Chicken rice ball in claypot salted fish & nyonya cuisine @ Jonker Street, Melaka

Chicken rice ball in claypot salted fish

Chicken rice ball is definitely a must-have if you're in Melaka. Of course, the best places to get this would be at Jonker Street. The usual long line-up would be the famous Hoe Kee chicken rice ball. Since it was just too hot for us to line up, we decided to have ours at our regular shop (turn right at the end of Jonker Street, check out picture at the bottom of this post; can't seem to remember the name of the shop ;p). The shop has probably changed management. We liked the chicken from this shop because they offer roasted chicken rather than just the plain steamed chicken which we aren't really fans of. 

Probably half roasted chicken. Super tasty, tender, and well roasted (RM30).

So, this shop tried to be different by having a 'signature' dish which was their chicken rice ball in claypot salted fish…sounds tempting by name. They also offer nyonya dishes; so we decided to have a bit of everything. Our initial idea was to have chicken rice balls with all these dishes but eventually, we were told that the rice balls are only offered for the claypot salted dish. What a rip off (now, we know why there aren't many customers @__@)! Anyways, we settled for the usual chicken rice.

Cincalok fried egg

We had the nyonya famous cincalok (fermented small shrimp/krill) fried egg and sambal belacan kangkong (stir-fry water spinach with spicy Malaysian shrimp paste). Both dishes were pretty good for nyonya standard. However, the cincalok used were not the fresh ones because we saw them grabbing a bottled cincalok from the shop display to fry the egg (mmm….).

Sambal belachan kangkung (not the best but acceptable)

A meal for 4 people (RM90 inc. drinks)

Honestly, the biggest rip off was the chicken rice balls in claypot salted fish which costed us RM 17; too expensive for a single serving meal for lunch! Although it tasted quite good, we as huge fans of salted fish, hardly saw or tasted any salted fish inside. I was expecting some chunks of salted fish but unfortunately, none of us had even a taste of it. Also, in my opinion, I did not like the idea of the rice balls soaking in the claypot stew which made the rice balls soggy. The chilli paste (the important part of chicken rice), however, received thumbs up from everyone in the family. 

Overall, this place is pretty ok for roasted chicken rice but don't expect to get chicken rice balls here. Their nyonya dishes are quite good as well although price might be a little steep since it's a tourist-y area. Forget the claypot dish which was just a waste of money. Stick to the authentic chicken rice balls!

Unfortunately, I forgot about taking the shop's name but here's more or less the location:

Adapted from Google Maps

Nyonya kuih @ Baba Charlie's Nyonya Cake, Tengkera, Melaka

Probably, every Nyonya in Melaka would know of this place or at least who Baba Charlie is. I remembered my mum used to get our regular Nyonya food from him at the night market. Anyway, this place is probably not very easy to find unless you are a local. They have however done a good job of putting an obvious sign at the entrance of the alley (yes alley, a small alley which can be easily missed). Look for Tranquerah Mosque and directly opposite, there will be an alley leading to a few houses inside. Walk in or drive into the alley, and you will see this place. 

Ahjummas (ladies) working on the nyonya delicacies.

You can really get practically all Nyonya and Melaka local delights here

I need to say this though. A majority of the items here are made with some form of sweet coconut. So, you've got to like coconut to like these delicacies. It's easy to get carried away with the wide variety of kuih, so make sure you know what you are buying in the first place. Prices are surprisingly quite reasonable as I thought they would have hiked up the price considering majority of their customers are probably tourists.

Hard time choosing what we want. They looked so tempting!

Some family favourite! Pulut tekan (Steamed glutinous rice with kaya, coconut egg jam)

Colorful..colorful...

Absolutely good place to bring a tourist here!

Our nyonya kuih 'haul' ;p

Kuih ketayap (sweet coconut stuffed pancake roll) and ondeh-ondeh (coconut dumplings)

Overall, this is a wonderful place to bring your guest to experience what Nyonya delicacies and of course to savour some of them. Apart from the famous Nyonya Colours cafes in KL that I've been to, it's really not easy to find a place with all this local sweet delights eventhough Melaka is supposed to be a Nyonya place. Tastewise, I will not say they are the best around for I've eaten better ones somewhere else. Even the ones in Nyonya Colours I felt were better, again it might be personal preference. 

Address:72, Jalan Tengkera Pantai 2C, 75200 Melaka
Website: Babe Charlie Nyonya Cake
Opening hours: 10.30 am to 3.00 pm

Nyonya food @ Kapitan Restaurant, Melaka

A tour to Melaka is never complete without an authentic home cooked Nyonya meal. Ever since my mum has been talking about Kapitan's nyonya food, I added that to my must-eat list when I got back to Melaka. So, Panda, my mum and I met up with my aunts at Kapitan Restaurant, Melaka Raya. One must not be confused with the other kapitan restaurant (Kapitan House Restaurant, Taman Merdeka). Since its not office hours, parking was fairly easy.

Nyonya Otak-otak (spicy fish paste) 

The first dish was the Nyonya Otak-otak. Well-presented with pickled vegetables ; however, felt that the taste somewhat is slightly lacking compared to Restaurant Ole Sayang.

Cincalok (fermented small shrimps/krills) omelette 

I honestly had very high hopes for this as I'm not a cincalok-lover but since my mum had been saying how good it was, we ordered this egg dish as well. I was quite disappointed as I cant really taste the cincalok (felt like normal omelette); even my mum felt the cincalok was not significant that night.

Top (R) : Nyonya Chap-chai (mixed vege)
Top (L): Spicy tofu (bean curd)

The chap chai (mixed vege) is an authentic Nyonya dish and this came out to be pretty good. The spicy tofu was okay, but not very special in taste.

Sambal Fried Fish

The Fried fish was normal but the sambal was so addictive! We even asked for sambal belacan to complement our rice. Delicious !

Nyonya Pongteh Chicken

The Pongteh chicken had quite a good taste but slightly watery. The chicken pieces that we got were also quite meatless (bad luck probably :()

Sago Melaka 

Nyonya Cendol

Dessert was pretty good. We ordered Sago Melaka and Nyonya Cendol. They have quite a good variety of desserts. The Nyonya lady was generous enough to give a whole bowl of gula Melaka (melted Melaka palm sugar) as my mum was like 'Mau tambah gula!' Both were equally good! They also have Nyonya kuih on the weekends.

Overall, the Nyonya dishes were on the average side and price was typical of Nyonya food. But, it's worth coming back !

*This restaurant has since change management and name to Jane's Place focusing on nyonya and other asian cuisine as well.

Address : No. 2A & 2B, Jalan Melaka Raya 8, Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka

Opening hours : 10am - 11pm (Mon-Sun)