MALACCA FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
I set out with the question: What would Peranakan food taste like? Singapore is known for its rich cuisine, now I wanted something richer, a fusion.
DAY ONE_ DINNER AT SERI NYONYA RESTAURANT
We were entitled to a complementary meal at this restaurant. Besides the sumptuous food, the restaurant was also very well decorated to give the Peranakan feel, so there was a great atmosphere, especially since it was my virgin Peranakan meal
LETS GET STARTED!!!!!!!
First and foremost, you don't underestimate the humble salted vegetable soup. This was goooooooood. Fragrant. Thick.
Layout of the main courses.
Highlight #1- Ayam ponteh. The sauce was very sweet and there was a rich thick aroma.
Highlight 2- Ikan goreng chilli garam. Maybe it was a bit too oily but still fragrant enough.
DAY 4- LUNCH AT SERI NYONYA
I shall now skip to Day 4 since this meal was at the same restaurant. We decided to revisit the restaurant to try the a la carte menu. Very sorry that I didn't really take many good pictures since I was obsessing over some puzzle.
The prawn was coated with some delicious otah like sauce.
AYAM BUAH KELUAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ever since I did Emily of Emerald Hill for Lit, I was fantasising over that dish. Basically, its ground meat stuffed into nuts, and you dig out the fillings and eat them. There are VERY interesting sauces involved. This particular restaurant, however, did not do the buah keluak too well. Some of them were bitter and tasted like wood, you might as well eat a violin. However, those that were good were VERY GOOD.
Here is a picture of three buah keluak. Top left- buah keluak with fillings, top right- empty buah keluak with some membrane left. Bottom- fillings
Seri Nyonya sells really good food but of course being a hotel restaurant, prices are steep. Before I shut off the first chapter of my chronicles, let me add that they sell EXCELLENT lime juice.
DAY 2- LUNCH AT THE CHINESE RESTAURANT
There is a Jonker Street in Malacca which sells souvenirs and the restuarant is located along the street. Why is it special? Because of the chicken rice. Watch
Yep those are chicken rice BALLS. Otherwise the other dishes can easily be found in Singapore
A closer view
Down Jonker Street you get this chendol stall which also specialises in pastries
What's about hand made pastries that give it the heavenly aroma?
Many disgusting Singaporean factory-made tarts have very thick crusts so upon chewing they form a sticky mesh which chokes your gums. However, I am pleased to announce that this particular brand of tart has a thin crispy crust, not to mention it is pleasing to the nose.
Chendol- a very common dessert in Malacca and it was offered at all the Peranakan restaurants I went to. But the uniqueness of Bibik House Chendol is that you can choose to have it with durian sauce. Now THAT adds a whole new wonky dimension to this delightful dessert! ORGASMIC!!!!!!!!!
I'd better warn you first that the boss doesn't know how to manage time so he takes really long to bake the stuff, for example being half an hour later than the agreed time. Here's my poor auntie waiting.
DAY 2- DINNER AT OLE SAYANG RESTAURANT
If I am not wrong, this restaurant appeared in a Mediacorp programme.
Fried egg, which I found a bit oily but good enough
Chicken
What's so special about this prawn curry? Simple. The humble pineapple was added inside to give it a mouth-watering sweet taste. First time eating sweet curry!!!
Prawn mates with pineapple to produce a sumptuous love child
Ikan goreng. Very common Peranakan dish, as I found out. There'd be a better version of this dish the next day, as you'd see later. This one, the sauce was pretty sour.
Yet it was still mouth watering fare
I say again, you NEVER underestimate the soup. Look at this! Thick and fragrant.
See the delicious duck immersing in the rich soup? Mmmm.
DAY 2- SUPPER
What's so special about satay? I tell you this is no ordinary stuff. This is the SATAY CHILLOK
This is like their hall of fame. Apparently some Mediacorp artistes like Priscilla Chan have endorsed this restaurant.
You get a bunch of raw dishes
And then you cook the sauce, which consists of peanuts and other ingredients.
Mix well
Cook the dishes
Delicious
You don't just add meat inside
The sauce gets thicker after a while. It also reminds you that if you don't cook properly, your toilet bowl would look like that the next morning.
Accumulate over 50 sticks and you get these at a discounted price. As you can see there are giant prawns and abalone.
Overall, I felt I did not do this shop justice. I was already overwhelmed by the excellent Peranakan dinner so this meal, no matter how good, tortured me. I wish to have another chance to try it again, with my uncle.
DAY 3- BAK KUT TEH FOR LUNCH
After one whole day of food spammage, I was pleased to have something lighter for lunch. This shop is pretty ulu. Its a few hundred meters down the street from the Hang Li Poh well.
Sweet sauce
DAY 3- DINNER AT MAKKO
Yea here you go again. Peranakan food.
Salted fish in something sauce. Very good. The sourness is married to a pleasing palatable fragrance. Very unique, because we Singaporeans equate tastiness with saltiness and oily fragrance but this dish is delicious in its own way, not caring what the world thinks.
MY VIRGIN BUAH KELUAK EXPERIENCE. I celebrated this love with a photo.
Upon penetrating the delicate membrane of the buah keluak, voluminous amounts of fluid will trickle onto the plate, just like the bursting of a water bag. The child within, the sweet tender meat, gets to see the world for a short fleeting moment before your fork stabs through the soft young flesh. In this case, it was obvious that the chefs used tomatoes to cook the sauce. It was HEAVENLY.
The empty womb
I'm sure you have tasted ngoh hiong before but these were GOOD.
Prawn curry. No pineapples.
By now, this should be a familiar sight, but let me tell you about Makko's ikan goreng. Somehow they managed to integrate the taste of the chilli with that of the fish. It was a union made in heaven. This is unlike Ole Sayang, where the sour taste of the chilli was jarring like a dissonant chord.
However, on the whole I DON'T recommend Makko. It costs an extra RM12+ per person as compared to Ole Sayang,and I really don't think it worth it. The soup was horribly sour and my uncle and aunties hated it. I still recommend though that you try other restaurants aronnd the area
In conclusion, I must state that although much of the food in Malacca resembles Singaporean fare, there are a few examples that stand out, and stand out well. I set out with a mission to try Peranakan food, I have not been failed