Restaurant San Pedro, Portuguese Settlement, Melaka

While looking through my pictures for blogging today, I realised I've yet to clear my Melaka trip...

Since there's so many back logs, might as well clear one that I have realised right? :p

We decided to have dinner at Portuguese Settlement since a few of them have not been there before. The last I went, was about 20 years ago, and when I finally did set foot at the Portuguese Settlement, I could not recognise it.. so much changes..some good, some bad..Oh well, guess we have to move with the times eh? :(

It took us some time to locate San Pedro as we thought it was located in the Food Square/ facing the sea, but in actual fact, it was before the Square, where some row of houses were..

Why was I so adamant about finding San Pedro? Heard that it's the oldest restaurant in the settlement and it serves delish Portuguese fare..how can we resist?

It was relatively quiet when we stepped in..It was about 7:15p.m and they were about to close. Yup, that early. Anyways, the cook was willing to cook a few more dishes, so we quickly sat down and placed out order..

The fried brinjal (RM6) ...

Smells terrific, the brinjal actually tasted rather mild. The centre was soft, moist- while the skin was crisp and had bits of spice flavour on it.

The Curry Debal/ Devil Curry (RM15) got the ooohhs and the aaahhhhs...

Solid looking sauce that got my friends extremely impatient with me taking a shot of it. :p. The sauce was the attraction here- thick, sourish, spicy sauce goes so well with white rice that got my friends topping up their plates a couple of times. The chicken was very tender and had absorbed the marination. A must try.

The deep fry squids (RM15) looks like any other deep fried squids?

Yeah, actually it does, and tasted like any other deep fry squids too. The only difference was the fantastic homemade chilli sauce dip..sweetish, sourish and ends with a spicy kick. Nice.

Portuguese Style Prawns (RM46)

Looks like chinese style soy fried prawns, well, it does taste like one in fact. The prawns were very fresh and springy, but was really expecting some rich, creamy sauce rather than pan fried with onions, soy sauce and ginger..

Our final dish came in the form of Baked Fish (RM28)

I find this scrumptious, the fish was fresh, with the right level of cookness, hence we get juicy, sweet flesh..Goes amazingly well with the chilli blend sauce- not sure what's the concoction, the chili had a nice green fragrance to it, lime and ginger? Wish I knew their secret to this- so very addictive..

Overall, we had a fantastic meal here, happily satisfied...

And ending our dinner with a beautiful sunset makes it perfect :)

Restaurant San Pedro is located at 4, Aranjo Road, Portuguese Settlement, Ujong Pasir, 75050 Melaka. 06-2842170. Try to be early, they close about 7:30pm.

Jonker's other trail, Melaka, Part 2

We tried a few more places at Jonker's but alas, the chicken rice spell could not be broken. We still ended up there.

The long queue at both Hoe Kee and Chung Wah was absolutely ridiculous- patrons were queuing under the hot sun, even under the rain.

We decided to have Hoe Kee for breakfast the next day, believing that we don't need to queue since we're early. Surprise, surprise, we still needed to queue, about 3 groups of people in front of us. We waited a short while and finally got in. To my disgust, there were plenty of seats available in the inner court yard- I'm not sure why they kept us waiting- to create the illusion that it's so packed even at 10 am??

Ordered minimal, since it was still breakfast time. Not allowed to order all with chicken rice balls, we had to take the normal chicken rice too. The loose chicken rice actually tasted better than the balls, it was more aromatic and less soggy. I feel that the rice balls here fared better than CW's. But the accompanying chilli sauce was not as nice as CW's.

The chicken (RM16) was very smooth, but the flesh lacked the sweetness and springiness of Chung Wah.

Andrew's request for vegetables (RM5)

A rather greasy plate of stir fried cabbage. Was just average.

A slow walk to the adjacent road led us to a purported famed wantan mee shop.

We were rather unsure about this place- it was empty and quiet. Only 2 tables were filled. But, this is the only wantan mee shop on this road, so it should be correct, no?
But we're here and we must try- so we had the wantan mee..

Looks old school, the wantan noodles was slightly bland and had a strong lard flavour. The noodles was slightly sticky and gummy, definitely not everyone's cup of tea. You can mix generous amount of chilli sauce into the wantan noodles to enhance the flavours- supposedly a special way of eating the wantan noodles here. I find the wantan noodles just average though.

Wantans were ok, goes well with the noodles.

Sun May Hiong satay was within acceptable walking distance from Jonker's, we still decided to drive over :p

Dont need much ordering, we just sat down and waited for the sticks of satays to be served..

You dont get much choice, they just plonk what ever cooked satay they have onto your plate and you can eat how much you wanted and ask for top-up when required..

The pork satay was scrumptious- the outer layer was crisp and slightly smokey, the meat was springy and very juicy.

Think their trick was to layer the pork satay- meat, fat, and meat- alternating it creates yummy burning of fats on to the meat. I liked this better than Ming Sate Hut.

Their satay sauce was wonderful too..

Rich and thick, this beautiful blend of peanut, spices, pineapple and starfruit sauce goes perfectly with the yummy pork satay. Delicious!

We tried the intestine, liver and chicken satay and concluded that the pork satay reign supreme!

Sun May Hiong Satay House is located at 50/50A, Jalan Kota Laksamana 1/1, Taman Kota Laksamana, Melaka. Open 11am-6pm. Close on alternate Tuesdays.

Hoe Kee Chicken Rice is located at 4,6,8, Jalan Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka.

Kedai Makanan & Minuman Wantan Mee is located at 40, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Melaka. Open 7:30am- 2:30 pm.

Jonker's other trail, Melaka, Part 1

When one is in Melaka, it's inevitable that you'll end up at Jonker's Street one way or another.

But I was bored of the usual Jonker fare. No more chicken rice. No more long queue for sticky cendol. And brief check in magazines and googling, we got some new places to try, all within or near Jonker, you can easily walk over to..

We popped by Lorong Hang Jebat, just off Jonker, to try some mee sua soup...

We ordered a large bowl of mee sua soup (RM9) to share, since we already had lunch..

The mee sua was smooth and slippery, the soup was light and had the pork sweetness infused into the soup. Main ingredients for this mee sua was pork- we got sliced pork, minced pork, pork liver and intestines. It was pretty satisfying to me, but for those who liks strong flavoured food, you may find this rather bland.

Men being men, how can they be satisfied with just mee sua although they had lunch already right?

Andrew and jeremy insisted we should have some oyster omelette and special pork ribs for snacking..yeah yeah..

We got the oyster omelette and we were like..what the??

No bumpy surface to indicate any presence of oysters. I took a bite and could not detect any oysters. Heck, I think I bit into some egg shells.. :(. After wondering much on the oysters, we realised those crackly bits in the omelette were oysters. It's just so tiny that we didnt realised it's oysters...How tiny? Many the picture can give an indication..

After the disappointing oyster omelette, we got out special pork ribs..

Hey, but this looks like hainanese pork chop! Albeit a huge plate of it. The pork was ok, quite tender and crunchy. The thick sauce was quite tasty though, nicer than Yut Kee's. What I enjoyed most in this dish was the potatoes. Absolutely yummy, the texture was powdery soft.

Jeremy got a call from his mum, a request to buy back some nyonya chang.

My mum wants some nyonya chang..bak chang right? he said.

But why you wanna get bak chang in Melaka when there's nyonya chang?

Aint it the same?

Only then I realised most of them have not tried a nyonya chang before.

Lucky us, just a few shops away, there's a tiny shop selling nyonya dumplings..

They were making it fresh, so we tried the nyonya chang (RM3.80)..

Andrew, whose grandma is a nyonya and makes good nyonya chang, said this was acceptable. I have been eating homemade nyonya chang since I was a kid as my aunt's a nyonya thought this was just ok. Not as nice as homemade ones, this was filled with lots of ingredients- generous amount of diced pork, mushrooms and winter melon, but I find the filling slightly pasty/ powdery and sweet. Overall still acceptable if you do crave for nyonya chang and there's no nyonya relatives preparing it for you :p

A pleasant suprise came in the form of durian cendol..

The cendol shaved ice was topped with lots of durian paste/ sauce, enveloping the whole dessert with it's heady aroma. No complaints here, the sweetness was just perfect, the fibrous durian bits was delicious. Much nicer compared to Jonker 88 and Tan Kim Hock's durian cendol.

Pin Pin Hiong is located at the T junction between Lorong Hang Jebat and Jalan Tukang Besi, 75200 Melaka. Just next to the famed Orang Utan mural.

East & West Rendezvous (durian cendol and nyonya chang) is located at 60, Lorong Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka.

Jalan Bunga Raya, Melaka

How was your weekend break?
Had good rest or went out food hunting....like me? :p

Did an overnight trip to Melaka with my uni mates- they missed the food in Melaka and guess the time was right..all of us could make it for the food crawl.

We didnt want repeats of last year's eats, so we decided to check around town for other delicious food that we have heard, but have yet to try.

We found 2 tasty treats at Jalan Bunga Raya, so I decided to have it in one post.

Reached Melaka brunch time, we stopped by Yung Lai Siang for nyonya laksa..

The weather was cool, slight drizzle- makes an excellent match for piping hot nyonya laksa.

Yung Lai Siang's version looks thick, yet when I stir it, the soup seems diluted. But dont be fooled by the watery looking soup, it was flavourful and rich- the santan aroma was well balance and not too heavy. For RM3, we got noodles topped with prawn, see ham, bean curd, bean sprouts and lots of deep fried beancurd skin (which was tasty once soaked into the nice broth). Very satisfying indeed. I prefer YLS's version better than Donald and Lily's.

Yung Lai Siang also serves prawn noodles (RM3)

Average tasting noodles, better option would be the nyonya laksa.

Wash down the meal with a hot cup of kopi..

Smooth, not too thick and didnt leave any tartness in my mouth.

Granpa's curry puff sold at the shop was purportedly good, so we tried..

Nope, it was those sweet, sambal curry that I didnt like. Potatoes were soft though.

A couple of roads away, we looked for the first char siew- roasted pork stall in Melaka.

Our clue was it's the first stall in the lane- but when we reached, there were 2 stalls at the front of the lane.

Hmmm, should I try the left or the right stall?? Both serves char siew and roasted pork..

What other clues??

Cracked my head a lil and I recalled they serve lung yoke too- so I only found 1 stall (the one on the right) preparing that specialty :D

We tried the char siew, roaste pork, lung yoke and home made sausages..

The char siew was unlike those melt in mouth ones you get in Klang Valley. Theirs were compact, mostly lean meat. The interesting part was the exterior, marinated and barbequed to that texture and flavour of bak kwa while the centre was definitely fresh pork. The guys loved it.

While Andrew and Francis thought the roasted pork was normal, WF and I enjoyed it..

Again, dont expect melt in mouth, this roast pork was served cold, but compact with distinct layers of fat, meat, fat and slightly burnt but ultra crackling skin. Very old school of preparation but brought back wonderful memories :)

The lung yoke and homemade sausages..

My mum cooks lung yoke, but her version was different from what was being served here. The auntie explained that their lung yoke is prepared by mincing pork, liver and fat together- compressing it into flat patties and slowly roasted like char siew. Looks very much like bak kwa, the lung yoke was thicker in slice, darker in colour and had a distinct aftertaste of liver when I took a bite. I liked it as I always enjoy pork liver. :p

The sausage on the other hand, reminds me of a chewy, waxed sausage. It was pretty nice, but some of my friends thought it was just ok.

The barbeques meat rice was served with curry sauce and slightly spicy bean sauce. An interesting side sauce but I'd prefer my rice plain to savour the flavours of the roasts.

The char siew-roasted pork stall is located at Medan Makan Boon Leong (lane), of Jalan Bunga Raya, Melaka.

Yung Lai Siang is located at Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai, Melaka.

Ikan Bakar Parameswara, Melaka

Happy New Year everyone!

It' a brand new year and hope that things will just get better now :)

I've just wrapped up my HK trip, just noticed that my Melaka post...there's still one more to go..

We decided to have dinner at Umbai before we leave Melaka.

I ate at Umbai 8 years back, at that time, there were only a couple of stalls located just next to the river, with not much road and no street lights. Though it was dark everywhere, a local friend led us and we had a wonderful meal of grilled fish, otak otak, piping hot nasi lemak and down it with fresh coconut drink.

Eager to have this excellent meal at Umbai again, we made our way there..

I should not be surprised that now the road is tarred, the place is well lighted and there are many, many stalls there. After so many years, it should be better developed right? The problem is, which was the original stall that I went before? :(

Andrew called his local friend, and he recommended Ikan Bakar Parameswara..

This was the last stall at the whole row, and was very packed..

We got a table and went over to the counter to select our seafood. After having instructed the cooking method for each seafood, we went back to our table, which was placed with otak otak and nasi lemak bungkus..

The nasi lemak..

It was cold and mediocre. I was sad

The otak otak

Though served piping hot, this tasted very, erm, manufactured and factory like. Bad. I knew by now that Parameswara was definitely Not the stall I went to 8 years back :(

The grilled squids

One can hardly go wrong with this. Nicely grilled, lovely charred bits and smoky flavour. Pity that the squid's quite small though.

Very large plate of grilled prawns..

Sweet springy meat with slightly salty shell, grilled crisp and smoky. Pretty good.

Got ourselves a rather big siakap..

We chose to have it done tiga rasa (three flavours). It was alright, quite nice, but not fantastically good.

Some deep fried squids

Didnt like the batter as it's those with 'flavoured' flour. Had some 'vanilla' fragrance to it that I dont fancy.

Finished off the dinner with some fried kang kung ..

Too salty and saucy.

Total bill was RM115 including coconut drinks, nasi lemak and white rice. Used to be cheaper.

We figured Parameswara is so popular because it's the only stall facing the sea?

Ikan Bakar Parameswara is located at Pengkalan Pulau Besar, Pernu, Umbai, 75460 Melaka.

Ming Sate Hut and Bee Bee Pineapple Tarts, Melaka

After our Jonker's trail, we decided to pop over to Bee Bee's for some pineapple tarts.

It's not at Jonker's, Bee Bee operates from an old wooden house about 10 minutes away from Jonker's, where they bake trays and trays of delicious pineapple tarts.

We managed to find our way to Bee Bee and while walking towards it's entrance, we were already welcomed with lovely buttery fragrance wafting from inside.

The workers were busy molding, filling the tarts, while the owner was busy manning the oven.

We wanted to order quite a number of boxes, but to our disappointment, although there were trays of baked tarts, those were pre ordered and we could not have a single tart! :(

We're open until 10pm, even 11 pm, you can come then to get the tarts then, she replied curtly before getting her full concentration on her tarts again..

And we left empty handed :(

We decided to go for tea as it was way too early for dinner..

So we went to Ming Sate Hut for some porky goodness..

Francis recommended this place as it serves lip smacking pork sate, so good that his colleague can have 100 sticks at one go.

And here's the pork sate..

Small in size, costing RM0.55 per stick, the pork sate was by far the best I've tried (comparing t those I had in PG and Ipoh). It's extremely juicy and the pork belly piece in the middle added some QQ-ness (springiness) to each stick of pork sate.

Of course, what's pork sate without it's famous sidekick, pineapple sate sauce?

Ming's version was subtle yet delicious. At first dip, I was thinking, hmmm, where's the pineapple? There were loads of peanut, I could not feel much of other ingredients. But after really dunking in my sate and the nasi impit into the sauce, you'll learn to enjoy this sauce. Yes, there's actually lots of finely shredded pineapple in the sauce.

One serve was not enough eventually, so we ordered more pork and some liver ( I wanted intestine but it was sold out)

The liver sate was a first for me, and as I always liked pork liver, this was very nice too. Pork's better though. The liver sate was a tad chewy at the exterior and very strong in flavour. Only for those who like liver.

After our 'tea break', it was still a tad early for dinner, so we decided to pop over to Bee Bee again. The owner must have pitied us or admired our preserverence, she finally decided to let us have a few boxes of the tarts..

Ahhh, our hard-to-get pineapple tarts. Worth the wait?

Yes; the filling was generous, sweet and sour at the same time; crust was thin but crisp at the same time. Marvellous.

Bee Bee (Lian Choo's) Tart House is located at 307-A, Jalan Parameswara, Bandar Hilir, 75000 Melaka. To avoid disappointment, do call in advance for booking 06-2869735.

Ming Sate Hut is located at G-33, Jalan PM4, Plaza Mahkota, 75000 Melaka.

Jonker Street, Melaka

Was in Melaka recently for a day trip, to celebrate my 2 friend's birthday with, what else, but whole day of all expense paid eating! lucky lucky guys :p

Thanks Andrew for the fantastic transport, we really felt we were in a private coach tour to Melaka, very nice indeed! hehe

We reached Melaka in time for lunch, and our first stop was the famous chicken rice ball at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah. My first try of this shop was when I was 17 years old, my friend's father, a Malaccan, said that this was the only place he'll have the chicken rice balls. The first experience was unforgettable. And I've been back on my every visit to Melaka.

So yes, I was not surprise when I saw the queue when I was approaching the shop. But wait was short, we managed to get seats quite fast.

The rice balls and the chilli sauce.. Compact rice balls coated with chicken oil, i used to just take this with the chilli sauce and I would be satisfied. Alas, I was sorely disappointed as the rice balls lacked the fragrance and flavours that used to impressed me. So was the chilli; it's merely spicy and not fragrant anymore.

I was never impressed with the chicken they served there.. And yes, it's still mediocre.

Next was dessert at Jonker Dessert 88

Their famed cendol with sticky, caramelised gula melaka was a hot item in this shop. How can one miss it?

Still as yummy as the last I had it. A little bit on the sweeter side though..

We walked over to Donald & Lily..

Read that it has a killer nyonya laksa. WF said they're famous for the cendol too (the normal, non caramelised version). It was already nearing tea time and we were lucky to get the final 2 bowls of laksa. The waiter suggested us to try their other nyonya food (pongteh, assam fish etc), but we already had lunch and just wanted to snack here...

Looks absolutely gorgeous, this bowl was definitely sinful. The creamy, thick santanish soup was enticing and not overly rich. I usually don't take nyonya laksa as it's just too rich in flavours. But Donald & Lily's version was surprising smooth and goes down really well with all the fresh ingredients (juicy see ham included :p).

We had some Tau Kua Rojak

Francis said it was weird. So I tried. It was ok actually, warm bean curd, chopped cucumber and pineapple tossed with prawn sauce ala chee cheong fun style. I guess it's an acquired taste? I didn't find it terribly impressive though nearly every table has a plate of it.

Cendol to cool us down.. Too sweet, but the gula melaka was very fragrant.

Kedai Kopi Chung Wah

18, Jalan Hang Jebat ( beginning of Jonker walk) , 75200 Melaka.

Jonker Dessert 88 (Museum Cafe)

88, Jonker Walk, 75200 Melaka.

Donald & Lily

Back of Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock (or back lane off Jalan Hang Jebat), 75200 Melaka.