Melaka is not only famous for its centuries-old buildings and historical city. It also has one of the most famous food haven in Malaysia. There are a lot of things that you can try in Melaka. Here I present to you, in chronological order.
Nyonya food
Place: Any nyonya restaurant will do. The exact place that I went to was a place called Ole Sayang in Melaka Raya.
Restoran Ole Sayang, Melaka Raya
The place has quite an old school authentic feel to it, despite located in a modern shoplot.
Check out the really cool set of doors!
The restaurant was quite full at that time. It was dinner time
Rendang Chicken, yummy! The best dish that night!
Sotong, or cuttlefish, in oyster sauce
Tofu with fried bawang
And a dish of vegetable to complete the meal. Rather bland this one
Of course, a dinner wouldn't be complete without the rice in banana leaf
The dinner only cost less than RM50 for all four of us! It was cheap, the food was good and the ambience was nice. We couldn’t ask for a better dinner that night.
Supper 1 – Oyster and clam
Not many people know about this. We were lucky to have Cai Hong and Wei (my wife’s sister and brother respectively) who knows every nook and corner of Melaka. They brought us to this awesome place on the back lane of some shops. They sell steamed oysters, clams, squids and other delicacies.
Back lane clam shop. You've got to see it to believe it!
The special thing is that everyone sits very low on the floor, on little stools barely a foot from the dirty floor. Check this out!
They might as well just squat on the ground!
The table contains a hole where you can put your empty shells in a "rubbish bin"
So what does the food look like? Let’s just let the picture explains itself.
As fresh as you can get! With all the blood still oozing out!
Ohhh .... aren't they the juiciest things?
Sweet clams....
We added other side dishes as well. I don't have any idea what these are called
This is the name of the place. It was once on Ho Chiak too!
This place does garner a lot of attention it seems. Even Ho Chiak came here a few times I heard. But I did not eat any of these. One of the reasons was the fact that I do not have Hepatitis B immunization. So I should stay away from these seafood. Another reason was the hygiene reason. Apart from the obvious squatting so close to the dirty floor, there was a lot of rats everywhere!
Ratatouille in search of food! Excuse me for the blur pictures. The rat was too fast
Supper 2 – Capitol Satay Celup
This has got to be the place not to be missed if you are in Melaka looking for food. We went to the famous one, Capitol Satay Celup. Again we wouldn’t have located this place on our own without the help of Wei and Cai Hong.
Restoran Capitol Satay. Note the crowd!
It is not a good idea to go during weekends or holidays. The queue can get very long! We stood outside for a good 30 minutes before we were finally seated.
My pretty model Cai Hong, promoting the satay celup?
You pick as many satays as you can eat and dip them into this boiling mixture of saliva and bacteria
Wei and Cai Hong can really eat! Err... that's Mei Fen's giving the thumbs-up!
They are ready to be eaten!
Squids, bird eggs, prawns, and all things unhealthy. Urrghhh....
Note that my plate is still untouched
I don't mean to be a spoil-sport, but come on, can you really eat your food dipped in this? I just lost my appetite for 2 weeks
Chicken Rice Ball
Another one of this portugese town’s specialty is the Hainanese Chicken Rice Ball. The name of the shop is Kedai Kopi Chung Wah.
Kedai Kopi Chung Wah in HDR
It’s a simple recipe really. Steamed chicken with garlic rice rolled tightly into balls the size of golf balls.
Tightly rolled rice balls ready to be served with this dish of steamed chicken
Golf balls anyone?
5 of these balls are needed to fill a small plate, and they are not cheap!
Now the next time you go to Melaka, you know where to go for food! Happy food hunting!