Hello Melaka: 9 food stops packed into a 2D1N Trip

It was an impromptu weekend trip to Melaka, on my eldest sis’s invite. Since I am home in KL, I jumped at the opportunity.

Having been on local trips with them before, I was fully aware of their food-focused road trips. True enough, we ate from the moment we arrived, to the time we left. Abuden, they have been to this city for gazillion times .. I would have done exactly the same since Melaka is one of the best ‘food cities‘ in Malaysia.

BIL and sis are well-acquainted with this city. Lucky me, I died and went to food heaven, and finally strayed-off-Jonker-street-the-tourist-trap. Altogether, there were 9 food stops packed into an overnight trip!

We also have additional perks of local ‘guides’, they are cousin and cousin-in-law of my BIL. They brought us to check out two interesting places in Melaka: ‘miracle’ herbal drink at Jalan Solok Kedai Dua, Kampung Pengkalan Batu and alternative treatment for strokes and heart diseases, using acupressure (a traditional Chinese theraphy) at Jalan Padang, Tanjung Minyak. Thank god for that, I had a short escape from the food mundane.

On Day 1, we reached Melaka around 1pm, and headed straight to home-cooked Nyonya restaurant, Aunty Lee at Ujong Pasir. As tables are limited, my sis called ahead to book and order. A feast for 10pax, costs us only RM 228.20.

Sis commented that food is good, but used to be better. We customized the ‘lemak nanas‘ (pineapple cooked in coconut sauce) dish. We requested for fish instead of prawn, which they obliged accordingly.

The wonders of eating in a group, one get to try many dishes at the same time! My favourite dish has got to be the kangkong (water spinach) with sambal. Our order for the day:

1. Omelette cincalok, M (RM 17.00)
2. Kangkong sambal, M (RM 14.00)
3. Prawns sambal petai, M (RM 26.00)
4. Fried chicken, L (RM 30.00)
5. Fish lemak nanas (RM 62.40)
6. Terung goreng lada, M (RM 14.00)
7. Otak-otak, S (RM 11.00)
8. Cincalok (RM 3.00)
9. Cendol (RM 4.00 per bowl)

Update Apr 2017: I was told that Aunty lee has ceased operation, taken over by Portugis owner.

Restoran Aunty Lee

No 385 Jalan Ujong Pasir Taman SINN 75050 Melaka

Tel: +6019 278 8653, 06 283 1009

GPS location: N 2 11.198 E 102 16.424

Business hours: 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.00pm-10.00pm. Close Tuesdays.

http://www.auntylee.com.my

After lunch, we checked in at King’s Apartment. 3 bedrooms for 6 pax @ RM 228 per night, with breakfast provided. We were told that the room can fit up to 8 pax. In reality, the mattress provided can sleep 9 pax comfortably.

We stayed here few years ago. This time, the cleanliness is not top-notch. Our feet are black from dirty floor. I also felt that the bedding is not clean, so do bring your own bed linen if you wish to. Free wifi is wonky in the room, which we didn’t get to use.

 After a short nap, we went to Teratak Pak Anwar ‘air ajaib mujarab‘ (miracle water). Claimed to be able to cure 15 types of ailments: cancer, high blood pressure, asthma, stroke, diabetes, migraine, gastric, etc.

We were told that it is normally packed with people in the evenings. They were recently featured in a local media too, which adds on to their popularity.

BIL’s cousin has been making daily trip to this place for more than 20 days. Accordingly, it showed improvement in his diabetes reading.

We took one kettle of the herbal tea for our group. Some of us thought that possibly some sort of sugar, such as palm sugar has been added to the concoction.

I had one glass whilst the rest had two to three glasses. Just like any other medicines or treatments, it needs continuity. That one glass, if it is indeed miraculous as touted, will not works it wonder.

Hmm .. no Nescafe and no stingray fish for the drink to work. I assumed it’s no coffee, and not Nescafe brand in specific. I have no idea why stingray fish has been pointed out in specific though.

 

The place is open from 6pm till wee hours in the morning. They only entertain ‘outstation’ people before 6pm. Local people are sill welcomed to fill up their thermos, and we saw droves of people doing so. A group of KLites came with few 5 litres thermo flasks! As Pak Anuar’s policy is ‘pay as you wish’, I wonder how much that group paid for their portion of 30 litres of herbal tea.

As it was still early, we went to Jonker Street night market to get some snacks. I had my usual durian pancake, and bought home pineapple tarts from Bibik House. The rest had durian cendols at Bibik House.

 

 

On the way to dinner, we stopped at Putu Piring Tengkera, and bought some for our supper. Yeah, we actually bought supper before dinner. Go figure!

We then went looking for grilled fish for dinner, and ended up at Bert’s Garden at Tanjung Kling. Only the nasi lemak is worth mentioning, RM 4.50 with a punchful of flavour: aromatic coconut rice and sambal with a good chilli kick!

We then went to my longest-wait-of-my-life for a RM7 fried oyster omelette at Jalan Tanjung Bunga. I personally called it as ‘The Oyster Omelette Factory.”  Like clockwork, the cook was churning out oyster omelette after oyster omelette.

I took interest in the elderly helper. I wonder why she is working at her age. Sigh. She mixed six village chicken eggs with four commercial chicken eggs, and also fish sauce for the egg batter.

 

On Day 2, we checked-out around 9.30am and managed to cover four places before we leave Melaka. There were some pitstops for us to buy some local goodies to bring back to KL.

BIL’s cousin first brought us to Baba Chong, to see for ourselves a popular acupressure treatment massage to clear blockage. Acupressure is a traditional Chinese theraphy, stimulating acupressure points, can clear blockages. A 10-minute massage @ RM 20 that works wonder, had people queing in the wee hours in the morning. We were told that it was proven that blocked arteries were cleared by Baba Chong.

Read more about acupressure here: http://altered-states.net/barry/newsletter411/

You’ll be able to find address and map in photo below. Be prepared for a long wait (get a number and waiting game begins), and it’s not for the faint-hearted. We witnessed people tearing up during treatment.

Next stop was at Aunty Koh Cendol, and it has made it into my food list. I hereby declared it as the best cendol in Malaysia. It’s run by Aunty Koh solo, so customers are seen helping with preparation and also you wash your own bowls, and pay money by yourself too.

What I like about this place is, I felt that was visiting an aunt’s place. You can drive in and park in the compound, customers were helping out, they washed their own bowls, etc. Customers were also lining up patiently for their turn.

 

 

Aunty Koh Cendol

No 5113, Jalan Batang Tiga, Kampung Bukit Rampai, 72520 Melaka

Open Sat and Sun from 12pm to 1pm

Next stop: Baba Charlie Nyonya Cake. Seeing the crowds at Baba Charlie Nyonya Cake had my mouth gaping wide open. Not a huge fan of nyonya cakes, there are only few types that I really like.

After tasted the nyonya kueh goodies, review was dissapointing from the group. As I am no expert, I personally felt that it is not too bad. That’s the thing when expectation is set too high, one will expect lip-smackin-best-in-class goodies.

I was glad to find a small twist in Baba Charlie’s otak-otak (RM 5.00). The traditional fanatics will probably cry murder. It has a fish cake filling, wrapped with otak-otak filling, which I find refreshing.

 

 We then made another stop at Joo Huat Nyonya Chang. I am not a fan of nyonya bachang, so I gave it a missed, but I went in to the shop for photo op.

 

 Our last stop was at City Famous Seafood for lunch. The name itself had my eyes-rolling, and silently said ‘you better make sure you live up to your name wei.’ Food was good, but not like ‘hellujah-I-have-reached-food-heaven-good.’

 

 So that was it .. 9 food stops in 2 days! My two favourites: Aunty Koh cendol and Putu Piring Tengkera.