Review: Melaka Food-trip

Yay! Finally, the day I’m waiting for. I admit – I went down to Melaka to eat and not to attend a friend’s wedding. Haha! All right, the couple is a second-degree friend; so besides the wedding – food is the main aim of going down to Melaka.

1st Destination: Capitol Satay Celup (supper)
Have you seen men oogling at pretty babes? Well, I’m like that with good food. Lol! Can’t get that image out your mind now?

I was initially disappointed because we had to stop-over elsewhere before eating here. I thought it would have been closed but boy, was I so wrong. We arrived about 11.30pm and left almost at 1am. People were still coming. The next night when we drove by around 1.30am, we saw a long queue of people by the road side. There's pictures of this in this link or a review here.

Why is Capitol Satay so popular? It’s because they serve a new pot of “satay kuah" for new set of patrons instead of the usual shops/stalls which lets the same pot boils there for all customors. Satay celup literally means putting sticks of raw food into boiling pot of peanut-gravy (which is normally served with satay elsewhere) In Bahasa Malaysia, “celup” means dip. Hence, the term – satay celup: dipping the “kebab” into the boiling gravy.

You cook your own meal. I love eating the unhealthy food (the innards-pig's intestines, cockles!). Normally, you don’t get to eat these elsewhere with this kind of yumminess.

Altogether – about 9 of us gobble down more than 100 sticks. I was kind of full from the earlier meal but I was not going to miss eating this. I wish the cockles would have been bigger but most shops don’t serve that (except those by the roadsides). People tell me if it’s too big – you’ll be gross out.

The highlight of that night was the huge prawns they served us later. Take a look of the biggest prawn my friend got and how much he is enjoying his prawn. (He claimed he got an even bigger one during his other visit)

2nd Destination: Chicken Rice Balls (lunch)

Have you eaten chicken rice balls? My coursemate who hasn’t even seen this food before thought the chicken rice balls were fishball! Haha

Anyway, our “tour guide” (I'll call him Russell for now) who is a food fanatic brought us to this place for chicken rice balls. He even ordered and tell the shopowner to prepare for us the food.

Guess how many can 9 adults eat? (6 men and 3 women). 100 balls of rice and 2 whole chicken! He told us we could finish it and we did. Try guessing how much is the bill for all that and 9 drinks? Less than RM60! ( I thought it would have been almost RM100). So it was about RM7 each.
Take note of the two orange plates of rice balls and there's actually four blue plates of chicken.

The red light is from another camera.

Look at the chicken rice balls. The one sold in Klang is bigger and has a rougher texture.

Why eat chicken rice balls? Guess it's unique - the rice are rolled into a ball which you can eat finish within bites. Then normally, it's served with Hainanese chicken (the meat is soft and tender) with the slicky skin. Add in the chilli for an umph (the chilli is not spicy- more of sour and a tinge of spiciness). You can add in dark soy sauce too for a more sweeter taste.

Here's a review which has the map and address for the restaurant Huang Chang Chicken Rice restaurant in case you want to try out yourself.

How many rice balls can you eat? I ate more than 5… hehe Not going to reveal the exact figure! I told myself, “Eat! You’ll never know when you’re going down to Melaka again. And what happens when you indulge in gluttony? I don’t want to think about it for now… and wished I had more time to try beef bak kut teh, ikan bakar, durian cendol, etc..

3nd Destination: Cendol, Rojak/ Mee Rojak (brunch or tea break)

The venue of this stall is walking distance from our hotel: right across the street with a walk of hardly a minute. We had cendol (normal one) with rojak for tea break after our chicken rice balls lunch.

I didn’t really want to take any pictures because at first, I was apprehensive about it. The stall owners have set up folded tables and chairs around the foot of Bukit Cina next to the road. You sit next to unmarked graves in mounts under large shaded trees.

Food wise – refreshing cendol in a shaded area! Thumbs up!

Oh, I just googled about this and it seems this stall appeared in Ho Chak!

I had mee rojak the next morning for brunch and enjoyed it. Perhaps I was hungry. It was a little spicy and drier from the mee rojak I normally eat in Tanjong, Muar. No pictures – sorry because I didn't want to take "other pictures" too. ;) Pictures of the mee rojak can be seen in this review.

4th Destination: Tangkak Beef Noodles

After that, I had to try the Tangkak Beef noodles next to our hotel. I suspect it is a branch from the one my parents used to bring me to eat in Tangkak, Johor. We ordered a bowl of mixed (beef and innards) soup without noodles to sample the delicacy.. Mmmm..

Sorry no picture – was interested in sampling right before we checked out from the hotel.

Conclusion
Not enough! Why so little? Well, we are there for a wedding dinner so one meal less to try other food. On the last day, our to tour guide, Russell had to rush back to work because the client called. So sad for them. Hence, we just checked out Dataran Pahlawan Mall to see why they sacrificed historical site to commercial.

On such a hot afternoon, I guess Dataran Pahlawan Mall is a success for shopping and walking in air-conditioned space. But as a historical city, I fear this mall, the on-going-renovation of Mahkota Parade and the being-constructed new mall, Hattan Square, will make Jalan Merdeka a shopping haven instead of a historical site.

Oh yeah, did u notice the puny little A-Famosa standing hidden behind Pahlawan Mall. Helo? I said A-Famosa and not A-Famosa water resort. People have already forgotten the true historical city of Melaka. (I’m amazed it’s still considered an UNESCO world heritage site)

A final note, thank you dear "Russell" for bringing me to eat the satay celup and chicken rice balls... Perhaps we need another trip again when the clients do not disturb. Our dear tour guide is known as Russell because he looks like the adorable kid in the Disney-Pixar animation, Up. (Mind you, I'm not saying you're adorable. *rolling eyes* :p )