was. My husband had pineapple prawns that tasted sweet, sour and of the sea. So good! The Nyonya pineapple tart is also worth trying. It is a small, somewhat dry cookie with a soft and sweet centre of pineapple. It is sold almost everywhere in the city. We bought ours at LW Nyonya Pineapple Tarts House on Jonker Street, if you’re lucky you get to see them make the cookies.
One day we had lunch in the Portuguese Settlement. The Portuguese came to Melaka centuries ago and their descendants are still living there and keeping the traditional cooking alive. The grilled fish we had was so good I forgot to eat my rice. Simple flavours like garlic, lime and oyster sauce blended into bliss. Yum. The restaurant was called the Lisbon and was one of the few that was open for lunch. During the evening there are plenty of restaurants to choose between and you can sit near the ocean and eat while watching the sunset.
You can find nasi ayam (chicken and rice) everywhere in Malaysia and in Melaka they have it too. But here they have rolled the rice into balls and somehow that adds a new dimension to the dish. Be sure to try it! There are plenty of chicken rice ball restaurants to choose from, pick one that looks busy and clean. Next to the Hard Rock Cafe you will find Kedai Kopi Chung Wah where people stand in line for quite some time to have lunch. You will not be able to choose a table, you are ushered in and placed. They only serve chicken and rice balls so they just look at how many you are and food will arrive on the table. Don’t expect any smiles or friendly gestures from the staff, but the food is good.
As the nightmarket on Jonker Street goes on for three nights in a row (every weekend) we browsed around, looking for stuff to eat. There are plenty of food stalls to choose from, just grab what looks good and try it. Everything is cooked in front of you and is super fresh. Dive in!
Escaping winter. 