Imagine the Thai, Indian and Indonesian cuisine coming together in one kitchen. This will give you unique and immensely rich gastronomy in Asia: Malaysian cuisine. Melaka (or Malacca) is a 2-hour drive south of Kuala Lumpur. With a population of 450,000, this historic city is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This ancient colonial city has preserved traces of the Portuguese and the Dutch conquest and has been able to showcase with great charm its different cultures. Chinese temples cohabit with mosques, churches, and Hindu temples, along the banks is beautifully colored, and you can see huge paintings covering the walls of the houses, illustrating the history of Malaysia.
Malacca is the paradise of gourmands! This food paradise offers some of Malaysia’s most authentic foods, with restaurants and recipes handed down from generation to generation! There will be something for everyone, from spicy curry dishes to marinated meats, salads, and desserts in a variety of ways. Here you have 5 great Malaccan dishes you must try when in Malacca. Make sure you leave Malacca with a full belly.
- Ayam Pongteh – Potato and chicken stew
Ayam Pongteh is a typical dish from Malaysia, originally from Malacca. It’s a potato and chicken stew in a soy sauce fermented with palm sugar. If you don’t know what to do on a rainy day, tasting this dish is recommended.
- The cuisine Baba Nyonya
In Malaysia, you will often find the term Baba Nyonya, or Nyonya or Peranakan. They are the descendants of the first Chinese migrants, also known as the ” Chinese of the Straits,” who came to settle in the country, notably in Malacca or Penang. These Chinese married Malay women, which led to an incredible cultural mix. Nyonya cuisine, also known as Peranakan cuisine, is characterized by a set of dishes with Chinese and Malay influences: traditional Chinese ingredients and products mixed with spices and Malay herbs, cooked in various ways: steamed, fried, panned, sautéed, it is first and foremost a fusion cuisine. In restaurants, dishes are served all at the same time in a large table, often with a rotating glass tray! It is a culinary experience in itself!
- Satay Celup
Satay Celup is a dish with various types of raw and semi-cooked seafood, meat (including raw meat) and dicucuk vegetables on a dicelur stick in the boiling pot that contains satay kuah. Satay Celup is very popular in Malacca. The crowded travelers and locals consider this dish as their favorite because there are more than 80 types of seafood and vegetables to choose from and dense and tasty sosnya. Besides, the food is always kept fresh in a large cool box or on the cool conservation shelves in medan selera.
- Chicken Rice Balls
Many Malaysian restaurants serve Chicken Rice balls, few are authentic, and therefore tasty, but Malacca is the place to go if you want to eat real Chicken Rice Balls. At first, you have the impression that you are going to eat a hen pot with rice, but not as well. The flavor is very different because the chicken is braised in a broth made of ginger, garlic, and ciboule. And then mixed with grains of rice, and their inseparable Pandan leaves. But what really characterizes this dish are the sauces: Ginger, Soy Sauce, Chili, etc.
- Desserts
The desserts, rather accessory for Malaccans, present mixes of tastes often puzzling for Westerners, reminding in that some local drinks. In fact, desserts are considered drinks, but with “things” in it!
- Ais kacang or ais batu campur (” ABC “): crushed ice, jelly (sweet jelly), fruit, syrup, a bit of sweet corn and a good handful of beans, sprinkled with condensed milk!
- Ash: crushed ice, palm sugar, coconut milk, and vermicelli, strange and fluorescent.
- Bubur cha cha: a kind of porridge based on sweet potatoes, taro, tapioca pearls and coconut milk with, for purists, palm sugar. Very smooth.
- Rojak: “salad” of mango, green apple, pineapple, guava, Jambu air, cucumber, honey and small pieces of fried squid, on which are poured a thick coulis made of dried shrimp and chili!