'must eat' food in melaka

most of the time, we may plan what to do and when it comes to doing, we end up not doing according to the plan. before we set off for the trip to melaka, i had actually drawn up a 'must try' food list. the list includes chicken rice-ball, satay celuk, peranakan food, pork satay and ikan bakar. when we were in melaka, we managed to have two of the five items on that list - the chicken rice-balls and the pernanakan food. we did, however, tried some other food not listed, like cendol, yong tau foo, teochew bak kut teh and hotplate noodles.

when we arrived at melaka, it was almost noon. i suggested eating hainanese chicken rice and the others were agreeable. we headed for the chung wah coffee shop, the home of the original hainanese chicken rice-ball in melaka. although it was not yet lunch time, nearly all the tables were occupied. i told nah that we should order the so popular fish-balls as every table seemed to have that dish.

it soon dawned on me that the five balls on each plate were the chicken rice-balls. the last time i ate chicken rice balls at hoe kee and a famosa, the balls appeared larger. the meal, which included chicken, rice-balls and drinks came up to a reasonable rm$19. however, we still prefer our own boon tong kee's chicken rice.

for the second night's dinner, we decided it had to be peranakan food. we went for the tried and tested ole sayang restaurant at jalan melaka raya. we had the daily special which was ayam kunyit, chap chye, sambal prawns, sambal sotong and assam fish.

we always look forward to eating peranakan food in melaka, usually at one of these three restaurants - ole sayang, makko or bibik neo. it is also a 'tradition' for us to visit tan kim hock and the yong tau foo stall next to the defunct federal cinema.