The principles of a quickie in Melaka


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Asia » Malaysia » Melaka » Melaka City
March 30th 2014
Published: April 7th 2014
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HE SAID...
I woke early to the rumble of the train outside our KL hotel window. We headed down to breakfast around 7am and went for the conventional option of juice, coffee, cornflakes and toast, as we had a two hour bus trip to Melaka ahead of us.

We checked out of our KL hotel (Ancasa Express) and jumped on a public bus to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan on the outskirts of KL, where we boarded a bus for Melaka at 11am. We arrived around 1pm, jumped into a minibus and headed to the Hash House Hotel, where we’d stayed only a few weeks before. We checked in, dropped our bags and walked to Nancy’s Kitchen for lunch. We eventually sat down at 2.30pm and ordered popiah (carrots, turnip, bean sprouts, lettuce and shallots drizzled with a sweet thick sauce and wrapped in a thin wheat pancake), nonya laksa lemak (rice noodles in a curry coconut milk broth) and kari ayam dabel (devil curry chicken). We finished the meal at 4pm, did a quick orientation walk of the town and then headed back to our hotel at 5pm, where we jumped into a gaudy trishaw for an extended tour of the town. We got back at 6.30pm, had a quick shower and headed out to the Jonker Street Night Market for dinner at 7.30pm.

We opted for a non–descript eatery off Jonker Street and the food matched the surrounds. It was by far the worst meal we’ve had to–date in Malaysia. We ordered dry pork noodles (which were woeful) and rojak (which was insipid). We walked past so many fantastic street stalls, but just made the wrong decision on the night. It happens! We wandered along Jonker Street Night Market and picked up a sun umbrella and new pair of thongs (flip flops) before making our way back to the hotel. On the way we stopped at our favourite Melakan eatery – Restaron Melaka Raya – for a teh tarik (pulled sweet milky tea). It picked us up (as it always does). We had a full travel day ahead, so we retired to our room and crashed at midnight.



SHE SAID...
This was our second trip from KL to Melaka City in Melaka State in two weeks. We got there by bus again, but the journey seemed so much shorter given we knew the buses and distance this time. We arrived in Melaka at 2pm, and much to our surprise the owner of the Hash House Hotel recognised us straight away. Even though we still love the location of the hotel, we didn’t change our opinion about the small, spartan, slightly grimy rooms or the thin grey towels (they were probably white during British rule). However, it was for only one night, so it was manageable.

A few people asked us why we picked to circle back on ourselves this trip instead of going in a one way loop. Fair question, but we’ve realised in our travels that we love going back to places as we see the place/city so differently the second time around. On our first visit we absorb the big picture, while on the second visit we tend to pick up the details and nuances that we just don’t have the capacity to see the first time around. Plus we had some unfinished business – I really wanted to try all the native Melakan dishes we hadn’t been able to try on our last visit.

Lunch had been organised at Nancy’s Restaurant just off Jonker Street. In our last blog on Melaka (A step by step guide to a food coma in Melaka) we mentioned that we did a cooking class at Nancy’s and we had some reservations about how it was run. Anyway, we went with an open mind. We ordered popiah rolls, devil curry and a nonya laksa lemak. The popiah roll was nice, the devil curry was amazingly good, but the laksa was a bit of a letdown. I think the average tasting laksa was especially highlighted because we’d had a superb version at Old China Cafe in KL the day before. While sharing dishes around the table we also happened to notice that the rendang sauce and the sauce of the chicken and candlenut dishes were almost identical (apart from a difference in sweetness). It was also confirmed that the majority of Nancy’s curries and sauces were too sweet for our palette.

After lunch we did the orientation for the second time. This time the St Paul’s ruins were crowded with school groups. This was a very different feel, as it was nearly empty on our last visit. We were last here on a Tuesday and Wednesday, but this time we had arrived on a Sunday, and the difference in the town’s population was very, very noticeable. If I lived here, the tourist plague on weekends would get very annoying very quickly.

We had another trishaw tour through the winding streets of Melaka with Kamal. This time I knew how it worked, so I had my camera ready for the shots I missed last time. The route we followed was slightly different, but Kamal’s tall tales were the same (and they were starting to show holes on second hearing). It was still a fun thing to do though.

Re–visiting Melaka after spending time in George Town, I realised that more effort has been made to preserve the Peranakan architecture here, even though the conservation process hasn’t always got it right and can sometimes look overdone (as I mentioned in our previous blog on Melaka). I definitely prefer the organic feel of George Town’s heritage quarter.

We returned to Jonker Street for dinner, as it was the weekend and the night market was on. This wasn’t any different to most night markets in Asia. Andrew bought a pair of thongs (flip flops to non–Australians) and I bought a UV umbrella that claimed to reduce the temperature by 10 degrees. It remains untested so far.

Dinner was a massive let down – we had the worst meal of the trip! Aldrin took us to a place he always goes to, but the ‘dry’ noodles we ordered had probably been cooked in 2010, the tofu skins tasted like strips of leather and the soup looked (and tasted) like used dish water. We were quite annoyed that we had gone to this stall when there were so many delicious looking places to choose from. We consoled ourselves that the rojak (fruit and par–cooked vegetable salad with chilli dressing) we ordered from another stall was at least edible. However, after snacking on a fabulous egg tart from the market and stopping for a teh tarik at our favourite – Restoran Melaka Raya – on the way to our hotel, we were happy again.

We had a very early start the next day, so we set the alarm for 5am and fell asleep reflecting on how nice it had been to come back to Melaka, even though only for a day. It was also nice to know our way around without having to use a map even once.

Next we travel to the state of Pahang to explore Taman Negara!

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8th April 2014

Disappointing meals
Oh we hate it when a meal is disappointing. We'd rather it be completely inedible so we can justify going somewhere else for food, if it's still edible but just disappointing then that's the worst situation ;)
10th April 2014

Re: Disappointing meals
That is the worst meal we've had on this trip...and we still moan and groan about it :)
8th April 2014

wow! delicious dishes
10th April 2014

Re:
Thanks maianhng!
10th April 2014

Ah one bad meal
You've had a food fest for weeks so I suppose percentages were with you that one meal would finally stand out in your mind as not so great. You've made some wise food choices over the past few weeks and we have enjoyed reading about each morsel. Seeing a place a second time is always a good thing in our book. We did that with Dublin and didn't have any regrets.
10th April 2014

Re: Ah one bad meal
MJ I love going back to places a second time...and it is indeed because of all the good meals that we'd had that we are still annoyed that we made such a bad choice with our last meal in Melaka. We've been trying to make every meal count :)

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