Orang Utang house at night in Melaka
Last week we took a daytrip to Melaka, colourful city in the South of Kuala Lumpur (direction Singapore). The city is famous for the variety of its heritage, having been influenced by the Dutch, the Portuguese and the Chinese. All this can be seen in the architecture, but of course also left its mark foodwise. Unfortunately it was raining the whole day, so please excuse bad picture quality.
Confrontation with food starts on the street with stalls like this one selling all kinds of dim sums.
All delicious!
Famosa on Jonker Street, the most popular (or touristic) restaurant for one of Melakas specialties: Chicken Rice Balls.
Chef in action at Famosa
Rice Balls! Nothing special about those pals though. Slightly fragrant, and a shape that brings no added value, except maybe that you could throw ’em quite far..
White chicken is nice and tender (served cold btw) but nothing ordinary in Malaysia; you could get it anywhere and wouldn’t need to drive all the way to Melaka for having it… Chicken Rice Balls: Dont buy the hype!
Much more satisfaction is a visit of Nancy’s Kitchen. A small restaurant serving Nyonya cuisine on Jalan Hang Lekir a sidestreet of Jonker Street (take the corner of Geographers Café). Hey even Chubby Hubby used to go there (which I didn’t know beforehand, we got there by coincidence), a genuine seal of quality!
Chicken Curry, with a slight fruity sour edge to it was delicious. Tamarind is used in many of the dishes here, being a main ingredient of Nyonya cuisine.
Delicious Aubergines
Tamarind Pork: also a hit. Hearty marinade with tamarind pips in it. Tamarind pips…maybe the true (and natural) origin of Sweet n’ sour Asian cuisine…?
The Chicken Curry is called “Debil Chicken” btw. And yes, it made me laugh…
packs of glutinous rice for dessert. Nancy offers many typical (and very sweet) Malaysian desserts.
Food Stalls on the way home…
Dried Squid on a grill…
Melaka definitely has some delicacies to offer. Look out for Nyonya cuisine rather than Chicken Rice Balls. Also I heard that there are quite some Portuguese-influenced seafood restaurants to discover. Next time…
