Malacca Trip 2nd Feb 2013

Went to Malacca last weekend with a group of my good friends. One thing I love to travel in bigger group is that we can order bigger portion of nice food to share. This time round I helped to book the newly open hotel called Hatten.

This hotel is super convenient because is located under a shopping mall called Hatten Square and surrounded by shopping malls too. Their rooms are all in suite but I don't find it as a suite but more like a 'bigger' deluxe room wih a small living area and the room doesn't come with any bathtub. Price per night was about $280RM per night. Room was very spacious with a nice sea view, bed was comfortable with soft pillow and best of all it comes with 2 LCD TV which I don't have to fight with my girl lols... Overall is quite clean except for their toilet bowl which has some light stain but I guess it can't be remove. Their breakfast was good too, it has western, local and chinese. Be early if not you got to battle with the crowds! Lols

We set off early and head off to JB for our breakfast at this Ah Koong fishball noodle restaurant, their noodle is very different from SG, is worth a try. Than we set off to Malacca and we reach quite early which is around 11.30am so I suggested to go for early lunch at the famous Teo Chew Bak Ku Teh. After which we went to the hotel to do our check in, please note that the carpark is not directly link to the hotel but is under the shopping mall. You have to take a lift down to the ground floor and walked to the hotel lobby beside the mall.

We head out for our shopping, a must to go to the Padini store which is always on sales! You can get cheap shirts or pants, causal wear, dresses, shoes and even kids wear. Later we went to A&W to rest our tired feet! Lols... Do you miss A&W? How I wish JB will have one so I don't have to go so far to enjoy their food.

 

Dinner we went to Cottage Spices a nonya restaurant which is across Fennix Inn. The street is like ghost town because it is very quiet and at first we still thought we might be lost but we still manage to find it. I went to google for nonya restaurant and this is the closest to our hotel. It was 6.30pm and the restaurant was empty, only the 8 of us! We looked through their menu and start ordering, so we picked Lady Finger, Cincalok Omettle, Assam Fish Head, Chicken Pongteh, Chicken Buah Keluak and Sotong Sambal Petai but I don't see any Petai in it. Lols....

 

I love their Lady Finger!! Sorry for the blur image, the lady finger was very fresh and very little of the sticky thingy. Is purely boil with no seasoning and is was simply good when goes with the belacan, very nice!



Cincalok is a Malaccan food is made of fermented small shrimps, is usually serve as a condiment but for this dish is pretty common in nonya cuisine. It added more fragrant to the omelette which is quite nice too.

 

 

Luckily this dish is not so spicy, love the sour and spicy gravy which you can add to your rice and as for the fish it was very fresh and tender even my girl loves it :)

 



Chicken Pongteh is braised chicken in bean paste with potatoes & black mushroom, we ordered this for the kids as it is non spicy. In SG this dish is usually cook with pork belly but I guess in Malaysia they can only use chicken. Kids will love this, the gravy is thick and sweet but the chicken was a little too dry.

 

 

I heard that the black nuts (buah keluak) was actually a poisonous fruit  but it was commonly use in nonya dishes. Some people might not like the taste of it, it has a little bitterly taste but I like to mix my rice with the thick black paste inside the nut. It taste very appetizing for me which always make me asking for another plate of rice :P

 

 

I wanted the petai which is known as stink bean but was disappointed that they didn't cook the Sotong with it. This dish I have nothing much to comment as it was very average.

 

Total for our dinner was $185RM given all the dishes we ordered and the no. of pax I will said is worth it. After convert to SG is around $80SG for the 6 of us excluding the kids, expensive or not is up to you to judge. :)

 

Up next is our supper time! We went to Jonker street which is something not to miss when you visit Malacca. It only open on Saturday evening and the whole stretch of the street and shops are selling their local delights, souvenir, clothing etc.... There is one small corner where Aik Cheong Coffee Powder store is located sold nice local foods. The first stall where we were sited comes with menu and we ordered Assam Laksa (Shrimp paste laksa) and Chendol. Both of this is a must to eat! :P

 

 

Overall is a nice weekend trip, not too far from SG and driving distance wasn't too long too. Is definitely worth the return :)