Coming to the end of the year, I've had been busy, mostly packing up my office and preparing to move to my new place of duty next year. However busy, I had not given up on traveling and rewarding myself. Since there is no oversea trip for the later half of 2016, me and Lyn decided to quench our appetite for good food by "cuti-cuti Malaysia". And below are our findings, however, do note that our itinerary with Ong and Kwan is a pure foodie itinerary, means we did not visit ANY tourist spot such as A Famosa or other relevant museum.
Fri nite:
After checking into
JW Boutique Hotel, we rested before venturing out for dinner. Situated opposite Aeon Melaka, it is fairly convenient to get anything that we need. Parking is adequate, the hotel is clean and minimalist in design. Checking in procedure is swift and the staff is friendly. Anything that I dislike about the hotel? I would expect the area to be more lively and has more range of restaurant. It is not easy to find a convenient mart in the area unless we walk to Aeon (which is rather near)
Portuguese Square: the stalls worker started to gather us even from the car park, trying to entice us to patron their respective stalls. It is NOT a pleasant experience, and sometimes, I felt intimidated. We picked stall no.5 and the result was average. The butter chicken is nice, the vegetable is cooked up to our expectation but the much awaited Portuguese baked fish is a let down. It is not fragrant at all, very very hot and spicy, and without any other taste at all. I enjoy all spicy food, but this is not on the list of enjoyable spicy delicacies. Ratings: 2 poink~!
Nadeje Cafe: located in Mahkota Parade is this small cafe, which claim the rights as the master of mille crepe. While mille crepe would not come across as economical, but still cheaper compare to the tiny slices of cake we find in places like boutique cafes or even Secret Recipe. Our verdict? Delicious. This is probably one of the famous spot which retain the standard after all the years. Ratings: 3 poink~!
Sat morning:
Hoe Kee Chicken Rice: what is coming to Jonker without eating the ball chicken rice? Initially we wanted to try Chung Wah (I enjoyed their version when I first tasted it back in 1998), but arriving at 10 am, we had a long queue waiting. Instead we visited Hoe Kee across the road. The chicken is nice, and the rice is tasty. However, take away the novelty of the rice being in ball shape,it is just another nice Hainan chicken rice dish which we could find anywhere else. Still, a good way to get the day started. Ratings: 2 half poink~!
San Shu Gong shopping: come here only if you wanted to shop for local Melaka souvenirs under an air conditioned shop. The few selections we bought is rather disappointing. It felt as if being mass produced and churned out commercially from a factory. The "kuih" that we bought was rather hard, and if compared to the night market, the dodol and sweets is overpriced. However, the packaging is definitely impressive. Ratings: 2 poink~!
Jonker88: this is the most letdown of the whole trip. I've visited Jonker88 few years back when the cendol stall still based in front of the shop. The durian cendo,l as my memories served me right, was decent. This round, beside wasting time waiting for a place to sit as the shop is perpetually full, the cendol is not cheap. What else is wrong with the famous Jonker88 cendol? The cendol was frozen, not thawed. The whole bowl consist of basically ice. The syrup is lacking the famous gula melaka taste, which suppose to set Melaka cendol apart from other cendol. And my durian cendol, is just top up with "durian-flavoured" syrup on top which only taste mildly like melted durian ice cream. What the..? Ratings: 1 poink~!
One bite durian puff: A surprise find, along the same road, is this small local product souvenir shop with different puff stall in front. Imagine "lao-sa-bao" in puff form. As the name suggest, just put the puff into the mouth, with just one bite, the content will "explode" out, filling the whole mouth with taste. It was so good that I ordered another after the initial durian puff. Ratings: 2 half poink~!
Jalan Bunga Raya Popiah: First warning: it is non halal. But for a pork lover, this popiah is made with generous amount of pork lard that upon opening the wrapping, the whole car is filled with the smell. Definitely my highlight of the whole trip and restore my hope in Melaka food. Just look for a mysterious road side stall with nearly surrounded with aluminium plate along the road. Passing by, we were wondering the stall is open or not. Ratings: 4 poink~!
Donald and Lily: we were afraid that after moving to the new place away from Jonker, whether Donald and Lily kept their standard. And we were glad to answer yes. The cendol is good with gula melaka, the rojak has a distinct Nyonya taste to it. And with the new shop, there is even ample parking. Ratings: 3 half poink~!
Others; Mamee House is good for a stop, but we did not dine there. East Meet West Nyonya dumpling made it to our list but since we were full, we did not search for it.
Capitol Satay Celup: another delicacy which seems to be localized to Melaka. Its the usual 'lok-lok' in satay sauce. The idea is nice, but again, seems more novelty than substance. We came here really early by 4pm to avoid the crowd and to get the earlier cleaner pot of sauce. ratings: 2 half poink~!
Jonker Night Market: I can only say that the night market from Friday to Saturday is full or new surprise. The food is reasonably priced and quite nice too. There are some offering which is difficult to find in Ipoh night market. There is even a few stall with tables so that we can eat there itself. Ratings: 3 poink~!
Jalan Bunga Raya lala and clams: along one of the side alley along Jalan Bunga Raya, there is 2 stall which perpetually fulled of patrons which came here just for the la-la and clams. I had warn you that this is road side stall and the cleanliness is not up to par at all. But, the sauce dip for our clams was simply delicious. It had a nice blend of hot, spicy, tangy and sour at the same time. Ratings: 3 poink~!
Jalan Bunga Raya Boon Leong hawker centre Fried Oyster (HoJian): Prepare to wait as there is only the wok preparing for all the orders. But the wait is so worth it. Most fried oyster would be extremes, either it is too gooey (like eating glue), too oily (bathing in oil) or simply like any fried egg with few osyter inside. This, set the mark for a good hojian without being too oily yet we can taste the pork lard, the egg fried with substance without being too gooey. Ratings: 4 poink~!
Sunday:
Baba Charlie kuih: lots of people, packed with tourist. And the taste is not as good as the good ones in Ipoh and Kampar area. Ratings: 1 half poink~!
Nancy's Kitchen: There is only limited Nyonya restaurant that open at 11. After a disappointing round in Melaka Raya (none of the shop open early) we decided to go for Nancy. It was okay, some of the offering was good, but none stand out. It ended up as any Chinese dish. Ratings: 2 half poink~!
Comments: we found out that most of the famous establish shops had been rather disappoinitng except for a few. I would wonder that maybe with all the hype, they would want to maximize the profit by focusing on the volume rather than maintaining the quality. However, there are few gems around which manage to surprise us so much that I would not mind making another trip down to Melaka just for them.
Ipoh is never short of dimsum place. The unfortunate thing is most of the dimsum restaurant tend to be commercialized and caters more for out of town tourists who are willing to spend while visiting this peaceful town. Seldom we find a dimsum restaurant that focus more for the locals with their no frill basic servings with affordable price. I used to favor Choi Yue in Ipoh Garden South for its tasty dimsum but since its popularity rise, it is difficult to find a seat nor parking spot.
Expect basic but tasty experience. The setup is the basic Chinese dimsum setup, with not much decorations expected and the workers cruising around the shop with trays of dimsum in their hand. See something you like and just ask them to put it on the table. The dimsum also comes in basic form but adequate choices. Do not expect new and innovative dimsum, although they would have special-for-the-day dimsum during weekend. Just focus on the usual day-to-day dimsum offering with a bit of varieties. However, it is not a bad thing at all because they do their basic dimsum well. The dimsum tasted fresh with generous fillings. The meat tasted well and most of the dishes are up to expectations. The deep fried selections are also not too oily. The one dish that stand out would be their cha-siu-bao (roast pork bun); the filling is really good with the fragrance of the meat, although I would prefer the bun to be bit thinner.
The price would be as expected, though not as pricey as some of their famous counterpart in the main town area. The number of patrons here would be a prove that dining here is a good experience with good food, although it would be an extra effort for me to wake up early for the dimsum breakfast.
