We arrived in Melaka and boarded a local bus to take us to the city centre. I was always looking forward to seeing Melaka because from what I’d read, the city seemed rather unique in that its architecture dated back hundreds of years to when colonial invaders from Portugal, Holland and England ruled the land. After a very scenic bus ride around neighbourhoods with a distinct Portuguese feel to them, we arrived in the heart of Chinatown in Melaka, a beautiful area of streets lined with very old, rustic buildings. Our guesthouse was on one of these streets and we were both amazed by the fact that we were staying in such a grand, old house, with a balcony overlooking the river running through Melaka, for £9 a night!! The owners, Raymond and Mani, were very kind and the former gave us a brief introduction to the area, and more importantly, some good places to eat. We learnt that Melaka has its own unique cuisine with strong Portuguese influence alongside the local Peranakan cuisine. Peranakan refers to the first generation of Chinese-Malays who originated from Melaka, also known as the Baba-Nyonyas.
We were lucky enough to arrive in Melaka on Friday night, the night of the street market which ran all weekend. From previous experience, street markets = street food = cheap, great food!! Our first of many meals that night was from a brilliant dim-sum stand where you were given a clear plastic bag and a large wooden cocktail stick and you could choose seven pieces of dim-sum from huge bamboo steamers that contained an amazing variety. Upon finishing our selection we were encouraged by the lady at the stand to douse our dim-sum with chilli sauce which of course, we did. Delicious. Unfortunately no photos of this meal because sometimes we are just too hungry and forget to get the camera out.
Our noses led us to our next meal, a man furiously frying an eggy mixture on a hot plate. Anything with eggs in and I’m sold. The meal was called ‘Kuih Lobai‘, which translates into English as a rather plain sounding ‘radish cake’. We had two choices, with egg or without egg… no contest. 
The man took our order for one portion and proceeded to fry a concoction that looked like a sort of lumpy, potato omelette. The ‘radish’ didn’t really taste like radish at all, more like a very soft, doughy rice-cake, similar to that which I used to eat in Korea. The egg fried around these ‘radish’ pieces formed a messy, slightly greasy and very satisfying pancake which was devoured at the stall in a couple of minutes. We said thank you to the street-chef and moved on. 
There were many more snacks that evening, the highlight being some superb ‘vada‘, a wonderfully spiced, deep-fried Indian snack made from lentils that cost us around 20p for three pieces. 
They were so good that when we had reached the bottom of the market street, we turned around, walked back up the street and got three more pieces. The crispy patties were out of the fryer hot but not in the slightest bit greasy, held their shape well and tasted a lot like Bombay mix, the difference being that the patties are skilfully mashed together into one piece and you don’t have to keep dipping your hand into a bag to fish out your favourite bits.After all of our savoury snacks we decided we definitely needed a sweet fix and again, we were spoilt for choice. There were several tart stalls around, many of them selling my mum’s favourite, egg custard tarts, a prime example of Portuguese influence creeping into the cuisine. A number of other tart stalls sold Nyonya pineapple tarts, a delicacy local to Melaka, a tart with a tropical twist. We tried all the tarts and they were all delectable, a sugary ending to our savoury snack sweep of the market. All in all, a very successful nights work!
Breakfast in Asian countries has always been a strange one. We Brits like to eat toast, cereal and fry-ups but in Asia, the breakfast norm is rice, curry, soup, noodles and dumplings, pretty much the same sort of food as what you’d eat for lunch and dinner. Around the corner from our guesthouse was an old Chinese restaurant that was only open until midday so one morning we decided to eat our breakfast local style and took a seat. We had already been told that the restaurant served dim-sum but it also served steamed pork buns, probably the closest thing to a bacon sandwich we could find. There was no menu we could understand but there were people walking around with bamboo baskets, some baskets had fried dim-sum, others steamed. We chose a selection of both and then managed to order a steamed pork bun each. The buns were very white, a lot whiter than white bread, and filled with a very dark, sweet roast pork. Although I can’t honestly say they were as good as a bacon sandwich, they were a satisfying breakfast snack.
After walking around all of the old antique shops that day and buying Christmas presents for our families, we returned to our guesthouse to find another couple from England, Ben and Clare, had checked in. We had a chat about our travels and then funnily enough, the conversation veered towards food. I mentioned a restaurant I had heard about called ‘Capitol Satay‘, a restaurant that offered a different take on Satay wherein you sat around a table with a vat of bubbling sauce in the middle and you dipped your own sticks into the sauce to cook them to your liking.
This style of eating satay, again supposedly famous to the Melaka area, is called ‘Satay Celup‘. Later on, Melissa and I decided to hunt down this restaurant and, after a few wrong turns up dark alleys, we finally found the unassuming, very modest looking ‘Capitol Satay‘. We sat down and I have to admit, my first impressions were not good. The tables were very dirty, the vats in the middle of the tables were filled with a rather unattractive brown looking substance and we watched on in horror as a child dropped a pepperoni satay stick onto the floor and proceeded to put it back into the fridge that contained the fresh satay sticks. We decided to stay away from the pepperoni satay sticks for the rest of the evening. Now how it works is there is a big fridge that stores lots of wooden sticks with different raw ingredients on. There’s probably around thirty different types of ingredient ranging from prawn, chicken, vegetable, crab claw, liver, squid and many more, half of which we couldn’t identify.
You go with a plate to the fridge and choose as many sticks as you want then you go back to your seat and dip them at your own leisure into a bubbling hot vat of brown, peanut satay sauce that is set in the middle of the table. You are charged around 6p per stick and the sticks are counted at the end of your meal. As chance would have it, Ben and Clare who we met at the guesthouse earlier walked in as we were about to eat our meal and sat with us. This definitely added to our meal experience as I can honestly say that in this case, eating this way was definitely more style over substance. 
I far more enjoyed the experience of eating as opposed to the quality of the food which at best, was just ok. I forgave the dirty tables as our table was a complete and utter mess of brown splodgy sauce by the time we had finished. At first we weren’t sure where to put our finished sticks but Melissa came up with an ingenious idea of making a little structure of sticks so we could keep count of how many we had eaten. The lady counted all of our sticks at the end of the meal, Ben and Clare had eaten around 25 sticks, but me and Melissa had eaten a grand total of 46 sticks between us!! I asked the waitress if this was a lot but she told me it was around normal and that the record was over 90 sticks. Feeling full and a little deflated by being so far off the satay stick record, we staggered back to the River View guesthouse. 
The ‘laksa’ is yet another food that Melaka is famous for. A ‘laksa’ is essentially a noodle soup with bits of everything thrown in such as shrimp, tofu, chicken and squid. The secret to the ‘laksa’ is in the broth. The Melaka ‘laksa’ differs from others in that the broth is infused with coconut milk. We tried two laksas whilst in Melaka, the second one definitely triumphed, a rich coconut broth infused with chilli, thick egg noodles, large prawns, and to top things off perfectly, a golden yoked boiled egg sliced in half. The first laksa we ate at the market was really good but it had no egg! Resting on the side of the bowl is a fat dollop of chilli paste which you can add if you like your food hot or remove if you prefer a milder taste. Not wanting to waste the chilli sauce, both Melissa and I added it all. Chilli makes food so much more fun and it balances well against the sweeter coconut taste so although spicy, it was tolerable.
We had one final restaurant to try, a traditional Baba-Nyonya restaurant called ‘Nancy’s Kitchen’, another fine recommendation from Raymond and Mani, owners of the Riverview Guesthouse, . The restaurant was busy and very homely and the kitchen sort of opened out into the eating area. The first time we went there was for lunch and we had to sit upstairs due to downstairs being full. There were some lovely smells coming from the kitchen and some huge portions of food being whisked around by the busy waiters. We sat down and ordered a chicken dish and a pork dish, I’ve completely forgotten the names of them, I must always remember to take a photo of the menu! The reason for choosing my chicken dish was that I saw other people eating it and it had large lumps of what looked liked black pudding in the sauce.
The dish arrived and the black objects were not black pudding at all, they looked like lumps of coal but I soon realised they were giant nuts filled with a black, sticky stuffing. The stuffing was very rich and I learnt later that the chef hollowed out the nuts, mashed spices into the nut mixture and put it back in the nutshell. The chicken was on the bone, juicy and tender and the sauce, rich, dark and wholesome. It was a very filling and completely satisfying lunch and we vowed to go back for dinner the following evening as the flavours we tasted in our food were very unique to us. 
So, our final dinner in Melaka was upon us and a week of pretty much non-stop eating was drawing to a close. We went back to Nancy’s Kitchen and decided to order some of the super looking fish dishes. We ordered Lemak Nenas prawns and steamed fish Nyonya style. The prawns arrived in a bowl of creamy, yellowy coconut curry and the fish in a light, slightly chunky red sauce. The prawns were wonderful and the sauce contained pineapple which usually I’m not a big fan of in cooking, but it went side by side with the spiced, creamy coconut flavours in the sauce. The fish however stole the show for me, a thick tender fillet (maybe sea bass?), covered in a light salsa like sauce. There were very few bones in the fish and the meat was moist and delicious. Nancy’s Kitchen is a must for anybody visiting Melaka and showcases authentic Melakan cooking.
We had a wonderful time in Melaka, although only a small city, it is full of charm, character and great food! I wouldn’t hesitate to return there. Time to move on now though, our next destination awaits…
Links, Addresses and Useful Information
The wonderful Riverview Guesthouse cannot come more highly recommended, click here
For delicious Baba Nyonya cuisine, you won't go far wrong with Nancy's Kitchen located on Jalan Hang Lekir (Off Jonker St., the main drag through Melaka.
Capitol Satay Celup can be found at 41 Lorong Bukit Cina. It opens at 5.30PM, till late night and is closed on Mondays. It is usually full of crowds (although we were lucky), especially during weekends and public holidays. Thus, be prepared to queue, even at 10pm. Some people who are not willing to queue might be frustrated.
If you fancy a dim-sum breakfast, check out the great Low Yong Mow.
Business Hours
Open: 5:00 am to noon (Closed Tuesday)
Contact Information
Low Yong Mow (Non-halal),
Address: 32, Jalan Tukang Emas, 75200 Melaka.
Phone: (6)06-282 1235
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