Malacca Vacation 6 Nov - 7 Nov 2010 Day 2

The second day of our weekend Malacca vacation, we had a leisurely breakfast in our Malacca accommodation, Hotel Puri. We took the last few hours in the hotel to walk around and enjoy the serene surroundings and lush greenery before checking out.

Breakfast venue in Hotel Puri

Hotel Puri - Heliconia Garden

Baba Charlie's Nyonya Cake is next on our itinerary. As usual, we are amazed at the many varieties of delicious and colourful nyonya cakes available here. Surprisingly, it was not too crowded at Baba Charlie's today and we had time to chat with Baba Charlie himself for a short while.

Baba Charlie signboard at front entrance

Dumplings with chicken filling

Holiday travel tips:-

Baba Charlie's "chang" (dumplings with chicken filling) are a favourite of many of my local citizens who always make it a point to drop by this popular home based kitchen to grab some to bring back to Singapore.

Chatting with Baba Charlie (in dark blue t-shirt)

Our next favourite haunt whilst in Malacca is Bee Bee Nyonya Pineapple Tarts, a home based bakery specializing in nyonya pineapple tarts.

Bee Bee's Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

Holiday Travel Tips:-

If you are keen to try some of Bee Bee's popular pineapple tarts, do give her a call and let her know how many boxes you need and approximately what time you will be collecting your tarts. This way, you will not be disappointed when you find the tarts out of stock!

After purchasing whatever we needed, we went to Dataran Pahlawan Megamall and were pleasantly surprised to see a sandart exhibition depicting the Deepavali Festival.

Sandart designs depicting Deepavali Festival

Taking some pictures of the sandart, we then went to Zen, a cafe where we had tea and spent some time surfing.

Zen

Green tea cheesecake - found it a little odd in flavour. Guess I'm not that adventurous after all.

Enjoying a drink

Next we had a foot reflexology before visiting our friends, Emileigh and Lydia, at their home in Jonker Walk for a home cooked nyonya dinner. The food was simply delicious and well prepared by their 'mommy'.

Thai foot reflexology

Here are some the home cooked nyonya dishes that we enjoyed for dinner.

Fish & chicken

More nyonya dishes

Not forgetting the 'chilli sambal' that is a must!

The home-chef

After eating till our stomachs were bloating, we started on our drive back to Singapore. By the time we cleared customs and immigration, it was already past midnight. Time simply flies when we are having fun!

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Malacca Vacation 16 Oct – 17 Oct 2010 Day 2

Breakfast in Hallmark Hotel is served in Hallmark Café from 0730 hrs – 1000 hrs. Very limited varieties of breakfast foods are available. The good part about the breakfast is the availability of some nonya kuih. However these are very limited and may not be refilled.

Hallmark Cafe

Simple breakfast

Checking out from Hallmark Hotel at 1000 hrs, we stopped along Heeren Street to show our family members the unique Hotel Puri. Before we even reached Hotel Puri, we stopped and entered Ah Lan Beaded Shoes shop. Here, we were surprised to find the kasut manek (beaded slippers) costing from RM150 (US48.85) upwards. Considering the other two shops which we fould along Jalan Kubu were selling these beaded slippers, usually worn by the nyonyas (descendants of Chinese settlers who married the local Malay) at RM800 (USD260.40) and above, this shop was truly offering value for money.

Nyonya beaded shoes

Nyonya attire

Here you could also get other traditional wear such as cheongsam (traditional Chinese body-hugging dress), sarong (a piece of fabric wrapped around the body and used as a loose skirt) and kebaya (traditional blouse worn by the Peranakans and usually made of sheer material). Sister-in-law and I had a fun time trying on the various clothings and we finally ended up buying RM500 (USD162.90) of goods. What is even more amazing is that you can get your sarong and even the beaded slippers custom-made if you are not able to find the size and design that you like. This is all at no extra charge, mind you. Provided they have the materials, your item can be ready in 3 hours’ time.

Holiday travel tips:-
If you are looking for great looking nyonya beaded slippers at very reasonable prices, you simply must check out Ah Lan Beaded Shoes. Located along Heeren Street, you simply will not find it any cheaper.

You can also see some bound feet shoes and bring some home as souvenir if you fancy. Again, the price for this is at a very reasonable RM35 (USD11.40).

Next stop was Hotel Puri. Everyone was amazed at the greenery inside the hotel and sister-in-law immediately started making plans to bring her daughters to Malacca and stay in Hotel Puri.

Hotel Puri Lobby

Nyonya kuih was next on the itinerary. We headed towards Jalan Tengkera and found our way to Baba Charlie, a well-known ‘manufactured from home’ nyonya kuih supplier. With the many varieties of high quality nyonya kuih available, you will be spoilt for choice.

Holiday travel tips:-
As you drive along Jalan Tengkera, look out for Tengkera mosque on your right if you are coming from the town centre. Once you spot the mosque, look for the sign Baba Charlie on your left and turn sharply into the narrow lane. At certain times of the day, you may see tourist buses along the road. That will mark the area where you need to turn.

The nyonya chang (meat dumplings) are a hot favourite. With the traditional blue colouring from the bunga telang flower, this is well loved by everyone in our group.

So many varieties and colours of nyonya cakes to choose from

Baba Charlie (right) spending some time with customers

After purchasing the nyonya kuih, we went across Jalan Tenkera to 486 Baba Low, another place that our friend Edwin had introduced us to before. Sitting out in the open, under the trees, brother and sister-in-law loved the rustic environment and simple food such as popiah, pie tee and mee siam. The laksa however was not what we expected as the gravy was very thick and was laden with coconut. The chendol was, according to brother, even better than what we had yesterday at Jeta Groves.

We visited Kampung Morten once again and this time, we were more fortunate as the owner Kamarbee was home to show us the beautiful house and the many antiques in the house. Brother was full of praise and claimed that the house was ‘first class’. ☺

Visit to Kampung Morten

135A Kampung Morten

You can see lots of antiques in the house

Our appointment at Scents and Senses, a place to relax, was at 1350 hrs. We were there at 1330 hrs for our herbal ball/Thai massage and brother for his aromatherapy massage. As usual, we were not disappointed. Everyone agreed that the massage was good and wished that it could have been longer.

Scents and Senses - a great place to unwind

Holiday Travel Tips:-
If you are going for the massage at Scents and Senses, do opt for at least a two-hour massage or more as you will find that the one hour session is a little too short to enjoy. In addition, a two-hour session would be more cost effective.

Shopping was next on the list. Heading to Aeon Jusco, we continued with more shopping before heading back to Ah Lan along Heeren Street to collect our beaded shoes. Sister-in-law was very happy with her purchases.

Stopping by Nadeje in Plaza Mahkota, we bought a piece of double chocolate mille crepe cake to have as dessert later.

We then went to Bee Bee Nyonya Pineapple Tarts to collect the pineapple tarts that we had ordered before proceeding for dinner at Delicious Home Taste Kitchen for our 1800 hrs dinner booking.

Bee Bee - Delicious Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

Holiday Travel Tips:-
At RM13 (USD4.25) per box of 18 tarts, Bee Bee’s pineapple tarts are just the right texture and have the right jam flavour to bring out the oomph of the tarts.

Delicious Home Taste Kitchen is located at No. 2, Jalan SP 3, Taman Semabok Perdana,75000 Melaka. However, somehow we could not locate the address on our Garmin Global Positioning System. Fortunately, hubby could still remember the way there!

We had earlier ordered the watercress porkbone soup, sweet potato leaves, crispy chicken, squid with dried chilli and pork ribs. As such, we did not have to wait too long for our dishes since they had already prepared the ingredients and just had to cook it for us.

Watercress porkbone soup

Our wonderful dinner

As usual the food was great and everyone found this a great eating place. Brother loved the squid with dried chilli and pork ribs. I loved the squid as well as it had a mildly spicy taste and the squid was extremely tender. Mum loved the watercress porkbone soup and sweet potato leaves and hubby loved the crispy chicken. This is one reason why we keep on coming back to Delicious Home Taste Restaurant to have our meals.

Delicious Home Taste Restaurant

Holiday Travel Tips:-
If you intend to have your meal at Delicious Home Taste Restaurant, do call them in advance as they have been known to turn away customers when there is a huge crowd as they do not wish to have their customers waiting too long for the food.

Dessert was the mille crepe cake we had bought from Nadeje earlier. Brother found it too creamy since he does not like cream cakes. However, sister-in-law loved it.

Nadeje's Mille Crepe

We started our journey back to Singapore at 1900 hrs. This has been a wonderful Malacca vacation with family members and everyone had an enjoyable time.

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Bee Bee Nyonya Pineapple Tarts in Malacca

Bee Bee (Lian Choo) Popular Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

A helper placing the pineapple jam on the tart pastry

Trays and trays of the famous Malacca Pineapple Tarts being produced- yet you may not get any tarts if they are all pre-ordered

Best to call to order these popular Malacca nyonya pineapple tarts if you do not wish to be disappointed

Look at the trays of pineapple tarts in the oven

Bee Bee (whose real name is Lian Choo) and her roaring trade

We heard from a friend that when Lunar New Year is just around the corner, the pineapple tarts are restricted to 2 boxes per person so that everyone has a chance to get some of these most delicious tarts where the pastry is nice and crispy with a generous dollop of sweet and sour pineapple jam on top.

Bee Bee (Lian Choo) Pineapple tarts is located at 307A Jalan Parameswara, Bandar Hilir, 75000 Melaka. For advance bookings, call 06-2869735.

Happy Eating!

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Genting Highlands, KL & Malacca 4th July – 7th July 2010 Day 4

The last day of our Malaysia vacation, we started off the day on a leisurely note. As we had a late check out for our room in Arenaa De Luxe hotel, a beautifully and tastefully furnished boutique hotel in Ujong Pasir, Malacca, we took our time in the morning enjoying the room.

We took a short walk less than a minute away to the Perhentian Kuih Kampung (literally translated means Village Cakes Stop) where we had a late breakfast of dried mee siam (thin rice noodles in spicy, sweet and sour light gravy) and nonya cakes. Total cost of this light breakfast came up to RM11 (USD3.54) including drinks for all of us.

Perhentian Kuih Kampung

Malaysian food - kuih kuih

Malaysian food - dry mee siam

We then waited for another friend of ours, Belinda, to take us out for lunch. She brought us to Amboi, a nonya peranakan restaurant along Jalan Merdeka where her husband, Michael, was waiting for us. Here we were treated to typical nonya food such as sambal petai (stink beans in chilli), chap chye (mixed vegetable) and ayam buah keluak (chicken with black nut).

Malacca Peranakan Food - Amboi

The owner, Marcia, was friendly and our friends dine there regularly. We had a lovely time savouring our food and getting to know each other further.

Malacca Nyonya Food

For pictures of the wonderful peranakan food, visit Restaurant Amboi - Peranakan Food In Malacca.

After lunch, we drove to King Hin Plastic Industries in Jalan Bukit Cina where we did some shopping for baking and packaging supplies. On the way to Baba Charlie famous for its home made nonya kuih, we stopped by Bee Bee Lian Choo along Jalan Parameswara to buy some home made nonya pineapple tarts. Here you can see the production of the pineapple tarts, which Malacca is well known for, in the home.

Bee Bee Lian Choo's famous Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

Continuing on our way to Baba Charlie, we passed by Syarikat Berjaya Glassware; where the sight of crytalware in the window caught our eyes and we made an unplanned stop. You can find many beautiful items mainly for your kitchen at very reasonable prices. Our friends ended up purchasing a set of porcelain dish on a lazy susan, which is very practical when serving meals to guests. They almost could not get a new set as the sales assistant felt that it was the last set.However, upon us persuading them to check the store, they managed to find a new set, which our friends gladly grabbed at a bargain price.

Teacup & pot set with sweet prints

Lovely to admire...

The set that was purchased

We then made our way to our original destination, Baba Charlie, which is close to the Tengkera mosque. As we had received more detailed instructions from our friend, Edwin, we managed to find the place this time round. Alas, the place was closed already as they operate from 1000 hrs – 1500 hrs, after which they would proceed to the various night markets to hawk their popular nonya cakes. One good thing was that we actually managed to identify the exact house so that we would be able to find it the next time we get there.

Baba Charlie - famous for their home made nyonya cakes

Jonker Walk was our next destination. As usual, we had to stop at San Shu Gong, a home-grown Malaysian food product store, to buy their coffee before we brought our friends shopping along Jonker Walk.

San Shu Gong - famous for local Malaysian delicacies

Jonker Street - a tourist attraction

Big baby?

Cheery addition from San Shu Gong

We managed to find the old man who used to man the shop that specializes in handmade nonya beaded shoes along Jalan Tokong, a street that runs parallel to Jonker Walk. There are 2 shops specializing in handmade nonya beaded shoes along this stretch. WahAik shoemaker is the original shop that has already been in business for 3 generations. Since the next generation is not interested in running the shop, it looks like this is going to be a dying tradition.

WahAik is also a dealer in bound feet shoes and you can see pictures of women who had their feet bound. Foot binding was a custom practiced in China in the olden days where the arch of the foot was broken to leave a crevice approximately 5 cm (2 in) deep. This whole process took approximately two years in order to achieve a foot that measured anywhere between 7 – 9 cm (3 – 3 ½ in) from toe to heel.

We were very fortunate that the shop was still open at 1900 hrs as normal operating hours are from 0930 hrs – 1730 hrs. However as it was Malacca Historical Day and there was a VIP on his rounds in this heritage site, the shops were advised to stay open, thus allowing us to have the opportunity to discover it.

For more information, check out Peranakan Beaded Slippers and Bound Feet Shoes.

Bound Feet Shoes

Peranakan Beaded Slippers

Traditional Peranakan ladies wear

Testing the fit of the kebaya

New public restroom facilities along Jonker Walk

After we were done shopping along Jonker Street, we made our way back to Arenaa De Luxe Hotel to check out. Tesco shopping was next on our agenda. As we made our way to Tesco Malacca, we had the assistance of our Garmin global positioning system.

Tesco shopping

Here we had a quick bite at Tesco Medan Selera before starting our shopping in Tesco. It was 2220 hrs before we left Tesco and made a quick stop at Jusco Aeon next door.

Noodles

More noodles

Yet more noodles

Another version of Malaysian noodles

Indian flatbread

Colourful drinks

By the time we left Malacca to start our drive back to Singapore, it was close to 2300 hrs. We had a great time during this wonderful Malaysia vacation and we had achieved so much.

It was definitely an awesome experience starting with the cool Genting Highlands weather, our site inspection of D’Ark Resort in Janda Baik and Selesa Hill Homes and Resort in Bukit Tinggi, meeting up with quite a few of our friends, getting to taste the delicious Malaysian food and not forgetting the Malaysia shopping that we managed to include in our itinerary. Our one night experience in Arenaa De Luxe Hotel made our stay even more memorable.

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