We planned to have a short trip in Melaka for the Good Friday long weekend, we had been planned for this over weeks. Before the trip, I had been browsing over the internet for the good food and good places regularly and there are numerous of food blogger recommending the food in Melaka. The satey celup, laksa, cendul are top of my food hunting list and I was looking forward on it.
Finally, the day has arrived, 5 of us can't wait to jump into the car and start the trip excitedly. We successfully reached there despite of the traffic jam and minor losing of direction, yet, we still manage to find our hotel and check in on time. We were lucky to book the hotel early which located to the exciting Jonker street for just few minutes walking distance with a reasonable price.
When we stepped into Jonker Street, apparently, it was crowded by all the tourists and stalls that were surrounded two side of the street; for me, the food stalls caught my attention at the very first place, the smells and variety food displays over the entire street were seducing me to stop me kept moving forward. My all senses went up high, I can't over come the temptation and bought some to feed my stomach, we had tried the Nyonya dumpling and Pork dumpling (Ba-Zhang), I don't really fond for the Nyonya dumpling, the taste was mild and less flavor for me; but the Pork dumpling was excellent; we have kept looking other food, but we can't go too far as we knew that we have to save some space of our stomach for our next stop, Satey Celup.
After a recharging foot massage, we arrived at Ban Lee Siang Satey Celup, as we knew that the famous Capitol Satey celup was crowded, and we might end up to wait for hours; so we chose Ban Lee Siang, however, we still can't avoid the queue, we had waited around 30 to 40 minutes for the table. Well, the theory of the satey celup is stream bot with substitution of the soup to satey sauce, and all the food such as mushroom, hot dog, fish ball, friend wanton, kangkong, youtiao and fried bean-curd skin were on the stick. each stick cost RM0.80, that's sound reasonable. When my first bite of the satey celup, the strong flavor of the sauce overwhelmed my entire month, it was very tasteful, the heavy food lover will love it; the fragrant of peanut and sesame combination, all the food soaked into this sweet and spicy sauce; any ordinary food can be pushed to different level by this powerful sauce instantly. However, in my personal opinion, you can't be having too much as your tongue would felt numb and start felt sickening of the food. My friends concerned about their hygiene issue as they use the same pot of sauce from the previous customer. Other that that, it was worth to try.
After my stomach was stuffed by the satey celup, I couldn't have any food for the rest of the night. Since the night was still young, we decided to go the Geography cafe after taking shower in the hotel. The Geographer cafe was quite well known since the movie and commercial took place the scene at this cafe few years ago. the cafe was rebuilt from a historical heritage that over century, its the combination of modern and old timer. After having some light beer and live band, we had just called for the day.
The next day morning, after having breakfast from hotel, we decided to go shopping at Dataran Pahlawan and Mahkota Parade. But before that, we would like to try the Taming Sari Tower, it costs RM10.00 per pax by presenting MyKad, otherwise, its RM20.00. It was worth to try only I felt slightly uncomfortable that it keeps spinning with speed from beginning to the end.
After that, we resume our food hunt, the Nadeje Mille Crepe. We had got the right direction from information counter. When we saw the crowds, we knew we came the right place. Soon enough we got a table and placed orders. We had ordered their famous must try Mille Crepe in Rum raisin, Strawberry, Double chocolate, Tiramisu and Cheese favorite. The crepe covered by fresh cream layer by layer evenly, every single bite was refreshing and you won't feel sinful at all. I suggested the best time to enjoy it is while the waiter delivered the cake and it was still cold, after displayed and exposed to outside for some time, the refreshing level may drop rapidly.
We have our lunch in a Nyonya restaurant which nearby the mall, we ordered the Asam fish head, Ayam pongteh, friend egg, Kangkong, Sambal sotong with petai bean, Deep friend chicken and Cendol. The asam fish head was pretty good, the sourness and spiciness are just nice and it goes well with white rice. The ayam pongteh was also decent, but I though it was slightly too mild for the taste. the rest of the other are average for me. Worth to mention is the cendol, it was fantastic; I think the credit should be the Palm Sugar, Gula Melaka. a well-known product from Melaka, it has a unique sense and fragrant that can't be found from other object. Overall for this meal, it was just so so for me; it cannot compete with the Nyonya food I had some place else.
After entire day of shopping and Karaoke, we decided to go easy and classy way for dinner. We went Hard Rock cafe for dinner, we were told that there a band performing that night, so we picked the front table that closest to the stage. Stepping into the restaurant, our eye were caught by all the decoration over the restaurant. With a reasonable time, we were seated and waitress started to took our orders. We had ordered an appetizer platter for sharing, which including the Buffalo wings, potato skins, Onion ring, fish fillet and spring rolls. That was good enough for 5 of us. For the main course, we had two different salad, the combination fajitas, grill chicken sandwich and BBQ combination. The taste of the food was above average for me, but they offer good service for us.
After the live band started, the environment started to change... Especially the ladies who dressed up nicely and dining classily in the restaurant, who were acting so high suddenly when the band started performing. The restaurant transformed into a happening pub in a second, it was amazing. No doubt the band had done a remarkable job to rock the entire restaurant, however, we remained calm and steady due to the stuffiness and tiredness.
The last day of Melaka, we decided to went back Jonker Street to resume our food hunting, We found random shop that selling laksa, we gave it a try. I think it was just ok for me. At the same time, we have tried durian puff and coconut shake. Worth to mention is the coconut shake, it was blended with real coconut, and we found it surprisingly refreshing and the taste of the ice cream goes so well with it.
It was shameful that we could not find the famous popiah that was recommended by most of the food blogger, we have to leave Melaka with some regret. Maybe next time...
