Auntie Lee's Nyonya Food (Ujong Pasir)
First thing we had in Malacca was in a small inconspicuous joint at the corner of a street. From what I heard, it was suppose to be a famous for it's home-cooked nyonya meals, but when we got there on a Friday night it we were the only ones there.
The dishes were:
Assam fish
Rating: Good
The fish was fresh and the sour spicy soup was strong yet not overbearing. Well-balanced and delicious.
Ayam pongteh
Rating: Good
If you don't know, this is essentially chicken and potatoes in soy-sauce like dark gravy. From the taste of it has a lot of spices in it as well. The chicken was well cooked and the potato was soft yet firm. The gravy tasted unique in the sense that it was a bit sourish. Other then that it's nothing special, but a well-cooked, well-balanced dish, which is a delight in it's own right.
Otak-otak
Rating: Good
Nice flavor and texture. I won't pretend to be an experienced otak-otak eater but it was nice.
Cincaluk Egg
Rating: Fair
For those that do not know, cincaluk is crush little tiny shrimp (or shrimp rice in mandarin), fermented. To be honest I didn't really like this dish. It was just really salty fried egg, although I guess that's what it's SUPPOSED to taste like. Which is why I gave it a fair.
Petai
I don't eat it so it wouldn't be fair for me to comment.
Overall Rating: Good
This is one of the most enjoyable meals I had in Malacca. The distinct nyonya taste of the dishes really made this meal memorable. Some might say that it's just standard fare that people have at home, but I say a good home-cooked meal is as rare as a good bowl of noodles. (for those that don't get it, yes it's quite rare)
Me stuffing my face. Stuff stuff. Yummy.
Chicken Rice Balls, Jonker Street
The next day we had the famous Chicken Rice Balls. We went to the most famous stall where there's always a queue at the weekends, and we queued for a good 40 minutes before being able to get a table.
We are served with 5 chicken rice balls each and a big plate of chicken. This is basically the only things they serve there, a testament to the reputation of the shop.
The chicken rice balls were basically normal chicken rice, squeezed into little fish-ball sized balls.
It did not taste anything special, but it was good chicken rice. The rice was fragrant and just oily enough so that you feel it being smooth but not so oily that you don't feel like eating after a bite. The way to eat the rice was refreshing as well, eating rice as if they were fish balls does make it feel really different. Better or worse then normal rice? I don't know. Refreshing? Certainly.
The chili that came with the rice tasted light and you can easily taste the lime juice in it.
The chicken was good, it was soft and smooth and juicy enough. Some people say this kinda chicken can be found anywhere, but I assure you not many stalls reach the level this one does (although I wouldn't say it's the best I've eaten)
Overall Rating: Good
Innovative (though quite gimmicky) way of eating chicken rice. Rice was fragrant and not too oily, chicken was good, chili was decent. That's all you need for a good plate of chicken rice.
Sate Celup, Capitol
Finally, we have the famous (or infamous) Malaccan sate celup. This is the most famous shop in Malacca offering it, and in a feat of insanity (or stupidity) me and my friends decide to queue for it. If you're wondering why I made the previous statement, behold:
The queue
This is the shop and the people queing for it. No, this is not the whole queue.
This is the rest of the queue. You can see the far left of the first pic and far right, it's the same guy. Insane enough? Not yet.
This is the rest of the queue. You can see my dear friends (including Fenna, the girl that serves as the marker of connection between this and the last picture) queuing. And yes, that IS another sate celup shop, with nobody queueing in front of it. The queue starts from one sate celup shop and ends at another. Presumbly this "other" shop survives by getting customerst sick of queuing. Or when people like to come and eat sate celup while laughing at other people queuing FOR sate celup. We queued for 2 hours before getting a table.
For those who are wondering what the hell is the big deal and what is sate celup, it is just lok lok (wooden satay sticks of fish balls, veges, meats, whatever) but instead of clear soup, they use satay sauce to cook the food. Sounds good? Ya, it didn't to me either. To be fair though, I gave it a chance.
Inside the shop were pictures of various articles on the newspaper and famous food reviewers and celebrities that came to the shop. Even the english rugby team once ate here.
good, fresh ingredients, ruined by sate celup
The ingredienst were pretty normal, they were fresh and of good quality (as one would expect from a shop with such a reputation). However, other then that, I'm afraid I have nothing good to say about it. Seafood just tasted plain odd with satay sauce, the vegetables you see in the picture trap so much of the thick sauce that it dripped all over, and not in a good way, meats did not taste TOO bad, but it did not taste like it was meant to be served together with the sauce. Fish balls and satay sauce also do NOT go well together. At all.
Overall rating: Very Poor
Normally I might just give it a Poor, but because of it's ridiculous reputation, and it's failure to uphold it, it thoroughly dissappointed me. Queuing for 2 hours and ending up in dissappointment is just sad. Ridiculously overhyped, expensive, and definitely not worth it (the money AND the queuing). Sate celup sounds like a bad idea someone thought up during a boring lecture. If, however, you do like sate celup (for whatever strange reason), I recommend you go to any other shop beside this one, as from what I heard, they taste not much different and you don't need to queue.
There were a few other things that we had in Malacca, including Durian Cendol, Curry Laksa, Assam Laksa, traditional kuihs and pineapple tarts. They were all quite good, but I won't say more because I don't have pictures of them, and a wall of text is no fun right? :)
One thing about Malacca is that you can truly taste different versions of things that you are used to if you're a Malaysian Chinese. For example, you might have had some kuihs in your hometown, Malacca probably has it to, but with a nyonya twist that is quite refreshing.
The downside is, Malaccan food is quite gimmickish. What do I mean? Just look at 2 of the food I mention above. Chicken rice balls and sate celup. Both seems like quirky versions of what they originally are, and in some cases (sate celup, for example), this isn't exactly a good thing. Also beware, cause every shop will stamp the words nyonya on them, and that doesn't by itself determine whether the shop is good or not.
In a nutshell, Malaccan food is worth a taste because of the strong cultural influences that really bring unique flavors that might not be easily found anywhere else in Malaysia. In terms of quality though, it definitely isn't Penang. ;)
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