A Bunch of Malacca....

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It's the end of Chinese New Year, and after 15 days of dragons, fireworks, chinese opera, and paper towers on fire, Suz and I are faced with a decision. What to eat?

The choices here in the city of Malacca are endless. It's like having half the hemisphere's cultures available to you in one buffet. What will it be today? Let's look at some options....

For breakfast: Breakfast is kind of a rough choice as there doesn't seem to be any definitive breakfasty type foods here. The Chinese have rice soup, you can always get some Indian Roti stuffed with egg, or just go with the usual western style runny omelet. The Malays however have Nasi Lemak, which we have been enjoying the last few days. It is essentialy a pile of coconut rice, surrounded by little piles of cucumber, mini-fried anchovies, sambal, and peanuts. Sometimes with a piece of fried chicken coated in thick curry. When you mix it all up on your plate it is truly delicious. We like to enjoy it with a thick cup of Vietnamese coffee, brewed in a small strainer right at your table and then sweetened with condensed milk.

For any other meal: The possibilities are endless. Like Indian food? Go to Little India and get yourself a chicken tandoori set, complete with garlic naan, daal, mint sauce, and curry sauce. Like Chinese? Head to Chinatown where you can't move without tripping over a noodle shop, road-side Dim Sum, fried radish cake, or spring rolls. Don't forget to wash it down with sugar cane juice, pulverized right in front of your eyes. How about Malaysian? Grab a plate and head to the counter for some Nasi Campur, the equivalent of an all you can eat buffet full of fried chicken, sweet and sour squid, and anything else you can cover in delicious curried gravy. Indonisian? Have a seat at the table and get ready, because the waitress just stacked 12 small plates of seafood and chicken dishes in front of you. But don't worry if it's too much food, you are only charged for what you eat.

To complicate the selection further, Malacca is famous for a combination of Chinese and Malaysian culture called Baba-Nonya, whose food can go from fish in thick gravies to not-too-sweet miniature pinapple tarts. Add a sodium induced Indonesian flair to Nonya food and you have Peranakan. Even the Portuguese haven't given up after being pushed out 400 years ago, they lay claim to their own part of the city with the fiery "devil curry" and crab specialties. And even if you were to get bored of all of this, there is always Italian, Steakhouses, French, and high-end Haute Cuisine all over town. You can even go to the local mall and get sushi brought to you by a conveyer belt that winds around a bar.

I almost get the shivers when Suz asks the question every day. I hate to say it, but going to visit and snap pictures of all the other sights are just to kill time in between meals. But then again, it's really the reason we came.

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Photos

Indonesian Buffet
What to choose?

New year's buffet
Notice the whole roasted pigs....

High tea at the E&O Hotel
Another, fancier option

Comments

[diana]

sounds absolutely delicious....sluuurp