Gula Melaka Life!

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After 2 days of hectic Eid celebrations (13 hours of feasting on the 1st day!) we finally loaded up the car, escaped Kampung KL and drove the 1.5 hours down to my birthplace - the historic and newly-anointed World Heritage City of Melaka. It's been years and years since either of us has visited Melaka and sans Sprog we were on our usual Mission To Eat!


We checked into the lovely and recently-restored Majestic Hotel on Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai - just across the road from the Melaka River with colourful picturesque Malay kampung houses lining the banks on the far side. The Majestic is all creams and cool greens, original tiled floors with polished wooden stairs, shuttered windows and exceedingly polite service. I love how there are jars of traditional sweets and cookies (my fav being the crushed peanut ones 😊) just lying around the bar and library - such a throwback to my childhood.


Practically threw our luggage at the obliging bellboys (to be delivered to our room) and rushed down to queue at Chung Wah - one of the best places for chicken rice balls with steamed chicken in Melaka. Half an hour later we were happily seated in this very basic coffee shop with our 2 portions of rice balls, 1.5 portions of steamed chicken, 1 ice-cold beer and 2 barley-lime drinks 😊 Service is efficient, toilets are best avoided - the food is worth the scorching midday queue.


The whole area around Jonker's Walk has evolved into one big tourist trap - though it isn't without its charms and serendipitous discoveries. I pretty much love it! The kitschy tourist shops selling tshirts, fridge magnets and nonsensical wooden carvings... and what's with all the sombreros? (isn't our history Portugese not Mexican??); the bars and cafes with names like Libra, Limau-Limau (all twinkly crystal bits and blaring Wham!) and Geographer Cafe (lazy ceiling fans, potted banana plants)...


And amongst all the fake antiques - real gems - traditional shops selling custom-made beaded slippers, old Nyonya filigree jewellery inlaid with intan and berlian, dusty shops selling beautiful old light fittings and giant red doors with gold calligraphy, art studios with lovely intricate tiled-roofs and gorgeous hidden courtyards, ginger jars planted with lotus plants, stalls of dodol and cencalok and gula melaka, korean fish spas!, circular windows with bamboo bars - just these wonderful old Chinese shophouses painted colourful yellows, mint greens, periwinkle blues. All the signposts straight out of the old history books - Cheng Ho, Munshi Abdullah, Hang Lekir, Parameswara, Hang Li Poh (yup - my blogger name - little homage to my Peranakan ancestry and in the spirit of travel, adventure and the mingling of cultures 😊 ) Thank you Badan Warisan for your terrific job of painstakingly restoring and conserving the few remaining authentic Chinese shophouses on Heeren Street 😊


AND right around the bend, across the Melaka River, the deep dusky pink Dutch/British Stadthuys, Christ Church, Queen Victoria's Fountain, The Clock Tower.. Yes - I like Melaka.


Back at the Majestic - the hot Chinese tea poured upon entering your room is a very nice touch. Lovely lovely rooms - great views, polished wood and dark marble, black & white tiled bathrooms (water pressure could be improved!), heavenly bedding - free wifi 😊 The walls between rooms are VERY thin though; hence the TV volume dials with set maximum levels. Nothing kept out the Hokkien conversation and cackling next door though 😞
[photo=Melaka River From Our Room With A View]

After weighing our dinner options we decided upon - yup - Nyonya food! Unfortunately the Peranakan Restaurant near the Baba Nyonya Museum was closed, so we settled for Nancy's Kitchen Restaurant (recommended by our concierge but I wasn't convinced). Tacky - not the cleanest. I was having huge misgivings when the waiter was barely comprehensible - and the Nyonya curry chicken wasn't available. The food scored ZERO for presentation. But - Omigod - how good did everything taste?? 😊 The pie tee was seriously good with the fillng warm, spicy and freshly made; the assam fish with okra full of flavour underneath that layer of oil 😊; one of the best otak-otak I've had!; and the real surprise - gorgeously crispy light soft-shelled crab - very nice. Now wish I'd quelled my doubts and ordered the duck soup with salted vegetable too... Ok the cendol wasn't very good but the list of nyonya kuih (just too full to order more by then) included all my favourites - lots of gula melaka 😊 And hanging in the corner - the wonderful lotus aroma of fresh kuih chang. These were non-halal of course - but my Nyonya grandmother would make us, her Moslem grandchildren, a special batch with chicken, chestnuts and black mushroom - just heavenly!!


4TH OCTOBER - Gula Melaka Continued...


Woke up this morning when it was still dark to one of those fabulous, cracking tropical thunderstorms 😊 All refreshed from drinks last night at Harper's - a well-restored glammed-up shed on the river serving dodgy-looking tapas and stodgy-looking cakes. The tourist boats passed underneath our romantic riverside balconied perch - kids in tudungs waving madly 😊


We'd stopped to watch Mr Ho (famous street performer gunning for an entry in the Guinness Book - go figure) crack open a coconut with his crooked swollen index finger whilst balancing on 2 teapots... ??! Accompanied by dramatic crashing chinese cymbals - he was charming and fluent in 5 languages. We left with a bottle of his superhealing oil (RM10 special for you tonight! - how could we refuse?! ) - my finger throbbing in empathy.


Breakfasted at Mei Sin Cafe - a 2 minute stroll from the Majestic and highly recommended again. Ancient, traditional, buzzing with political discussions (well these ARE the times) - with the strongest coffee and the sweetest tea served in OLD chinese-coffee-shop crockery. We had very good kaya toast and wonton noodles; sharing our small round marble table with a fine fiesty old Nyonya lady who was lamenting our Kampung KL no longer having Kampung Values and how Singapore had more respect for their old 😊


Tried to assuage the guilt of the greedy by running - I use the term lightly here - on the treadmill in the small but well-equipped Majestic gym. I just about managed an hour - albeit in embarrassing tortoiselike fashion - and would have given up if not for the looming Mizuno Wave Run that Spouse has signed us up for in a couple of weeks... ... ... The gym overlooks the tiny trendy infinity pool - totally overrun by squawking kids in tshirts and sweat pants. Why? Is this modesty? What about hygiene? Not to mention safety - I'd drown with all that sopping fabric weighing me down! Why does management allow this??


Anyway after yet more food from The Mansion - The Majestic's gorgeous restaurant - all hushed - polished wood, baby grand piano and starched waiters, where I had yet more excellent Nyonya fare (vegetables with glass noodles, inche kabin chicken, prawn curry, sago gula melaka) and Spouse a decent burger and chips - we ventured out in search of the Portugese Village. Uhmmm... no wait... it's really just a frayed, faded neighbourhood with an ugly seafacing hotel behind it and a Portugese food court that needs to be explored on our next trip... St John's Hill on the way there looks like a good running spot on that next trip again though... 😊


In my humble view no visit to a YTL hotel is complete without a visit to 'The Spa'. Spouse and I have tried - all of them actually! We really like being pummeled, kneaded, lotioned, potioned, unctioned, scrubbed, marinated, wrapped, baked, steamed and smoked 😊 My favourite is the Cameron Highlands Resort Spa (there's something about the teabath, tea & honey scrub and the crisp cold highlands). The Majestic Spa is AS good. The complimentary hair and scalp treatment is fabulously relaxing. The black & white P. Ramlee clips played on a loop on the ceiling TV equally hypnotic... zzzzz... Our Balinese massages soooo good with their aromatically detoxifying lavender and rosemary oils - ahhhhh... very nice!


After much debate we decided to head back to KL tonight rather than tomorrow - traffic is horrific back to KL on Sundays after religious holidays. Question now though was where to have dinner before heading back? Ambitiously we were going to try TWO establishments! Yay! Capital Satay is home to the famous satay celup of Melaka. We queued for almost AN HOUR!!

So was it worth the wait... Well, the variety of 'sticks' to dip in the rolling boil of the satay sauce is huge and wonderfully fresh. The tiger prawns are excellent! Also very good cockles, squid, fishballs, quails eggs, kangkung, towfoo (and lots of pig which we didn't partake in). They also bring you complimentary cucumber and bread. We just weren't wild about the satay sauce itself - supposedly a famous secret recipe but I actually prefer your average stall satay sauce 😊 So - worth a visit if you can avoid The Long Wait 😊


AND after all that we were still going to try Luh Yu Yen - which we heard had unbelievable crab. Drove up to the front and stopped short! Parked at the restaurant entrance were baskets of - not live crab as i first thought - but huge, and I'm talking MONSTROUS warts-n-all TOADS!! NOT delicate french grenouille - but amphibians of the foghorn-bellowing, evil-poisonous-looking variety!! OK - drew the line there!


So the unbelievable crab will have to be sampled along with the oyster omelette, porridge, nyonya kuih, Portugese cuisine, the jogging track, Korean fish spa and success in my quest for the perfect art deco light fittings on our next trip back. Here's hoping it won't be too long a wait back down the gula melaka trail 😊


HangLiPoh
xoxox

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Comments

[atoosa Hariri]

Wow!
Darling I really enjoyed reading this.. it sounds wonderful there I am tempted to book my flights!! you have such flair for writing and I love the humor... but most of all you make the food sound soooo good... cant wait for the rest of your travels... love Atoosa xXx

[Debbie Nonis]

drool ....
Hi Shireen! I really enjoyed your blog. I'm not averse to trying new food but I'm not a foodie (I eat to live rather than live to eat). However, your blog tempts me to make a trip down to Melaka just for the food - very untypical of me. Would have to be without our girlie though - much like your Sprog, my Cat is not very adventurous when it comes to food. :(