The Pleasure Trail 2011 - 3D2N Malacca

I find pleasure in many things, primarily food and good company. Malacca goes hand in hand with good food and Family is the best company i can find. Thus this brings me to the name of this blog post, The Pleasure Trail.

22nd January 2011 - Saturday
Awaken from my semi-drunken stupor by the shaking of my mum. It was 0600hrs, gosh, and there goes my mum nagging about telling me to be early back home the night before because of trip we are embarking this morning. The nag goes on and on and on til i hit the bathroom to soak in the hot steamy water, the hot water kinda made me feel like a tea bag. Finished my bath, changed into my clothes and a hood (I had a Hood, just that, its 1 piece without any zips). We brought our barangs barangs into the cars and we proceeded with our 1st little step of our journey. Zoom Zoom to Tuas Checkpoint.

Passed through the immigrations and checkpoint, we stopped over at the first stop in sight. We had some light breakfast, beehoon/noodles, average fare but do-able. I was elated when i managed to buy the chewing gums which was introduced by Lester, yes they were nice, and 1 box kept me going for 3 days.

It was 0800hrs and we continued our journey, we stopped over at Pagoh for some Epok Epok at around 0930hrs. During the journey, we saw hectres and hectres of palm trees, all owned by various MNC like Sime Darby. We reached Malacca city at 1100hrs and we decided to drop by Tesco, one of the megamarts at Malacca. The mega mart is totally different from Singapore, the open carparks are huge and the marts are single storey buildings, luxury of space indeed!. Mum went to get some medicine from the pharmacy whilst the rest of us started to splurge, maybe unnecessarily on usual snacks, daily necessities, drinks and me and bro got 1 bottle of wine each. We were told that we are getting late for our lunch appointment @ Jonker Street and we hurried our purchases.

1230hrs, We arrived at Jonker Street, we parked at an outskirt carpark. We walked into a teochew restaurant named Teo Soon Loong Chan which according to my brother, they do not accept walk in customers!. After seeing that they only had 6 tables in the restaurant, i understooded why so. The restaurant looked old, kitchen was at the main entrance, something which NEA would fail immediately in Singapore,yet, it was one off the highly rated places to makan by my brother.

First dish, was Oyster Noodles. This ordinary looking of ''Something like KL Black Hokkein Mee'' with some Oysters on top, how special could it be? I could not get more wrong, the noodle was Q and nice, the Oyster was fresh, juicy and not some were sweet!. When i thought i was enjoying it, the Boss, whom i prefer to the call the Tau Kay, came by and say, Key Tam Po Chor Lok ki, means add some vinegar into it. We all tried, ahh, if what i had just now was good, this was better!. Everyone was whacking the noodles when the next course came up.

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab! If u know me well enough, Im a guy who will eat almost every crab and prawn dish out there if my cholesterol and stomach permits me. This dish was good except the crab could have been bigger. We had sambal kangkong, Steamed Fish. Ok the steamed fish deserves some comments on it, it was fresh, huge, and although it was steamed Teochew Style, similarly to what we have in SG, it has more sourish plumly taste to the stock. We had a few more dishes but i cant make them out of my mind due to the next introduction. Roasted Suckling Pig. This was the main dish of our lunch, roasted crispy on the outside, with a layer of lard and another layer of well marinated meat. If i were to describe the texture of this, it would be Crunch Crunch Chew Crunch Chew!. The skin was roasted to perfection guranteeing crunch and crunch after each bite. Yummz

The last was Orh Nee. It was good, healthy orh nee without pork lard, halal version and not overly sweet. It was accompanied with mashed pumpkin and gingko nuts. We did not manage to finished the suckling pig and had to dapao-ed it back.

We walked into Jonker Street, it is a street filled with 60s style of shophouses, like what you get to see at Joo Chiat/Clark Quay. Shops are opened on the ground floor, selling clothes, rotan products, toys and also home made delicacies. We made our way to this place call San Shu Gong, a Malacca house brand for all sorts of cookies, pastries and snacks. I got quite a few boxes of mua chee, tau sar pia, crackers and stuff. We also settled for their Durian Chendol. The chendol was packaged with a durian paper holder with extremely fine ice shaving on the top. The Chendol was good, but a little too sweet to my liking.

We subsequently went back to the carpark and drove to the hotel to check-in. It was already 1530hrs.

Da Sao booked a bungalow for 500Ringitt per night, which boasts 4 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 living and 1 dining room, not forgetting a huge L shaped car porch and garden. We all offloaded our baggages from the car and slumped immediately to the bed (It was abit exaggerated, but it did happened in the end) We packed our stuff, rested for awhile, and prepared for dinner around 1900hrs.

We decided to explore this Hakka Place 300m away from the Jonker Walk Outskirt Carpark area. It has the setting of our Singapore Manhill, this place is also in a shophouse, we were brought to the second level of the restaurant as the first was full. This restaurant is known for their Mutton Soup and Yong Tao Foo, there was a promotion going for $188 and we just could not resist. It was a 6 course dinner with, Mutton Soup of course, Kangkong, Salt Egg Prawns, Preserved Vegetables and Pork, Drunked Chicken, Steamed Fish and Yong Tao Foo.

I had to mention the waitress, a bubbly 16 yr old, running up and down the stairs, customer service from the heart. The Yong Tao Foo was homemade, nice and authentic, the Mutton Soup deserves extra marks, it is thick yet not overwhelming, the mutton was tender and succulent. The food was good and we all had some problems finishing the whole meal in the end. We all were sweating even when we finished the meal and moving on to our next destination.

We went to the Jetty to have a walk. We parked at Markota Hotel and walked over to the Jetty. The Jetty is a 15 minutes walk out towards the sea, we initially wanted to have a beer at the Pub upon reaching the end, but there were not even a breeze around. We then settled for KTV. If there is something I need to bring up about the KTV, it would be the PRICE!, It is Ringitt 24 for a 6-9ppl Room!!! (Excluding drinks of course). 24 Ringitt is the ROOOM Charge! how expensive can your drinks be? We sung til 11+ at night, we took a stroll back to the car. There were lan shops, pubs, cafes along the Jetty, but the massage parlour which we wanted to patronised has closed. The breeze was around during the time we left, but everyone was tired.

We reached the hotel around midnight, we all bathe and went to bed, preparing for the next day of shopping and makan! To Be Continued.....

The Pleasure Trail 2011 - 3D2N Malacca - Day 2

Woke up around 10am. We bathed and prepare to leave the bungalow for our Day 2 Action!

We went back to Jonker Street, This time! we were on our hunt for Nyonya Food!. Donald and Lily i think was our 1st stop. Traditional Nyonya Laksa with Sesame Oil Chicken, Tau Kwa Rojak, Assam Rojak and Chendol. The Laksa is shiok-o-licious. The stock is sweet, at the right level of thickness, and just right for you to slurp it down mouthful by mouthful. Another Bowl please Tau Kay Neo! The Chendol is the best I had in Msia, maybe, even Singapore. The stock is rich, gula melaka thick and not overpowering, the right balance of milk, ice, toppings and gula melaka.

After Lunch, which was around 1300hrs. We walked to Jonker Street to proceed with our hardcore shopping. I got myself 2 round neck t-shirts, 1 3/4 pants, 3 belts and another 1 round neck t-shirt for Gabriel. I got *SECRET* for the B2B gang, as a gang present for everyone. Lemme do headcount, Keong Hock Yong, Lester Loh, Vincent Heng, Poh Han Ming, Pang Yiteng, Clement Tan, Wendy Lim, Chrispin Lim, Tan Wen Zhong, Tan Weiting. I hope i got enough. haahahaha.

We went to Geographer Cafe for afternoon tea, while Mum and Sab went for shopping. I had a midori sprite wif lemon whilst dad, bro n da sao had some snacks and fruit juices. I dropped by the oppesite pastry shop to get a box of Wife Biscuits for Pin. The Wife Biscuits are nice, a tad sweet, and i still prefer the Heng Xiang 1 @ Hongkong though. Nothing come close to them, even Crystal Jade Singapore. After mum finished with her shopping, we dropped our stuff in the car.

We proceeded to take a cab to Palawan Shopping Centre. It is already 1600hrs. We went to the cafe upstairs for Crepe Cake. Its layers and layers of crepe which forms a cake! Something like your kueh lapis. They have varieties of crepe cake, from Mango to Tiramisu, Double Chocolate and the fast selling Original taste. The shopping malls does not really appeal to me as I would be shopping alone, so i opt to shop wif vincent this coming tuesday instead! Prices aint really much different at the malls anyway.

We walked back to Jonker Street through Palawan Shopping Centre, which is a 20minutes walk. We strolled past the Colonial Portugese buildings and took a few pictures of it too. It was 1900hrs when we arrived at the carpark to put our shopping bags. We then went back to Jonker Street (the street is a functional road in the morning and turns into a street at night! like our Chinatown!)

Shophouses which are closed in the afternoon, turns into pool halls, pubs, cafes at night!. Shops selling pastries and stuff in the morning, move MORE of their barang barang to the street and sell at night! There were plenty of stuff to get, we kept moving and walking. Settled at the hawker street. We ordered some japanese food, Wanton Noodles and fried stuff. The Wanton Noodles are nice!, there is not chilli to go with the noodles, just some soy sauce and lard, LaRd and LARD!. Sinfully and Awfully nice.

We walked around the perimeter of the streeet before settling down at a portugese cafe behind geographer. Mum and Sis went shopping again, whilst I had a Jagerminster with Tonic Water, bro and dad ordered some snacks n drinks. We slacked until 9+, we regroup with my mum and sis having the most shopping bags and drove back to hotel.

We dapaoed Green Curry Crab from the Portugese restaurant which was surprisely good and spicy! The only letoff was that the crab was small, in the 600gm region. Other than that, I darely say, this crab spiced and numbed me as much as Long Beach Black Pepper. This Green Curry is Good!

I and Bro each have to finish our own bottle of Wine as we cant bring them over the sea. I suddenly broke out into red rashes, which was quite scary, down-ed 2 bottles of mineral water. Finished my wine and went to bed. Woke up perfectly fine except with a red nose due to the extremely cold aircon. hahas.

The Pleasure Trial 2011 - 3D2N Malacca - Day 3
Day 3 was the final day of the trip. We woke up around 10am, cleared our barangs. Proceeded to check out and back to Jonker Walk. This time, it was Nyonya Food @ Nancy!. This restaurant was beside our portugese restaurant last night and it was visited by our President Nathan! Some publicity indeed, and what surprised me was to see our National Flag raised in the shophouse on the wall, alongside the Malaysian flag.

We had Ayam Buah Keluak, this is good, the sauce is sedap, thick with buah keluak paste and not overly generous with the numeric. The chicken is tender and juicy too. We had the Spring Roll (Popiah) which was nice, even nicer with generous fillings of lard. We had Assan Prawn, which was good, but alittle too sour of my liking, Sambal Deep Fried Fish, a lovable dish at any period of time. We too had Lemak Prawn which was good as the prawns were fresh, and the lemak flavourful and rich. The Ngo Niang is deep fried and the fillings were more pasty and it is yummy. I would be back to Nancy too, anytime, whenver i drop by at Malacca!

We went to the much raved Junker 88 for chendol. Seats are hard to find but we managed to grab a table. The Chendol came with generous toppings of Gula Melaka. I find it overly sweet, and the Gula Melaka had a tad burnt taste to it, the sweetness was overwhleming the coconut milk and I kinda stopped after a minute or so. That was it. This chendol lack something. I walked off a disgrunted man, and sad to say, the much raved Chendol did not end off my trip as well as I wanted to.

We drove back to Singapore at 1300hrs. Stopping by at Pagoh and at the last stop.

This roughly sums up my Malacca Makan Trail with pictures up soon!

Accomodation - Big and Spacious Bungalow
Best Food - Definately it has to be Dolly and Lily's Laksa and Chendol although the teochew restaurant came close 2nd.
Most Memorable Dining Place - The Hakka Dinner Place @ Day 1, the Hawker Street coming close 2nd.
Best Buy - My 3/4 @ $49.90 Ringitt, KTV @ 24/Room coming in close 2nd.