Saturday, January 14, 2012

Malacca: Eating all the way

The husband and I went with the inlaws to Malacca for church camp (theirs, not ours) over an extended weekend so the only thing I was really looking forward to was the food. Fortunately we had some good company from the group who were nice enough to invite us on a night stroll out with them for supper.

The Malacca old town is lit up with red lights at night - possibly the same colour of the Portugese Fort? Anyway the streets look more beautiful at night, cos you can't see the cracks or holes so clearly.
We were brought to a coffeeshop called Restoran Sin Yin Hoe, which served soft shell crabs and oyster omelette.
The or luak stall looked seriously exciting! I was really looking forward to trying some.
Check it out - en route to perfection
I completely loved the or luak. It was the right combination of starchy vs eggy, and felt light and crispy enough not to be too soggy or heavy, with with the gooey starch texture intact. Much better than the super long queue one at Jalan Bunga Raya, I felt.
Someone at the table ordered kong bak pau. This was not bad.
Oooh but the horfun was super amazing. The noodles were soft and supple, brimming over with a wok hei aroma. Worth a return visit.
The soft shell crab came towards the end, and most of us were pretty full by then (this was after a buffet dinner...heh) so I don't think it was that amazing but I might have felt differently had I been hungry. It was not bad.
After that, we proceeded to eat chendol on Jonker St. No good photos with the bad light unfortunately, but we brought the inlaws there the next night and they loved it. Photos to follow later.

We had the afternoon off the next day and went walking around town. This chap was driving around and enjoying the attention from all the passers-by.
We went to Jonker 88, which was where we had eaten during our previous trip. The chendol was ok but not as good as the one we had the night before.
Still packing in the crowds though.
That evening, after a full day of shopping, we went to this place that we had read a lot about on various food blogs - Restoran Lee just opposite Bayview Hotel, and on the same side as Renaissance Hotel.
We got there just after 6 to be sure we could get a table.
What the coffeeshop looks like on the outside
Every kind of crab you could ask for.
We ordered the salt egg crab. This was solid salted egg yolk mashed onto the crab, without any of the floury stuff that other places add.
This was pretty amazing. Licked even the shells clean.
We ordered a fried bee hoon, with dark sauce which is typical of Malaysian noodles dishes, and overflowing with pork lard flavour. Heavenly.
Boring. The requisite veggie dish to make us feel a little better about ourselves.
The milk crab was sweetish with a slight hint of chilli - I daresay there was condensed milk as well.
They gave us bread to mop up the milk sauce. ooh so good.
Ready to make other customers happy.
After that, we headed to the Jonker St chendol stall for dessert.

The husband and I also shared a bowl of assam laksa, which was really quite good. Given that we had just been stuffing our face with crabs, that's pretty damn good laksa.
This gets my vote for BEST chendol in Malacca with the tastiest richest gula melaka.
View of the night food street.
On the way back to Singapore, we stopped at Tangkak for beef noodles upon the recommendation of a JB friend. We had swung by a month before our Malacca trip, enroute back from Port Dickson, and the shop was closed. We were most disappointed then. So we were most relieved to find it open.
You know a place is good when they sell only one thing.
Chilli prepared in anticipation.
My husband's beef meat and beef ball noodles. The beef balls were fantastic, absolutely springy, with the right mix of tendon and whatnots giving it a bouncy yet meaty texture.
My kuay teow with all the various cow parts. The soup was amazingly sweet and yet not overpoweringly herbal.
Directions on getting to Tangkak: Get off the NS Highway, drive towards the town, and take the first right turn when you see a police station compound with blue and white buildings at the junction. The restaurant will be on your right.

No comments:

Post a Comment