Gastronomical Travel

Malacca Day 3c - Muara Sungai Duyong

2012-12-08T06:21:00.000-08:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 3 Itinerary

1) Brunch at Chung Wah Chicken rice ball
2) Jonker 88
3) Stroll at Jonker Street
4) Shopping and Sightseeing
5) Dessert at Nadeje
6) Seafood at Muara Sungai Duyong

Seafood @ Muara Dungai Duyong
Since this was our second visit to Malacca, we wanted to try something different. A local friend recommend us to try Ikan Bakar (grilled fish) operated by locals along rivers. Its a pity that she can't join us for dinner, so we look up some food guide and decided on Medan Ikan Bakar, Muara Sungai Duyong.

There wasn't much direction to this rather ulu seafood stall. Its outside of the Melaka town, towards the direction of Muar, Johor. Our travelling time inclusive of detour and slowing down looking out for signboards was around 20-25 minutes. Detailed directions below.

But trust me, its worth all the effort. And I am already looking forward to visit the restaurant again!

Medan Ikan Bakar

Its a simple seafood "restaurant" along the Melaka river, operated by the local Malays. So food is Halah. We arrived early for dinner before we head back to home to Singapore. The "alfresco" dining area was tranquil with kampong ambience and occasional sea breeze. Nice village setting that we will all like to linger a little while longer.

A number of the fishing boats came back during sunset, bringing back fresh seafood for restaurants before docking at the jetty cum fishing village along Melaka river.

Medan Ikan Bakar at Melaka River

There are a lot of seafood available in the restaurant, some were freshly caught, some were actually purchased elsewhere and still with their plastic packaging on.

Fresh Fish on crushed ice

The seafood were on displayed for customers to pick and choose what they want. They were topped with ice to keep them fresh. As it is a restaurant along a river, not all of their "seafood" are from the sea, quite a number are river fish and products.

Fresh Seafood on display

Reference their menu for the pricing, which is in Malay. Some translation - Jenak -> Snapper, Siakap => Seabass, Sepahat => bamboo clams.

The friendly boss was quite patience with our limited Malay and we managed to get through our ordering with his recommendations and prior homework done.

Friendly Seafood Restaurant Boss

Pick the seafood you want and the boss will weight the seafood in front of you. Then decide how you want to cook your seafood - bakar (grilled), Goreng 3 rasa (3 taste), goreng kunyit (fried Tuneric), goreng halia etc. Refer to the cooking style menu below.

Food Ordering and Preparation

Don't be surprise that the most famous food in this seafood restaurant was not their seafood but their heavenly Nasi Lemak!
Each pack of nasi lemak was only rice and chilli and nothing else. The rice was infused with fragrant coconut milk, each mouthful of the rice with chilli was heavenly - sweetness of the rice, spicy and slight saltiness of the chilli, coupled with coconut fragrance, simply yummy!

Nasi Lemak
Rating: 4.75/5

The nasi lemak was suppose to go with the seafood. But it was so nice that we finished almost half a pack before the seafood were served.

Dining by the river

The food are progressively served. The food is so nice that we finished them in no time. Thus we decided to go for another round of ordering.

Bamboo Clams (sepahat), RM 12
Rating: 4/5

Crispy fried calamari (fried squid). They divided the dish into 2 plates for easy sharing.

Calamaries, RM 30
Rating: 4.25/5

Glad that the Malay restaurant also serve lightly fried vegetables and not those curry or overly spicy and soggy vegetables common in nasi padang.

Vegetables with mushrooms or onion, RM9 each

The fried tuneric prawns was super! We loved the taste so much that we go for another round and even order fried tumeric fish as well. It will be perfect is the shell is more crispy.
Note that the prawn is divided into 2 plates as well.

Fried Tumeric Prawn, RM 68
Rating: 4.5/5

And of course, not forgetting the fish. You can get them to divide the fish into half and cook in different flavours. Below are the different cooking style we tried. We ordered sea bass and snapper which cost RM53 and RM51.

3 taste turned out to be quite nice. Can't remember what were the 3 taste - chilli, tomato and ...?

3 Taste (Goreng 3 Rasa)
Rating: 4.25/5

Nice charred fragrance, but would have prefer the sambal chilli that we usually had for BBQ fish.

Bakar Bercili (Grilled Chilli)
Rating: 4/5

Sweet and sour was a disappointment when compared to the rest. Should have reserve sweet and sour for Chinese restaurant instead of at Ikan Bakar.

Sweet & Sour
Rating: 3.75

The fried tumeric fish was the best seafood we had at Ikan bakar. Its crispy with the tumeric brining out the freshness of the fish. Memorable taste. I will order one whole fish for fried tumeric the next time we are here. Or ... maybe 2 whole fish of fried tumeric :)

Fried Tumeric (Goreng Kunyit)
Rating: 4.6/5

All these fresh flavourful food at a cost of RM 238, which works out to be S$100. Not as cheap as the one our local friend recommend but definitely still very worthwhile and value for money. Nice, cheap alfresco dining along Melaka river.

I will definitely be back to this restaurant the next time we are in Melaka, achievable only with our dearest skillful car captain and navigator :)

Bill

Muara Sungai Duyung (Medan Ikan Bakar)
KM 4-5, Jalan Padang Temu,
Permatang Pasir, Melaka
GPS Coordinates: N2.174500, E102.289167
Tel: 019-248 9525, 012-636 2339 (Pak Azmi)
Business Hours: 5pm - 12am (no rest day)

Directions to Muara Dungai Duyong, Medan Ikan Bakar from Melaka town

Medan Ikan Bakar : GPS (N2.174500, E102.289167)

Right Turn along Jalan Padang Temu : GPS (N2.183667, E102.290333)

You will pass by Restoran Aunty Lee along Jalan Ujong Pasir and then continue to Jalan Padang Temu. Right turn at the placemark on the map and you will see the jetty for the fisherman boats. travel along the road all the way to the end and to the muddy road and you will find the restaurant.

Starting from Jalan Merdeka (Fenix Inn) to Medan Ikan Bakar
Total: 6.2 km - about 11 mins (from Google maps)
1. Head west on Jalan Merdeka
2. Keep right at the fork
3. Turn right onto Jalan Parameswara
4. Continue onto Jalan Bukit Senjuang
5. Slight right onto Lorong Bukit Senjuang
6. Keep left at the fork
7. Turn left onto Jalan Ujong Pasir (where Restoran Aunty Lee is)

8. Continue onto Jalan Padang Temu
9. Turn right (note that the signboard is taken from the opposite side of the road)
GPS (N2.183667, E102.290333)

10. You will see the Malay fishing village and jetty for fisherman boats along Melaka River on your right.
GPS (N2.182667, E102.290333)

11. Continue along the road all the way to the end. There will be a small stretch of muddy road before you reach Medan Ikan Bakar!

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Malacca Day 3b - Jonker Stroll

2012-12-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 3 Itinerary

1) Brunch at Chung Wah Chicken rice ball
2) Jonker 88
3) Stroll at Jonker Street
4) Shopping and Sightseeing
5) Dessert at Nadeje
6) Seafood at Muara Sungai Duyong

Stroll @Jonker
Jonker Walk is a not-to-be-missed activity in Melaka.

It's an interesting cultural walk through the Chinatown of a heritage town. Nice and interesting traditional buildings and shop houses selling items reminiscing the old days.

Cultural Walk @Jonker

Jonker Street
Ice cream, Pineapple Tarts, Rooster bowls

Looking for something from Malacca for colleagues and friends? San Shu Gong is the place to go for local snack and tidbits shopping. They have a big retail at Jonker Street, just opposite of Chung Wah Chicken Rice coffee shop. Large variety of famous local delicacies are on display and samples are available for you to try before purchase.

Jonker Night Market
On Friday and Saturday nights, many hawkers and stall owners gathered at Jonker for the night market (pasar malam). Below are some pictures from our last visit - Jonker Night Walk.

Jonker Night Market
Herbal Tea, Portuguese egg tart, Fried carrot cake

Bubble Making Tiger

We bought something from Little Nonya Gift Shop opposite Fenix Inn. I would highly recommend the soya noodles, which is very soft, light and slightly sweet.

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Malacca Day 3a - Food Trail at Jonker Street

2012-12-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 3 Itinerary

1) Brunch at Chung Wah Chicken rice ball
2) Jonker 88
3) Stroll at Jonker Street
4) Shopping and Sightseeing
5) Dessert at Nadeje
6) Seafood at Muara Sungai Duyong

Chung Wah Chicken Rice Ball (中华茶室) @ Jonker
Chung Wah is still our favourite Chicken rice ball in Malacca. Most of the time, there is a super long queue outside of Chung Wah coffee shop, which is situated just besides the San Shu Gong retail shop. To beat the crowd, we decided to go for brunch on a Monday morning. Glad that we can get a seat without queuing.

Chung Wah Chicken Ball

There were quite a number of chicken prepared and ready to be chopped up to be served to the customers.

Chicken Rice Boss and his Chickens

That was one whole chicken which cost RM30. The chicken was rather tender (but do not expect the same standard as Boon Tong Kee) and with kampong flavours. Should have ordered half chicken without the breast meat or only the thigh area to avoid the rather dry breast meat.

Hainanese Chicken

The chicken rice balls were nice, soft and flavourful, touted to be the best in Malacca. It came in 5 pieces per plate.

Chicken Rice Ball

Chilli was nice too. It is not that spicy and goes well with the rice ball and chicken.

Kedai Kopi Chung Wah
Lorong Hang Jebat
(Opposite San Shu Gong)
GPS: N2.194833, E102.247167
Tel: 06-2849660
Business Hours: Daily 7.30am to about 3pm (or sold out)

Jonker 88 @ Jonker

Jonker 88, a restaurant with nostalgic ambience and good food - must visit in Jonker Street!

Dining Area

The name came from their address - 88, Jonker Street. 8 is an auspicious number for Chinese, double 8 is definitely good "Feng Shui" for business.

Jonker 88

Loved the quiet, nostalgic ambience at the dining hall. The olden house layout, staircase, antiques, lanterns and wall hangings give us a good peep to how life was in the olden days.

Nostalgic Ambience

You order and pay for the food at the store front, which is where the food is prepared as well. As seats are limited, you may want to get someone to grab a seat inside while you are queuing for the food.

Food Preparation

The must try are their Laksa, you can choose between Nonya Asam Laksa which is soury spicy or the Baba Laksa with coconut milk, a version which we are more familiar with. Can't decide which to have? Just grab someone to share with you like what we did. Isn't that the interesting part of gastronomic tours :)

Nonya Asam Laksa
RM 5+

Baba Laksa
RM 5+

For our no-chilli dinners, we ordered the fried dumpling with home-made noodles.

Fired dumpling Noodles

Definitely we will not leave Jonker88 without trying their famous Chendol with gula Melacca. Think this is one of the best chendol in Malacca. For those who prefer alternative to Chendol, there is quite a number of variety available as well. We didn't ordered their Durian Chendol this time round as we are kind of heaty with overload of durian last two days.

Chendol with Gula Melaka

Jonker 88
88, Jalan Hang Jebat (Jonker Street)
Malacca

Tel : 606-2868786

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Malacca Day 2e - Supper at Dirty Lane and Pak Putra

2012-12-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

1) Dim Sum at Ban Hong Xiang Tea House
2) Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
3) Sightseeing - Heritage Trial
4) Dessert at Nadeje
5) Dinner at Aunty Lee
6) Cockles at dirty lane
7) Supper at Pak Putra

Malacca is a small town, what activity is better than food hunt at night :)

Cockles at Dirty Lane

We had been to this dirty lane in our last visit to Malacca, but we gave up as we were quite full and a bit worried about the hygiene level after observing the environment. However, few friends who had tried the stall urged us to give it a try and assured us the hygiene level with their personnel experience.

Cockles Stall in Dirty Lane

The dirty lane is next to Madam King's department store. You will need to "brave through" the dark alley before getting to the crowded stall filled with BBQ fragrance.

Walk to Cockles Stall

There is only a few items offered at the stall, the popular ones are cockles, lala, four treasures, BBQ dried sotong and Kang Kong Cuttlefish.

Menu at the stall

The ordering system was in a mess, no proper noting of orders nor sequencing. Be prepared for a real long wait if you are seated at the back lanes, away from the main cooking areas. Busy staffs will simply ignore you and the boss will give you a fierce look when you try to order or check your long outstanding orders.

Staffs busy at Work

Finally our food arrived. Cockles and lala with special dipping sauce - sticky dark sauce with peanut. The cockles were blanched only for while, thus they were quite raw as you can see from the photo.

Blanced Cockles with Special Sauce

There was a small green bucket fitted to the centre of the table where we can just chuck all the shells after we were done with the cockles and lala.

Lala

Kang Kong with Cuttlefish topped with peanuts.

Kang Kong with Cuttlefish

Four treasures - roasted tau pok, tau kee, fish ball and prawn keropok. Quite nice with the charred fragrance.

Four Treasures

BBQ dried cuttlefish with sweet and savoury sauce.

BBQ Dried Cuttlefish

Frankly speaking, the food was nice and cheap. But definitely not good enough to overcome the bad service and long wait.

The stall is besides a drain at a dark alley, environment wasn't really of standard, I have to admit that I do have slight uncomfort and worry that lingers within me while I eat. But this eating experience in the back alley was definitely quite an memorable experience.

Cockles at Dirty Lane
Jalan Bunga Raya (besides Madam King's)
GPS: N2.199833, E102.251833
Tel: (6)016-645 8108
Business Hours: 7 - 11pm (closed on Saturday)

Supper at Pak Putra
We continued our food hunt to Pak Putra for supper after some shopping. Pak Putra is famous for their tandoori chicken and naan. A pity that the tandoori chicken was sold out when we were there.

Pak Putra and Naan

Friendly prata man posing for the camera. Thanks for his patience while I am struggling with the camera.

The soft dough was flattened and placed onto the walls of the clay urn to bake. Once its ready, the naan is removed using some long rod with a hook at the end.

Naan in Burning Clay Urn

We ordered quite a number of bread to share - Naan, egg prata and Mutabak. Their Mango Lassi was also quite nice.

Naan, Mango Lassi, Prata

Mutabak

Pak Putra
Jalan Laksamana 4, Melaka, Malaysia.
(Along the main road in Taman Laksamana)
GPS Coordinates: N2.194833 E102.243550

Tel: 012-601 5876

Business hours : daily from 6.00pm to 1.00am
Closed on alternate Mondays

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Malacca Day 2d - Aunty Lee Nonya Restaurant

2012-08-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

1) Dim Sum at Ban Hong Xiang Tea House
2) Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
3) Sightseeing - Heritage Trial
4) Dessert at Nadeje
5) Dinner at Aunty Lee
6) Cockles at dirty lane
7) Supper at Pak Putra

You can really enjoy authentic Peranakan Cuisine in Melaka as there are many Peranakan Chinese - Babas (male) and Nonyas (female) in Melaka. Peranakan is union of migrated Chinese ancestors with local Malay, they look like Chinese, have Chinese surname but they speak little or no Mandarin.

They look just like Chinese, so it was natural for us to speak to them in Mandarin. The daughter of the restaurant owner we visit had to remind us when it slipped our mind again and started communicating to her in Mandarin.

Aunty Lee Nonya Food

A local recommend Aunty Lee to us, but she mentioned that she seldoms go to Aunty Lee nowadays after it is being "invaded" by tourists.

Yes, WAITING is required before you can enjoy good food at Aunty Lee's, but we never expect that we are still left waiting outside of the restaurant even after the opening hours 6pm and despite requesting the owners to let us wait in the restaurant two times.

Auntee Lee Nonya Restaurant

While the rest of our dinning group try to find somewhere to sit at the roadside or roam at the provisional store besides it, I try to snap a few photos of the food preparation.

Food Preparation in Kitchen
Mr Lee blanching lady fingers, egg mix for Cincalok omelette

(clockwise) Mrs Lee, Petai beans, buah keluak shells and the fillings

The restaurant finally allowed us into the restaurant after 15minutes past the opening hour. Finally air-con and seats for us. We had placed our orders for their prawn crackers (RM 2/pkt) and curry powder (RM 5 for meat or fish) as recommended in the web. Their prawn crackers are really fresh, crispy with prawn flavour, do get a few packs home.

Dining Area

We are requested to place our food orders when we made reservation. They don't seems to have a menu and we only see this notes on a shelf in the kitchen. Either reference the bloggers' recommendations or you can refer to this "notes".

Menu or Notes?

After another round of waiting, our food are finally served :)

The first dish served was the most talked-about Cincalok omelette @Rm 13 and we know that all the wait is worth it. Although thinner, this Cincalok but was much better than the one we had a day ago. There are chilli, onions and maybe parsley added to the omelette. The cincalok add an distintive taste which complement the egg well turning this ordinary home cooked omelette to something different and flavourful.

Cincalok Omelette
Rating: 4.25/5

Sambal Prawn Petai @RM19 was tasty with something nice like "wok-hei". The sambal sauce was not overly spicy with an additional fragrance from the petai which really goes well with the rice. All was nice except that the prawns were really a bit too small.

Venture to eat the petai by itself, it was still acceptable initially but it got really bitter as you chew futher. Will just stay with having Petai to enhance the flavour of the dish than eating the nut itself.

Sambal Prawn Petai
Rating: 4/5

Fried fish with Cili Garam @Rm 81 was recommended by the staffs when we made our orders through the phone. It was really nice, crispy fried and yet the fish is still tender and fresh. Not sure what was added to the chilli, spice, shallots which is different from the usual spiciness but really compliment the fish and bring out the freshness of the fish. One of our dinners even claimed that its the best fried fish he have ever had. Yummy!

Fried Fish with Chilli
Rating: 4.5/5

Nyonya Chap Chai @ RM 15. Mixed vegetables to fulfill our fibre requirements and it turned out to be quite nice too. The dried lily buds or golden needle mushroom flavour was quite strong. The golden needle mushroom also give the auspicious golden colour to the mixed vegetables.

Chap Chai
Rating: 4/5

We ordered sotong tempura but this dish was served instead. Not sure if this dish is Sotong Hitam @RM 18. The taste was quite special, seems that there are squid ink in the gravy which give the sea or fishy taste. Quite nice!

Sotong
Rating: 4/5

Lady finger vinegerratte @ RM 10. Saw recommendation for this dish in the Net. The lady fingers were first blanched then added with chilli, shallots and vinegerratte. Quite refreshing, crunchy with slightly slimy lady finger. One of our dinners loved it.

Lady Finger Vinegerratte
Rating: 4/5

Ayam buah keluak or “black nut chicken stew” @ RM16. When we were ordering the dish, the restaurant staff recommend a small portion as she was afraid that we are not used to the taste. Although the taste of the dish was unfamiliar to us, but most of us liked the buah keluak infused chicken.

Buah Keluak
Rating: 4/5

Buah Keluak is actually a poisonous food made editable by fermentation - boiled and then buried in ash, banana leaves and earth for forty days. According to the kitchen staff, the flesh of the buah keluak was dug out, mixed with some spice and ingredients into a paste and put back to the buah keluak shell as fillings.

Indeed, buah keluak itself is really an acquired taste. For those we ventured with the fillings, we had a hard time trying to describe it - forest-y, muddy, earthy? If you have eaten buah keluak before, maybe you can share with us how you ould describe its taste. :)

Buah Keluak

Fried Chicken @ Rm20. I would never had ordered this simple dish if not for the less adventurous or picky dinners within the group. But thanks to them else we would have missed this wonderful dish. Its so simply yet so heavenly. The chicken was nicely crisped and it was also well marinated. Think we tasted some turmeric, wonder what other spices were included to make it taste so good.

The food exclude beverages and our curry and keropok was around RM 192. The food at Aunty Lee was not not considered cheap in Malacca. But with currency conversion, its definitely worth it and value for money as the food is really delicious.

Although the service is really ...errr... and waiting time is necessary, their food is seriously good that we will definitely be back here again. Maybe its a Sunday night and its less crowded, my experience was not really that bad.

Tip: Note that reservations is a must. Do order your dishes in advance and avoid peak period.

Restorant Auntie Lee at Melaka

Address : 385 Jalan Ujong Pasir,
Melaka 75050, Malaysia,
Tel : 06-2831009
Business hours : 11:30 am - 2:30pm
6pm - 10 pm
Close on Tuesdays

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Malacca Day 2c - Nadeje Patisserie Cafe

2012-08-04T20:04:00.003-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

1) Dim Sum at Ban Hong Xiang Tea House
2) Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
3) Sightseeing - Heritage Trial
4) Dessert at Nadeje
5) Dinner at Auntie Lee
6) Cockles at dirty lane
7) Supper at Pak Putra

Mille Crêpe @Nadeje
A visit to Nadeje for Mille Crepes is a must for your Malacca itinerary!
Nadeje cafe which was opened since 2006 seems to have started the hype for mille crepe in this region (Malaysia and Singapore).

Nadeje Cafe (Plaza Mahkota)

Mille Crepe is a French cake made of many crêpe layered with cream. While "Nadeje" is a Czech word which means "Hope". But the founder of this Nadeje cafe is neither a French nor Czech, she is a Japanese lady living in Malacca, according to one of our local friends. A lot of fine ingredients are imported from her home country Japan.

We visited two of their three branches, main branch at Plaza Mahkota and the second branch which is more accessible at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. Both branches are elegantly decorated with care to details. There are nice modern outdoor sofas and big fans at alfresco area to help reduce the heat.

Nadeje Cafe (Dataran Pahlawan)
Indoor and Alfresco seatings

Now we come to the Mille Crepe itself !
Mille means "a thousand", implying many layers of crepes. Although not a thousand, there is around 18-20 crepes layered with cream in a cake. It took at least 3 hours to make a mille crepe - making and layering the crepes with cream, caramelising the top layer and freezing it.

Nice elegant mille crepes which taste as good as it looks. The layered crepes is soft, moist, creamy and will just melt in your mouth. For the original flavour, the caramelized top layer crepe add a different texture and slight sweetness to the soft light crepes. Being Japanese cream, it is light and not too sweet and it will not be jelat or overly rich even after a few slices.

We spent the lazy afternoon relaxing in Nadeje cafe, indulging the mille crepes with a cup of Sakura green tea. There is WiFi in the cafe, get the password from the waitress. Total cost of RM27.

Mille Crepes with Tea

There are a number of flavours offered in Nadeje - Original, Cheese, Strawberry, Rum & Raisin, chocolate, Tiramisu, Mango Yourgurt, Gula Melaka, Praline, Mocha, chocolate banana ... and many many more. You may not get the more popular flavours like strawberry and rum & raisin during weekends.

Original Mille crepe

Each slice cost around RM9, we tried a number of flavours.

Original [4.5/5] - What can beat the original flavour which is the foundation of all other flavours? Vanilla fresh cream in its simplest form topped with a caramelised crepe to give a different texture and slight sweetness.

Cheese [4.5/5] - Thoughtful twist for those who do not have a sweet tooth. Foodie who prefer savoury can also enjoy this dessert!

Mille Crepe - Cheese & Original Flavour

Mocha [3.75] - black crepes layered with cream. Not sure if its the cream or the crepe with the additional coffee fragrance.

Praline [4.25/5] - Praline is a French confection consisting of a caramel-covered almond or hazelnut. It has a rich nutty flavour which adds a different dimension to the light creamy crepes.

Chocolate Banana [3.75] - black layered crepe cake with banana flavour and slices. Combination of chocolate and banana is favourite of many.

Gula Melaka [3.5/5] - a Melaka local infused flavour - Gula Melaka. But its a bit too sweet for me.

(clockwise) Mocha, Banana Chocolare, Praline,Gula Melaka

The Mille Crepe were cut to slices and each is carefully wrapped with aluminium foils in the display fridge. These are prepared for easy take-away so as to ensure the mille crepes would not stick together in the boxes. You can see customers packing large number of slices for take-away. Dried ice provided for take-away. We even saw someone with a big cooler bag, wonder if its provided by Nadeje for substantial orders.

Nadeje Patisserie Cafe
http://www.facebook.com/nadejefans

G-23 & 25, Jln PM4,
Plaza Mahkota, 75000 Melaka.
Tel: 06 283 8750
Business Hour Closed on Mondays.

UB051-053 Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
Tel: (06)2843469
10-1030pm

Lot G-1 ,Ground Floor Jaya99,
99,Jalan Tun Sri Lanang,75100 Malacca.

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Malacca Day 2b - Malacca Dutch Heritage Trail

2012-08-03T10:15:00.003-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

1) Dim Sum at Ban Hong Xiang Tea House
2) Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
3) Sightseeing - Heritage Trial
4) Dessert at Nadeje
5) Dinner at Auntie Lee
6) Cockles at dirty lane
7) Supper at Pak Putra

Heritage Trail at Malacca

Malacca Heritaage Trail Map

This walking guide to Melaka's UNESCO World Heritage Trial sites was quite useful.
Some of the must-see sight are as follows.

The Christ Church Melaka [Map 5]
The famous red building in Melaka, The Christ Church.

Christ Church

Famous photo spot in Malacca, fountain in front of Christ Church :). You will usually see big tour group taking their group photo here.

Fountain in front of Christ Church

The Stadhuys [Map 4]
Adjacent to Christ Church is Stadhuys, similar red building.

At the garden in front of both Christ church and Stadhuys, there are a number of activities for the tourists. You can choose to take photo posing on a motorbike with cool-looking guns with the nice red building as background or take a leisure ride on nicely decorated trishaws round the heritage town for about RM27.

Trishaw ride / Photo Taking

Opposite of Stadhuys and Christ Church is the Malacca River Cruise Ferry point. There is a stall there selling Chendol which we bought to cool down after the hot sun.

Malacca River Cruise

A' Famosa (Porta De Santiago - The Old Gateway) [Map 1]
A' Famosa is just besides the Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. You can save some walking and enjoy the aircon in the mall by taking the escalator up the second floor and get out from the glass door facing A' Famosa.

Fort Terrace (a' Famosa)

Friendly Tourist smiling at the camera

St's Paul Church [Map 3]
Be prepared for some walking up the stairs to reach Saint Paul church.

Night Scenary
After supper, we stopped by the Christ Church and Stadhuys again for some nice night scenary shots. Experience the peaceful ambience which is definitely different from the hustle and bustle during the day.

Christ Church

Stadhuys

You can also choose to take the river cruise or just walk along to Malacca river to enjoy the lightings and nice peaceful scenary.

Malacca River

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Malacca Day 2 - Dim Sum, Baba Charlie

2012-08-02T08:45:00.004-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

1) Dim Sum at Ban Hong Xiang Tea House
2) Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
3) Sightseeing - Heritage Trial
4) Dessert at Nadeje
5) Dinner at Auntie Lee
6) Cockles at dirty lane
7) Supper at Pak Putra

Ban Hong Xiang Tea House（万鸿香茶楼）
We were introduced to this dim sum place by a local. Nice and cheap dim sum at coffee shop setting. Most of the patrons are locals, but we do note a number of tourists as well.

Ban Hong Xiang Tea House

This restaurant is away from the heritage town, refer to the map and GPS coordinate below. You can also try to locate Hotel Selectstar as this tea house is just besides it.

The restaurant is very crowded on weekends, even with 2 shop lots just for dining tables, its difficult to get a seat. Go early in the morning to get a table and to ensure you get to taste a variety of dim sum.

Delicious dim sum ranging from only RM1.5 to RM3, no wonder for the crowd here.

Big Pau - really BIG bun with generous portion of minced meat and egg as fillings (3.75/5)
Herbal Steamed Chicken - tender chicken with slight herbal taste. quite nice! (4/5)
Chicken Feet - this chicken feet were steamed with some herbs, quite nice and not too soggy. (3.75/5)
Yong Tau Fu - generous fillings in beancurd.

Big Pau (3.75/5)
Herbal Steam Chicken (4/5)
Chicken Feet (3.75/5)
Yong Tau Fu

We tried a number of other dim sum as well, which were quite ok.
- Steamed dumplings with different skin and chilli. Fried beancurd & dumpling.
- Beancurd roll with sauce - would prefer to have it without the sauce.

Dumplings, Beancurd roll with sauce, fried beancurd & dumpling

Their Chee Cheong Fun was typical of what you will find in Malaysia. Not too much of fillings but simple nice rice rolls with nice chilli and sauce and lots of shallots and onions. (4/5)
We also ordered some carbohydrates - porridge and glutinous rice for those with a bigger appetite. Cannot really remember how they taste as I was quite full and didn't eat much of those. But will definitely prefer the glutinous rice from 桂苑Gui Yuan Restaurant, Johor.

Chee Cheong Fun, Porridge, Glutinous Rice, Fried Dough

There fried carrot cake and oyster pancake was quite nice too, especially for that price (4/5). Although the oysters were super small, the omelette was nicely fried. Quite yummy!

Fried Carrot Cake, Fried Oyster omelette
Rating: 4/5

Ban Hong Xiang Tea House @Jalan Gajah Berang
No. D, Jalan Bachang, 75300 Melaka
Contact: 06-2814212
GPS: N2.208833, E102.242667

Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
Baba Charlie, a famous destination among tourists for Nonya kueh. It is actually located in a housing estate, a semi-detached house at the end of a small lane.

The lane into the Baba Charlie was quite narrow and we were unsure of the turn initially. But with those big tour buses along the main road, you will know that Baba Charlie is just round the corner. For parking, you can either park at a small empty plot of land before Baba Charlie or go all the way to the end of the land and turn right where there are some open space for parking.

Baba Charlie

There is a room dedicated for sales where a large variety of kuehs and snack are stocked up and nicely arranged for customers to choose. Just get a basket, use the tongs provided to pick the kuehs that you fancy and place it into the plastic bags provided.

Kuehs and Snacks

They have a variety of snacks and freshly made nonya kuehs. Otak, Lepat Kacang, Yam Cake, Ondeh-ondeh, colourful kuehs.

Yam Cake, Ondeh-Ondeh, colourful kuehs

The preparation and making of the kuehs are done at a "open" kitchen. Quite interesting to see how the workers are busy wrapping kuehs, frying curry puff, boiling the ondeh-ondeh and coating with grated coconut while we are queuing to pay.

Taipai Pulut, Ondeh-ondeh

Frying Curry Puff

The owner Charlie was quite friendly to pose for a photo.

Owner Charlie

We were already quite full after the heavy Dim Sum for breakfast, thus decided to just have the Nonya kuehs from Baba Charlie as lunch.

Pulut Inti

Pulut inti is steamed glutinous rice topped with grated coconut.

Lovely nice blue colour on the skin of the kueh. The colour is extracted from Bunga Telang (Blue Pea Flower.

Ondeh-Ondeh

The ever popular ondeh-ondeh, small ball of kueh with rich melted gula melaka, yummy!

Not sure what is the name of this kueh, texture was more like agar agar, something different from the heavy glutinous keuh.

(clockwise) Rempah Udang, Kuih Kochi Hitam,
Otak, Yam Cake and Lepat Kacang

More and more kuehs. There was no more surprise after we saw the same blue colour in the third, fourth and fifth kueh. Sweet coconut, sweet gula melaka, oily glutinous rice ... it gets a bit jelat for us. The savoury yam cake managed to give my taste buds a break from the sweet indulgence, think I still prefer savoury than sweet stuffs.

Baba Charlie House
72, Jalan Tengkera Pantai 2 75200 Melaka
019-666 2907
(GPS 2.202999,102.231485)
Daily except Thursday
http://nyonyacake.blogspot.sg/

Pasar Malam
Mon : Bukit Beruang/Tanjung
Tue : KG. Lapan/Ujong Pasir
Wed : Bukit Beruang
Thu : Off
Friday : Malim Jaya
Sat : Kota Laksamana
Sunday : Air Keroh/ Batu Berendam

Malacca Trail Map

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Malacca - Good Food To Try

2012-07-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Must try food in Malacca !!

Consolidated based on our experience during the few recent trips to Malacca (a.k.a Melaka).
Good, nice, authentic, famous, local, culture heritage food NOT to be missed!

	Family Heritage Nonya Cuisines : Nonya Must try dish! : Pineapple curry fish, Butter scallop MS Rating : 4.25/5 Location : Bukit Beruang, 75450 Melaka, Malaysia (Tel) 06-2327116 Business Hours : 12:00pm-3:00pm / 5:30pm - 10pm
	Pink Berrys Cuisines : Dessert Must try dish! : Durian King dessert MS Rating : 4.25/5 Location : Pahlawan Melaka Megamall Website : www.justberrys.com.my
	Bunga Raya Porridge Cuisines : Chinese Speciality : Pork Porridge MS Rating : 3.5/5 Location : G20, Jalan PM 3, Plaza Mahkota, 75000 Melaka. Miss Tam (016- 753 1816) Business Hours: 12pm-2pm / 7pm-10pm (off) Chinese Lunar 1st, 2nd, 15th, 16th.
	Wok & Pan Cuisines : Western Speciality : Mexican Pork Chop, Chicken cutlet, mushroom soup MS Rating : 4/5 Location : No. 22 G, Jalan PM 4, Plaza Mahkota, Melaka Business Hours : 12pm to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm (Closed on Monday)
	Ban Hong Xiang Tea House（万鸿香茶楼） Cuisines : Dim Sum Speciality : Fried Carrot Cake, Fried Oyster MS Rating : 4/5 Location : Jalan Gajah Berang. No. D, Jalan Bachang,Melaka GPS: N2.208833, E102.242667
	Nadeje Patisserie Cafe Cuisines : Western Dessert Speciality : Mille Crepes - Original, Cheese, Pralilne MS Rating : 4.25/5 Location : UB051-053 Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall Contact : (06)2843469 Business Hours : 10am to 10:30pm
	Restoran Aunty Lee Cuisines : Nonya Speciality : Fried chicken, Cincalok Omelette, Sambal Prawn Petai, Fried fish with chilli MS Rating : 4.5/5 Location : 385 Jalan Ujong Pasir, Melaka 75050, Malaysia Contact : (06) 2831009 Business Hours : 11:30 am - 2:30pm, 6pm - 10 pm (Close Tues)
	Cockles at Dirty Lane Cuisines : Roadside Cockles and Lala Speciality : Cockles, Lala, 4 treasures MS Rating : 3.75/5 Location : Jalan Bunga Raya (besides Madam King's) Contact : (06) 016-645 8108 Business Hours : 7 - 11pm (closed on Saturday)
	Pak Putra Cuisines : Indian Speciality : Chicken Tandoori, Naan MS Rating : 4/5 Location : Jalan Laksamana 4, Melaka, Malaysia (Along the main road in Taman Laksamana) (GPS) N2.194833 E102.243550 Contact : 012-601 5876 Business Hours : 6.00pm to 1.00am (closed alternate Monday)
	Jonker 88 Cuisines : Nonya Speciality : Nonya and Baba Laksa, Chendol MS Rating : 4.25/5 Location : 88, Jalan Hang Jebat (Jonker Street) Contact : 606-2868786 Business Hours : 10am -
	Capitol Satay Cuisines : Satay Celup Speciality : Big prawns MS Rating : 4.25/5 Location : 41, Lorong Bukit Cina, 75100, Melaka Contact : 06-2835508 Business Hours : 5:30pm - 1am
	Medan Ikan Bakar (Muara Sungai Duyong) Cuisines : Malay Seafood Speciality : Fried Tumeric Fish, Nasi Lemak MS Rating : 4.5/5 Location : KM 4-5, Jalan Padang Temu, Permatang Pasir GPS (N2.174500, E102.289167) Contact : 019-248 9525, 012-636 2339 (Pak Azmi) Business Hours: 5pm - 12am (no rest day)
	Kedai Kopi Chung Wah Cuisines : Hainanese Chicken rice Speciality : Chicken rice ball, Chicken MS Rating : 4/5 Location : Lorong Hang Jebat (Opposite San Shu Gong) GPS: N2.194833, E102.247167 Contact : 06-2849660 Business Hours: Daily 7.30am to about 3pm (or sold out)
	Puteri Erra Roti John Cuisines : Malay Roti John Speciality : Batang Biasa Roti John MS Rating : 4/5 Location : Medan Selera Bunga Raya (Opposite Majestic Hotel, behind Putra Specialist Hospital) Contact : Business Hours : Opens daily 6-11.30pm
.	.

Malacca Day 1c - Dinner and Hotel

2012-07-16T07:18:00.002-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 1 Itinerary

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr)
2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh
3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe
4) Shopping and R&R
- Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza
- Pork Porridge
- Wok & Pan
6) Menara Taming Sari
7) Massage

Dinner at Melaka Plaza, which is just next to Mahkota Parade shopping mall.

Pork Porridge @Restoran Bunga Raya Porridge, Mahkota Plaza
GPS: 2.189833, 102.247000
It was Saturday night with heavy traffic jams, our eating kakis decided to go somewhere nearby for dinner. We decided to head to Bunga Raya for Pork Porridge which is supposed to have operated for a few generations.

Bunga Raya Porridge

It was actually an old coffee shop along some dark street Jalan pm 3, besides the pasar malam. The store only offer a few staple food items - Porridge, Mee Hoon Kueh and different Mee or noodle soup. We ordered pork porridge, which is their main speciality.

There was only one cook in the kitchen, it took really long before our food was served. With all the hype about the shop being around for few generations and the long long wait, our expectation was naturally raised. Sadly, it was quite a disappointment. The congee wasn't really smooth as what we expect, the century egg seems to have an additional smell which we are not used to and their pork slice wasn't that tender.

The saving grace was their minced meat balls, it was fragrant and flavourful. Not sure if it was the sole fish or fried shallots that make it tasty and stand out from the rest.

Pork Porridge with Century Egg

Initially we were thinking of having something light for dinner to clear our digestive system after all those heavy meals. However, we refused to end our first day in Melaka with disappointment and thus we walked across the street to jalan pm4 in search for another round of dinner.

Western Food @ Wok & Pan (East Meet West Cuisine)
Wok & Pan is just one street next to Bunga Raya Porridge and opposite to Nadaje cafe (main store), selling the famous mille crepe.

Wok & Pan Restaurant

Was wondering what was this cool cafe opposite of Wok & Pan while we were waiting for our food. Realised that it was the main branch of the famous Nadeje cafe. Nice place to enjoy dessert.

Nadeje Cafe opposite of Wok & Pan

Being a busy Saturday night, the wait is not just for the food, but you have to wait for the seats, wait to order, wait for our drinks, wait for the cutlery, wait for the bill, wait for the change ... what a long waiting night!

The mushroom soup (RM3.50) was quite creamy and smooth, it would have been better if there are more mushroom taste to it. Maybe those who doesn't like their mushroom soup too "mushroomy" will love it. To drink it while its hot, we drank directly from the bowl since it takes forever for the cutlery to be made available to us.

Mushroom Soup
Rating: 4/5

Chicken chop with secret Hainanese Sauce (RM9.50), the word "secret" raised our expectations. It had to be as good as the chicken chop offered in restaurant Hua Mui in Johor, if not better.
The chicken chop was nicely fried and very crisp with the batter coating. Ironically, the disappointing part happened to be the secret Hainanese sauce, its too sourly and sharp and the HP sauce is too overpowering.
Without the secret Hainanese sauce, the chicken chop is quite a nice item, just that it will be a bit dry.

Chicken Chop with Secret Hainanese Sauce
Rating: 4/5

Mexican Pork Chop @ RM12.50. Now we come to one dish that really worth the wait. This Mexican pork chop was well marinated, nicely grilled and topped with the Mexican sauce which really give it a unique taste. The Mexican sauce contains diced cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, onions, chilli and vinegar which really complement the slightly charred pork chop. Yummy !!

Mexican Pork Chop
Rating: 4.5/5

BBQ Pork Chop (RM10.50). Couldn't really recall how this pork chop taste like, guessed it didn't really stand out with the Mexican Pork Chop. Only recalled our food kakis commenting that the pork chops are too thin. The potato wedges were quite nice.

BBQ Pork Chop

There was a choice of frozen or fresh local fish, we ordered the fresh fish fillet which cost RM21.00. Almond Nut Fish Fillet served with Jacket Potato and Salad, liked how the fragrant roasted almond taste enhanced the fresh fish fillet. This dish also offered various texture - crunchy almond, crispy fried batter and soft fish fillet. Quite nice.

Almond Nut Fish Fillet
Rating 4/5

We missed out the popular dish - Grilled Herbs & Honey Pork Rib @RM28.00. Happened to saw multiple big slabs of pork ribs at the back of their kitchen. Although the cleanliness of back kitchen is dubious but the pork ribs still look appetizing to me :)

After we finished all the food, our beverages were still not served. We simply cancelled the order and pay for our meal.

Wok & Pan
Address : No. 22 G, Jalan PM 4, Plaza Mahkota, Melaka
Contact : 017 673 8896 / info@wokandpan.com
Business Hour : 12pm to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm (Closed on Monday)

Night Market
There was a night market at Mahkota Plaza when we were there on Saturday night. Besides the usual food items, clothes, bags they also have fishes and pets for sales.

Night Market at Plaza Mahkota

Menara Taming Sari
The Menara Taming Sari observatory tower is just next to Mahkota Plaza. Menara Taming Sari offer a 360 degree revolving ride up to a height of 110 metres, providing a paranomic view of the heritage town from the cabin deck.
Daily 10am - 10pm. Adult / Child : Rm20 / Rm10

You can actually catch a good glimpse of the tower along the small lane that cut across the Jalan pm 3-5 streets.

Menara Taming Sari

Fenix Inn

We choose to stay in Fenix Inn, a budget inn with good location. Fenix is within walking distance from the shopping malls (Mahkota Parade and Pahlawan Malaka Megamall), central location to the heritage town.

The room was small and basic. for a budget hotel, it was nice that they provide floor mat, electric kettle and individual air-con which you can control. There is no lift in the hotel, which may not be convenient for the elderly. There is no complimentary bottled water or tissue, only limited toilet paper were provided and it took the staff a really long time to replenish.

Valet parking and free parking provided, however do note that it will take some time for them to get your car.

Fenix Inn

Service was "inn" standard. There were no housekeeping provided during our stay. When we requested for housekeeping at the front desk, the staff reply was "you should have hang out the tag on your door to request for housekeeping". ...Ok, at least she agreed to send someone to tidy up the room before evening.

However when we were back at night, room was still in its original state. We decided to just settle for a change of towels. The dear service staff came empty handed after a long wait to "inspect" first before another long wait for him to come back with clean towels.

Massage @Topic Healthcare

There is also a healthcare centre just opposite Fenix Inn which you can relax and have a massage after a tired day.

It seems that massage wasn't really that common in Melaka. Unlike the usual touristy areas, it took us quite some time to find massage at shopping malls, which the standard was kind of disappointing.

Maybe massage wasn't really commonly accepted in this small Malay heritage town and it explain why the massage centre need to put such explicit sign that "No sex service is to be provided".

"No Sex Service" Sign at Massage Healthcare Centre

One hour body massage is around RM32~35 during non-peak (weekday or weekend before 7pm) while RM48.60 for weekend night. Our Chinese massuers who seems to be from China were very skillful, much better than the massage in the shopping mall.

Topic Healthcare website http://www.topichealthcare.com

Malacca Trail Map

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Malacca Day 1b - Family Heritage Cafe

2012-07-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 1 Itinerary

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr)
2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh
3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe
4) Shopping and R&R - Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza - Pork Porridge - Wok & Pan
6) Menara Taming Sari
7) Massage

Family Heritage Cafe @ Melacca
We met up with the rest of our kakis at Family Heritage Cafe which is slightly away from the Malacca heritage town central but also away from the traffic jam. This cafe is just opposite the Petronas petrol kiosk.

Family Heritage Cafe

We were still quite full with the heavy breakfast and thought that nothing can really entice us anymore. But the pineapple curry fish whet our appetite and get us started for another round of makan.

The curry was nice, not too hot and with a refreshing pineapple fragrance and taste. Loved the thick pineapple puree on the top layer of the curry. Tender fish, ragrant curry and refreshing pineapple blend so well together to give a nice unique taste. Must try!

Pineapple Curry Fish
Rating: 4.5/5

Read about chinchalok omelette on the Internet when searching for Nonya food in Malacca. Maybe my expectation was raised after reading the reviews and was kind of disappointed when I tasted it. It was a basic egg omelette with slight mouldy taste from the chinchalok which wasn't really complementary to the egg.

Chinchalok Omelette
Rating: 3.5/5

Sambal Petai Prawn, another famous Nonya dish in Malacca. Petai or Peteh is also call stink beans, which is an acquired taste just like durian. My kaki loved how the petai taste infused into the prawn with sambal chilli and the intense charcoal-like burnt taste. Eating the Petai itself is a challenge, it gets really bitter as you chew further. Most of us settled with just eating the prawn only.

Sambal Petai Prawn
Rating: 3.75/5

Butter scallop was a nice dish - half shell scallops sauteed in buttery creamy sauce with chopped garlic. The sweetness from the scallop, salty buttery sauce with strong garlic taste was great.

Butter Scallop
Rating: 4.25/5

Ayam Pongteh is another popular Nonya dish which is usually cooked during festive occasions like Chinese New Year. Flavours supposed to set in and taste better if this Nonya chicken and potato stew was kept overnight. Pongteh is fermented salted soy bean paste which is used to cook the dish. This dish is sweet and savoury, order this dish if you want something non-spicy.

Ayam Pongteh
Rating: 3.75/5

Their peanut soup was quite nice as well.

Peanut Soup

A meal in Malacca is only complete with Chendol as dessert. Finely shaved ice topped with gula Melaka and coconut milk. The gula melaka wasn't too strong or sweet, nice for those who doesn't like their dessert too sweet.

Chendol
Rating: 4/5

Family Heritage Cafe

No. 658-F, Jalan Intan, Taman Bukit Melaka

Bukit Beruang,

75450 Melaka, Malaysia

Tel: 06-2327116

Business Hours : 12:00pm-3:00pm / 5:30pm - 10pm

Shopping - Hatten Square / Pahlawan Melaka Megamall / Plaza Mahkota
Shopping, an activity to be included into your Malacca itinerary. There are a number of gigantic shopping malls at Malacca central, all next to one another.

Hatten Square - a new shopping mall besides the Hatten hotel. Besides the popular Tang Shifu and Häagen-Dazs right next to the Hatten Square main entrance, there are some stalls catering for the younger crowd like the dreamy pink Crepe Signature cafe, bubble tea kiosk Chatime.

Plaza Mahkota - largest shopping mall in Malacca with cinema, bowling alleys, Parkson and of course the popular Mille crepe Nadeje Patisserie.

(CW)Crepe Signature, Chatime, Massage, Gaming Event

Pahlawan Melaka Megamall - affordable shopping at the basement. There is a Polo Haus store which always have a selection on 50-70% discount which is worth a look.

Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
(baked sweet potato, tidbits, fountain, fish maw)

We were very lucky to come across this desert kiosk near the fountain at the basement of Pahlawan Melaka Megamall - Pink Berrys. We were handed some flyers which consist of discount coupons to promote this new dessert kiosk. We were pleasantly surprised with the cheap delicious durian dessert @ RM8.

The Durian King dessert was layered with shaved ice, durian puree, topped with big chunks of durian flesh and some pamelo pulps. The pamelo pulps was a smart way to balance the rich creamy jelat-ness of the durian. Their Mango Tango drink is quite nice too, we got Mango Honeymoon @RM6 which is mango smoothie topped with fresh mango cubes.

Dessert @Pink Berrys

Pink Berrys
Location : Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
Website : www.justberrys.com.my

Malacca Trail Map

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Malacca Day 1a - Tangkat

2012-07-08T09:51:00.004-07:00

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 1 Itinerary

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr)
2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh
3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe
4) Shopping and R&R
- Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza
- Pork Porridge
- Wok & Pan
6) Menara Taming Sari
7) Massage

We start off early on a Saturday morning around 7+am. The drive up to Malacca (aka Melaka) was smooth - quick or immediate clearance at Tuas customs, smooth traffic on the highway. For rest stops,give the old Yong Peng a miss. We choose a bigger scale rest stop before Yong Peng which has a big hawker centre with lots of stalls and most importantly, clean toilets with lots of cubicles and toilet paper.

Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh (家家)
Finally reached Tangkat for our breakfast (or brunch) Follow the way to Tangkat Hospital. Turn right along Jalan Payamas towards Tangkat Hospital and turn left at the muddy car park of Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh.

View from Carpark

From the kitchen, you can witness the preparation, basket of marinated and fried chicken feet, pig trotter to be chopped and some organs in the bucket. The environment wasn't that clean and there are lots of houseflies, avoid it if it will spoilt your appetite.

Food In Preparation

It will take some time for the bak ku teh to be ready. While waiting for the food, you can buy otak from this friendly uncle who operates just at the side of the coffee shop.

Otak at the Coffee Shop

Coffee shop settings with more 10 tables. Seems like booking is possible for their regular clients where they get the table setup before they arrive. They have a open kitchen at the front to do the final preparation before serving. Ingredients ordered will be added to a claypot and heat up, topped with fried beancurd and vegetables.

Dinning Area & Preparation at the Front Kitchen

We ordered a pot of tea (茶王) and get ready the black sauce for our Bak Ku Teh. Their black sauce is very thick and nice. Pour it to the saucer with chilli only as it gets watery if mixed with the garlic. Only topped up with garlic after dipping in the sauce.

Chilli, Garlic and Black Sauce & Tea

Finally our Bak Ku Teh was served. Piping hot herbal soup with pork ribs, pork belly and pig liver, each ingredient cost RM8. Mushroom, vegetables and fried beancurb were "complimentary".
The herbal soup was very soothing, not overpowering with herbal and have a nice sweet after taste. Pork belly was excellence with the thick black sauce with chopped garlic. Pork liver were tender, you will need to quickly eat them up before they turned dry in the claypot.
The waiter topped up the Bak Ku Teh soup with a small bowl. The refill was not as clear and my lunch kaki find that the sweet aftertaste was not as strong, maybe because the refill soup is without the additional meat taste.

Bak Ku Teh
Rating: 4.5/5

We ordered a pot of Pig Trotter as well. The pig trotter was not as nice as their bak ku teh. The pig trotter skin was chewy with collagen but the vinegar was a bit sharp.

Pig Trotter
Rating: 3.5/5

What really draw us here was not so much of their bak ku teh but their chicken feet!! Their chicken feet was one of the BEST that we've tried. The chicken feet was marinated (saw some orange peel) and deep fried. It is then fried with their secret sauce and steamed before serving.
The chicken feet was slightly chewy and not soggy or watery type. The thick thick flavourful sauce cling to the chicken feet nicely and the raw garlic and chilli add oomp to the chicken feet. Yummy!

Chicken Feet
Rating: 4.75/5

Jia Jia Bah Kuet Teh 家家肉骨茶
38, Jalan Kemajuan, off Jalan Payamas, Tangkak, Johor
GPS: N2.272500, E102.544500
Hours: 7:00am to 2:00pm

Other Tangkat Delicacies

Tangkat Beef Noodles
If your stomach still have some space, you can try the Beef Noodles at Jalan Solok which had also start up a branch at Malacca.

Tangkat Hua Bee
There is a a traditional bakery Hua Bee 和美 just a few stalls next to the Beef Noodles which sells nice traditional snack.

Tangkat Map

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Malacca (Melaka) - Heritage Town

2012-07-08T01:10:00.001-07:00

Itinerary for our 3 days Malacca trip

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 1 Itinerary

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr)
2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh

3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe
4) Shopping and R&R
- Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza
- Pork Porridge
- Wok & Pan
6) Menara Taming Sari
7) Massage

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

1) Dim Sum at Ban Hong Xiang Tea House
2) Baba Charlie for Nonya Kuehs and snack
3) Sightseeing - Heritage Trial

4) Dessert at Nadeje

5) Dinner at Auntie Lee
6) Cockles at dirty lane
7) Supper at Pak Putra

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 3 Itinerary

1) Brunch at Chung Wah Chicken rice ball
2) Jonker 88

3) Stroll at Jonker Street

4) Shopping and Sightseeing
5) Dessert at Nadeje
6) Seafood at Muara Sungai Duyong

Top Activities in Malacca
- Foodie expedition
- Heritage Trail
- Shopping

Top 3 Melaka local food
- Chicken Rice Ball ->*my recommendation: Chung Wah (中华茶室)
- Baba Nyonya Food -> *my recommendation: Auntie Lee
- Satay Celup -> *tried Capitol Satay

Refer to the following map for My 3D2N Malacca Trail

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Bali - Day 4 Dinner at Jimbaran

2012-03-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Dinner at Jimbaran

It was a magnificent sunset dinner at Jimbaran!

Be sure to reach there before sunset as that is the main attraction of Jimbaran. We had lots of fun at the beach, snapping photos of the scenery, watching the kids playing at the beach, locals fishing and diners enjoying the sunset.

Sunset at Jimbaran

Orange Red Sunset

Instead of letting the driver recommend the restaurant, we did some homework and directed him to bring us to Lia Cafe. Lia Cafe was right at the end of the beach, the second last from the end.

Try to avoid getting someone to make reservation for you or let your driver decide your restaurant as they will usually take a cut and the menu you've will be more expensive tourist version.

We did tried asking for the local menu, although not so sure if we had it. The price was quite ok. We ordered the Package B at Rp. 260K (S$36) which includes crab, fish, prawn and clams and comes with drinks, salad and rice. It was kind of them to allow us to change one of the soft drink to coconut.

An amazing dining experience under the colourful skies and bright orange sunset with table and chairs on the beautiful beach and your toes wiggling in the sand.

There was a singing band going around the restaurant to offer their singing to dinners. Fantastic ambience for alfresco dinning at the beach.

Singing Band

Not sure why it took the restaurant a very long time after the sunset before dinner was served. Well, we didn't mind the delay too much as we were enjoying the ambience.

The package B was great except for the crab, which doesn't taste that fresh. The clams was simply yummy - charred fresh clams with spicy sambal chilli. The fish was fresh and we loved the nicely charred grilled flavourful taste. The prawns was quite nice as well.

Overall, the food was quite satisfying and the dinner memorable.

Package B

Colourful Evening Skies

Lia Cafe
Jl Pemelisan Agung
Jimbaran
Bali, Indonesia

Bali - Day 4

2012-03-19T10:22:00.001-07:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 4 Itinerary
1) Customised day tour to Ubud Village and Batur Volcano
- Ubud art villages
- Monkey Forest
- Ibu Oka (Lunch)
- Ubud Market and Ubud Palace
- Rice terrcaces at Tegallalang Village
- Batur Mount Volcano
- Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)
- Tirta Empul or Spring Water Temple
2) Dinner at Jimbaran

Breakfast at Nusa Dua Retreat restaurant, tranquil refreshing ambience overlooking nature and pool.

Restaurant

We ordered their Continental Breakfast - Salmon Scrambled Egg and Asia selection - Mee Goreng. There was only a small piece of salmon but their toast and jam was quite good. Their Mee Goreng was tasty, much better than the lunch at the rice terrace two days ago.

Breakfast

Art Villages
With the free 1-day car chartered with driver, we arranged for a customised tour to Ubud and Batur Volcano tour. The tour started with the Ubud art villages. You can stop over to appreciate the batik, painting and wood carving. If interested, you can also choose to visit some of the factory outlets like Polo.

Art Villages

Monkey Forest
Since its still early, we decided to drop by the monkey forest as suggested by the driver. Maybe we can catch a glimpse of another Charmian Chen, a Taiwanese gal whose dress was stripped off by monkeys in search of corns. And yes, the monkeys there were really aggressive and they will climb up on visitors' shoulder or snatch things from your pockets all in the name of food. Do be careful if you bring any food or intend to feed the monkeys.

Monkey Forest

Aggressive Monkeys!

Ibu Oka
Ibu Oka was famous for their Babi Guiling, Balinese roasted suckling pig. It is situated besides the Ubud Market, opposite to the former Ubud palace. There are a number of Japanese dining there, all came with a guidebook.

The place was quite crowded during lunch time, the waitress will not be free to find or usher you to a seat, just look around and quickly grab a free seat when available. Settings in Ibu Oka is rather simple and rustic Kampong style with long low wooden tables and mats for dinners to sit on. Besides a plate of pork skin, we ordered the set which has a little bit of everything - soup, chilli vegetables, pork skin, sausage and different parts of the pig with white rice in a rattan bowl.

We were rather disappointed with the pork skin, we expected it to be something similar to the Chinese roast suckling pig which is crispy and fragrant. The pork skin was very hard and challenging to the teeth, nothing near to crispy. Overall, the food was quite good, especially the fried pork and the succulent pork slices of certain premium part of the pig. There are mangosteens, prawn cracker and fried pork skin on the table, you can take the amount you want and the waitress will include that to your bill subsequently.

The price was quite ok, but its pricey in Bali standard. Well, I do enjoy Ibu Oka pork set in the rustic kampong setting.

Ibu Oka 1

Ubud Market and Ubud Palace
Believe Ubud market is a heaven for those who can bargain. A variety of stuffs are offered in the market - food, handicrafts, souvenir, textile and many more. After observing the other tourists bargain, we realised that the difference between the asking and final closing price is equivalent to 80% discount!

Ubud Market

Rice Terraces at Tegallalang Village
Since we had our lunch at Ibu Oka, we can only enjoy the rice terraces at Tegallalang Village along a road lined with various shop selling painted woodcarving and handicrafts. Rice Terrace at Tegallalang is much steeper than that in Pacung, beautiful sight with plentiful coconut trees.

Rice Terrace at Tegallalang

Batur Mount Volcano
Batur Volcano is still active. Was a bit disappointed that we can only catch a glimpse of the volcano at a very far distant after paying entrance fee. It was quite cloudy that day, we couldn't really see the tip of the volcano crater. There is a large lake besides the volcano. It was quite relaxing to just sit at the cafe to enjoy the scenic nature and cooling mountain weather.

On the way, we saw a number of people dressed in traditional balinese garment go in a procession to the temple, taking with them the holy water.

Batur Volcano and Lake

Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)
Yes, coffee Plantation again. We don't really mind stopping for another round of drinks since we need to get another packet of coffee Luwak.

Coffee Plantation

Tirta Empul or Spring Water Temple
As the name suggest, Tirta temple is built around the springs.

It was very crowded that day, wonder if there was some festival or sacred day. There were gathering outside the temple, where people sort their offerings, prepare for the ritual bath or just sit down to rest. The granny was very kind to offer us her porridge when we were curiously looking over what's in the pot.

Outside the Inner Courtyard

There is a special bathing pool in the inner courtyard where spring water bubble up through a layer of black sediment. According to Balinese legend, this spring water was created by God Indra when he fight with King Mayadenawa. The Balinese come to bathe in the sacred spring waters to cleanse and purify the body and soul. The pool was very crowded with people for their Balinese melukat, the special bath ritual.

Balinese Melukat

The inner courtyard was opened to public, you just Just need to put on the sarong provided if you were wearing something short. The Balinese came with various offering for prayers.

Offerings

Temple

Do cater some time for you to walk through a maze of stalls before you can reach the carpark.

Dinner at Jimbaran

It was a magnificent sunset dinner at Jimbaran! More details in the next post.

Bali - Day 3

2012-03-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 3 Itinerary
1) Kuta Beach
2) Transfer to Nusa Dua Villa
3) Romantic Dinner at Villa
4) Complimentary Massage at Hotel

Rest and relax day. Spend the morning strolling at Legian and the long stretch of nice sandy Kuta beach. Swiming is not allowed here, area is only for surfing.

Kuta Beach

Besides surf boards, the shops also offer beach chairs and umbrellas for rental. Nice to see various offerings the shop owners placed on the beach.

We bought a deal from Juz Today at S$499 for 3D2N Nusa Dua Retreat Boutique Villa Resort with complimentary 2 hour spa treatment, 12 hours car charter with driver and romantic dinner for 2.

It was quite nice of them to agree to pick us up from Best Western, Kuta, in replacement of airport transfer. The villa was quite remote, we would have been lost if we are to take taxi there ourselves. However, the driver was late for at least 30-40min!

On the way, saw those school kids riding motorbikes in their uniform again. According to the previous guide, students under 16 years are allowed ride motorbike to/from school as long as they are wearing their uniform.

Street View
Under-aged students riding motorbike
Cart Stall
Truck transporting chickens

Cold towels and welcome drinks are offered when we arrived. We waited for quite a well before they have time to service us. Service could have been better if they could help with the arrangement of the dinner and transport during check-in instead of asking as to contact the restaurant directly and chartered service person-in-charge Rucky ourselves. Well, at least they help us to call Rucky to call us back to arrange our car chartered for the next day. Else we will incur unnecessary phone charges.

Reception Area

The European style villa was really spacious and nice. The decor and furnishing seems lavish - marble floors, European style furnishings and large paintings. There are 3 large flat screen TVs, one in the living room, bedroom and bathroom.

Living Room

Nice cozy setting in the bedroom with a contemporary crystal chandeliers. The bed was larger than King size, very comfortable.

Bedroom

Bathroom was really spacious, a tub to enjoy a soak bath while watching programme from the mounted TV, a big shower room with big rainy shower head and small bottles of aqua water at the basin for you to rinse your mouth. Appreciated the privacy of the toilet at a corner behind the a tiled half-height wall.

Bathroom

There is a open kitchen cum dining room but you cannot do any cooking as there is no utensil nor gas, but only 2 cups, 2 set of cutlery and a microwave. There is a water dispenser providing drinkable hot and cool water.

Dining Room

The private pool was surrounded by large transparent windows. The pool was connected to the dining room, separated only by sliding door. It was a bit too deep if you just want a dip. It does not have filtering system thus there were some dirt and dust in the water, not perfect but it was still quite ok for a swim.

Private Pool

The roof top open air deck was my favourite! You can relax in the comfort of the huge nice sheltered day bed and enjoy the slight breeze, beautiful dusk and starry night skies. The villas are actually very near to each other, we were lucky that we can still enjoy some privacy there as there isn't much occupants then.

Sun Deck

Relax on Day Bed

There is complimentary tea break daily from 3-5pm. The serving staff will bring some pastries and help to prepare tea at the villa. Nothing much but nice gesture from the villa.

Complimentary Tea Break

Dinner
Romantic dinner at the roof deck. Was a bit disappointed that the dinner was not cooked in the villa but cooked at the restaurant kitchen and deliver to the villa. They set all the 3 course on the table, including the dessert which contains ice cream. We have to take the dessert down to store in the fridge in order not to have melted ice cream.

Quiet private settings at the roof deck with nice beautiful sunset at the backdrop and occasional cooling breeze. Food was quite nice as well.

We each pick a different starter to try - Cold Kway Teow, King Prawns with Mango. Cold Kway Teow was so-so, a rather unsuccessful asian-western fusion. It has neither the charred fried fragrant of typical asian fried dishes nor the light refreshing or creamy flavour of western cold dish.

Cold Kway Teow
Raing: 3/5

Their King Prawns with Mango was quite nice. Green salad with fresh prawn and sweet mango which complement the sauce which has a tinge of sourness.

King Prawn with Mango
Rating: 3.75/4

Main course was pan-fried fish, which is quite nice as well. The mash and fish were quite nice, the diluted sauce was still quite ok.

Pan Fried Fish
Rating: 3.75/5

Dessert - panna cotta with raspberry ice cream with bread croutons. The slightly sour raspberry ice cream moderated the milky rich panna cotta.

Panna Cotta with Raspberry Ice Cream
Rating: 3.5/5

With the beautiful scenery and tranquil setting, somehow the food just seems to taste much better.

Everything was nice until the sky starts to turn dark. We had difficulty getting the lights on the roof deck. We wasted quite a while waiting for their technician to try to get it fixed, seeing a few technicians walking in and out of the villa, up and down the roof deck. After an hour of hassle, we lost our patience and demand for a change of villa.

They shifted us to the villa next door. Although the villa should be quite similar, however, just find that I still like the previous villa more.

Bali - Day 2 Dinner - La Lucciola

2012-03-15T06:46:00.002-07:00

Fine dining at La Lucciola @ Seminyak

It took our guide some time before he found his way to La Lucciola, which is at the edge of the beach. Initially, he was hopping that we can change to some good and more accessible restaurant like The Living room, Potato Head or Ku De Ta, but I prefer to stick to La Lucciola due as the reviews are good (Ranked #8 of 124 restaurants in Seminyak).

The carpark of the restaurant was quite dark. There is security check before entering the restaurant, bags will be checked. Entrance to the restaurant was dimly but romantically lighted.

La Lucciola Entrance

The waitress who are wearing Balinese uniform usher us to the bar for a cocktail while waiting for the dining table to be set up. Nice setting, lovely ambience to enjoy a cocktail while admiring the La Lucciola beach with night lightings. La Lucciola is at the West, believe this will be a great place to sit back and relax to enjoy a fantastic sunset.

The restaurant is in an enormous thatch roofed 2-storey building. The view from the 2nd storey was nicer.

Restaurant Settings

We ordered their non-alcoholic cocktail - Mango & Tangerine Granita and Lychee & Lime Granita. Granita a semi frozen cocktail which originate from Sicily. The Lychee & Lime was very refreshing with nice lychee fragrance. Each Granita cost Rp. 35K (S$4.8)

Granita Cocktail

Nice fresh flowers were used to decorate the restaurant, even the toilet.

Their pasta was highly recommended on the Internet. We ordered their "House Made Potato Gnocchi", which come with field mushrooms, spinach, creamed leeks with white truffle oil. Rp. 139K (S$19)
Gnocchi are some soft Italian dumplings made from flour, egg, cheese, potatoes. The leek cream sauce was thick creamy yet light. The truffle oil is fragrant and not overpowering. This is definitely the best pasta we had so far, it is a must-try!

House Made Potato Gnocchi
Rating: 4.75/5

Line Caught Snapper, served with Prawns and Peppers in Agrodolce and Zucchini Blossoms. Rp. 195K (S$27). Agrodolce - agro (sour) dolce (sweet), it refer to sweet and sour sauce used in French cuisine. The fish is slightly overcook, but its still quite nice with the sauce. Its the first time we tasted fried Zucchini Blossoms, it was very crispy and nice. Would have took more time to savour it if we had known that its quite an uncommon delicacy.

There is transport service available at the restaurant carpark. Even though the rate was clearly stated on the price list, the driver demand for an extra Rp. 10K citing the reason that our Kuta destination is one-way traffic and crowded. We gave in since its not worth to venture through the dark carpark and main road to get a taxi for just S$1.5.

La Lucciola
Jl. Kayu Aya, Seminyak, Bali 80361, Indonesia
Phone +62 361 730 838

Bali - Day 2 Part D

2012-03-15T06:45:00.002-07:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 2 Itinerary
1) Customised day tour to Bedugul and Tanah Lot
- Taman Ayun Temple
- Rice Terrace at Pacung (Lunch)
- Bedugul (Bratan Lake) - Ulundanu Temple
- Bali Botanical Garden
- Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)
- Sunset at Tanah Lot Temple
2) Fine Dining at Semiyak
3) Massage at Kuta

Before reaching the temple, you will passed by a big busy market selling lots stuff and food. Do try out their coconut and grilled corn which were cheap and nice.You will need to walk some distance before reaching the temple gate which opens to the sea.

Tanah Lot Market and Temple Gate

Tanah Lot Temple was built in 16th century by a Javanese priest named Danghyang Nirartha. The Tanah Lot temple is on a big rock a few metres away from the land. During high tide, it will be surrounded by seawaters. We were lucky to reach there during low tide such that we can walk across the muddy land to the base of the temple.

Tanah Lot Temple

The temple is opened only to Balinese Hindus who are registered in this area, it is prohibited to tourists or even Balinese Hindus who are not registered in this area. However, a Hindu ritual/blessing is offered to the public at the base of the temple.

A long queue was formed at the bottom of the temple, consisting of few locals and mostly tourists. "Worshippers" can cleanse their hands and face and have a sip of the water flowing out of a bamboo pipe as a symbolic of purification. The temple priest will then sprinkled holy water, pressed some grains rice on the forehead and put a flower behind the left ear. There was a basket for donations by those who had received the blessing.

Tanah Lot is situated in the west and is a great spot for sunset. At dusk, the beautiful shades in the sky and bright orange rays cast on the waters was fantastic. There is a stretch of cafes opposite the temple which offer a good view, be prepared to pay a little more for the view. You can also choose to grab a spot at the side of the stairs or the patch of green at the end of cafes to enjoy the beautiful sunset.

Sea view at the back of the temple

Tanah Lot before sunset

Sunset at Tanah Lot

Bali - Day 2 Part C

2012-03-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 2 Itinerary
1) Customised day tour to Bedugul and Tanah Lot
- Taman Ayun Temple
- Rice Terrace at Pacung (Lunch)
- Bedugul (Bratan Lake) - Ulundanu Temple
- Bali Botanical Garden
- Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)
- Sunset at Tanah Lot Temple
2) Fine Dining at Semiyak
3) Massage at Kuta

Bali Botanic Garden
Bali Botanical Garden also known as Kebun Raya Eka Karya is around 150 hectars. The Botanical Garden is on the highland so it will be quite cooling even if it doesn't rain. As it was raining, we only visited the sheltered areas to see cactus and orchid collection.
Unless you really love gardens and appreciate plants/nature, there is really nothing much to see there.

Cactus collection.

Cactus

Cactus and Orchid

Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)

We stopped over at a Coffee Plantation for the famous Kopi Luwat. Yes, the "Cat Shit" coffee.

It was raining and a bit dark, most of the servicing staffs was taking a rest while our guide still do his best to explain to us the coffee Luwat and the making process.

Taking Shelter at Coffee Drinking Hut

Kopi Luwat or civet coffee or cat shit coffee is one of the world's most expensive coffee. The civet will pick the best coffee berries and eat them. They can only digest the fleshly pulp while the beans are not digested and being pass out. While its in the civet stomach, there were some enzymes and some reaction such that the coffee bean yield an aromatic and less bitter coffee.

The beans were separated from the defecation, thoroughly washed and sun dried at less two times. It was then hulled and roasted into coffee bean and pounded into coffee powder.

The guide let us taste the coffee berry, there isn't much pulp and its not too sweet. The "seed" of the berry is the coffee bean.

(clockwise from bottom)
1.coffee berries that civet eat 2.Civet Defecation
3.Coffee bean separated from the pooh 4.thoroughly washed and roasted coffee bean

Coffee Roasting

The coffee plantation offered free beverages - Coffee Ginseng, Ginger Tea, Bali Coffee, Lemon Grass Tea and Pure Bali Cocoa. The bali coffee and ginger tea was quite nice.
Kopi luwat is available for Rp. 50K (S$7+) a cup. Bali style of drinking does not use any filter, but just stirred and let the coffee powder to settle before you drink.

The coffee is good enough to drink without sugar. It was fragrant, quite rich and smooth and is not bitter without sugar. Not really a coffee lover, doesn't really know how to appreciate this coffee which cost around S$2 per sip.

Bali - Day 2 Part B

2012-03-05T09:18:00.001-08:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 2 Itinerary
1) Customised day tour to Bedugul and Tanah Lot
- Taman Ayun Temple
- Rice Terrace at Pacung (Lunch)
- Bedugul (Bratan Lake) - Ulundanu Temple
- Bali Botanical Garden
- Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)
- Sunset at Tanah Lot Temple
2) Fine Dining at Semiyak
3) Massage at Kuta

Pacung Rice Terrace
We passed by a number of rice fields at Pacung. The farmers are harvesting and cutting off the remaining rice stems to sell to cow farmers as feed.

Harvesting and clearing rice stems

Workers carrying packed rice stems to sell as cow-feed

Workers cutting rice stems

Rice Planting

We stopped over at a restaurant - Labhagga Pachung for lunch and to enjoy the nice Pacung rice terrace scenery. Environment was good but food was really so-so. The price of a buffet is Rp.84K (S$16), which is considered quite expensive in Bali.

But it was quite relaxing to just sit back to enjoy the rice terrace scenery and enjoy the cool weather up in the mountains.

Bedugul (Bratan Lake) - Ulundanu Temple

It started to rain when we reach Bedugul (Bratan Lake). A lot of tourists and locals are seeking shelter at the temple hall. Bratan lake, the second largest lake in Bali, is the main source of irrigation for the rice fields in the surrounding region. There are also some pedal/row/speed boat for rental to tour around the lake.

Praying Ritual/ Offering/ Shelter from the rain/ Boats for Rental

Ulundanu Temple, the beautiful temple on the 50K Rupiah bank note, is here at Bratan Lake. Ulun means head or power, Danu means lake. This temple is dedicated to the Gods of lakes and rivers (Danu Goddess).

Ulundanu Temple

The temple gate to inner courtyard is closed. We can only take a glimpse of the inner courtyard from the back.

The three seats at the throne is to worship the Hindu Trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Siva representing creation, maintenance and destruction.

Bali - Day 2

2012-03-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 2 Itinerary
1) Customised day tour to Bedugul and Tanah Lot
- Taman Ayun Temple
- Rice Terrace at Pacung (Lunch)
- Bedugul (Bratan Lake) - Ulundanu Temple
- Bali Botanical Garden
- Coffee Plantation (Bali Oka Agriculture)
- Sunset at Tanah Lot Temple
2) Fine Dining at Semiyak
3) Massage at Kuta

As usual, we did not cater much time for breakfast. But we were pleasantly surprised with the porridge and bee hoon goreng offered at Best Western Kuta Beach. More information at Bali Day 2 Breakfast.

Breakfast - Porridge

We engaged a driver cum guide for a full day tour to Bedugul and Tanah Lot at a booth along Kuta at Rp. 400k. We were very lucky to have Loys (luisbguard@yahoo.com) to be our guide as he is quite knowledgeable and is able to give us a glimpse of Balinese culture and customs.

Bali Tour Operator

Taman Ayun Temple
Old state temple in Mengwi, built by Mengwi Kingdom in 1634 and is currently opened to public.

Taman Ayun Temple

The Hindus believe that there is always good (dharma) and bad spirit (adharma), just like Chinese Yin & Yang, there is always a need to balance. That's the reason why the cloth that cover the temple guardians consist of contrasting black and white. There are also umbrellas to provide shelter to the temple guardians.

Temple Guardian

The temple pavement are lined with many tall decorative bamboo poles, similar to those we saw outside of houses on our way to the temple. They are called penjor, which are erected outside of Hindus house to celebrate Galungan, symbolising the dominance of good spirit over bad spirit. They are usually decorated with coconut, rice steams, palm leaves, yellow coconut leaves. There is a small "cage" at the bamboo pole where offerings can be placed. The offerings are placed in a leaf container which usually consists of flowers, food and incense.

Elaborated Penjor at Temple

According to our guide, temple usually consists of 3 courtyards - outer, middle and inner. The outer courtyard is a wide area opened to all, including the bad spirit. In order to keep the bad spirits from entering the middle and inner courtyard, there will be performance and cock-fighting to keep the bad spirit busy and entertained in the outer courtyard. The rooster's claw are fitted with sharp metal claw sometimes so that there will be bloodshed to attract the bad spirit.

Musical Instrument and Cock-fighting area (under renovation)

There is a open gate (no doors) to welcome both male and female to the middle courtyard, except female who are having their period as they believed that bad spirit are attracted to blood. There is a KulKul, big wooden Balinese bell on a high kulkul pavilion to indicate time for various ceremony and gathering.

Outer to Middle Courtyard and KulKul

There is also a kitchen area to prepare food offerings to the God and also meals for the religious workers. There were around 15 person in the kitchen area busy preparing the food offering - pressing white rice to a certain shape, folding meat containers using banana leaves, grinding coconut, frying fish sticks, grilling satay and arranging the food nicely before its offered in the temple.

Kitchen in Temple

The food were then being carried into the inner courtyard to be offered to the God. The lady was carrying a tray of cooked food on her head while the guy was carrying nicely decorated raw meat.

Carrying cooked food offerings to temple

Beautifully decorated sticks of raw meat offering

The inner and middle courtyard is separated by a close gate and moat. Doors at the gates are opened only for believers and they have some simple cleansing ritual before entering the inner temple.

Gates to inner Courtyard
Cleansing Ritual

For this temple, outsiders can only glimpse into the inner courtyard. You can see a lot of Meru, Balinese Hindu multi-tiered shrines, which resemble the Chinese pagoda. The nice looking thatched roof of Meru were made with palm tree fiber and the number of tiers is supposed to be odd numbers, usually starting with 1 tier and towering up to 3, 5, 7, 9 and finally 11th tier. As this temple was built by the royalties, to signify its prestige over the others, its Meru started off with a 2-tiered shrine.

Thanks to the guide, else this temple visit might not be as interesting.

Bali - Day 2 - Breakfast at Best Western

2012-03-04T05:03:00.000-08:00

The dining area was quite small and it was very crowded during breakfast hours.

Didn't expect much for the breakfast, but was pleasantly surprised by the simple yet tasty porridge and fried bee hoon.

The porridge/cooked rice was separated from the broth. You can decide the thickness of your porridge by adjusting the ratio of porridge and broth. The tasty broth is similar to the soup base of Mee Soto, loved it with some shredded chicken, shallots and lots of green onions and parsley.

Porridge

As part of an international breakfast buffet, they do have a small selection of bread and pastry. Sunny side up and omelette were available as well, order early as it will be quite a wait.

Western Selection

Salad, cereals were available as well. We preferred their local asian selection, in particular their beef sausages and fried bee hoon.

Asian Selection

The beef sausage and fried bee-hoon on the first day was really yummy. Simple but fragrant beef sausages and nice local Malay delicacy Bee-Hoon Goreng.

Beef Sausage & Fried Bee Hoon

However, the standard wasn't consistent, the Mee Goreng and sausage on the next day somehow just can't match what we had the first day. Luckily the porridge was still as nice.

Bali - Day 1 Dinner - Un's Restaurant

2012-03-03T23:18:00.002-08:00

It was quite lucky for us to chance upon Un's Restaurant along Jalan Pantai Kuta, one of the highly recommended restaurant on the Internet (Ranked #2 restaurant in Kuta in Tripadvisor).

Un's Restaurant

Un's open air dining area offered a nice ambience for a romantic candlelight dinner under frangipani trees. The Balinese settings remind us that we are in Bali while we were enjoying nice European food.

Romantic Dining Area

Upon arrival, we were offered cold towels and a complimentary shot of Un's frozen Margarita each, thoughtful acts to cool off the heat in the warm weather. Their margarita was exceptional and it successfully excite our taste palate that we decided to order another glass. Very unlike us who usually prefer to go for variety.

Complimentary Un's Frozen Margarita

Un's Frozen Margarita
Rating: 4.5/5

Amuse-bouche was being offered, chicken nugget with 3 different sauces - mustard, spinach, tomato, simple and nice.

Complimentary Chicken Nugget
Rating: 3.75/5

We ordered their recommended main courses - Lamb Shank and Tuna Dill Medallions.

Lamb Shank - Oven roasted lamb shank with cabbage and mashed potatoes. The lamb is nicely roasted, tender and not so sticky. The cabbage had absorb the flavourful gravy and the slightly baked creamy mashed potato contrast with the slight roasting stickiness of the lamb. A pity that there isn't much bone marrow from the shank.

Lamb Shank
Rating: 4/5

Tuna Dill Medallions - sashimi grade tuna medallions on a creamy dill sauce, served with jasmine rice and garden salad. The restaurant recommended medium for the Tuna, but it will be better if it was medium rare to have the outside slightly seared and leaving the middle pretty raw to preserve its tenderness. The creamy dill sauce was good, the wiry, thread-like dill week adds a distinctive taste to the creamy sauce.

Tuna Dill Medallions
Rating: 4/5

Total cost for the meal was around 290K IDR (SGD$40). Food is a bit pricer than other local restaurants along the street, but its a steal if you compare with what you get in Singapore. Good food, nice ambience with friendly service.

Afternote - realised that the listed price on the internet menu was almost half of what was offered to us at the restaurant. Understand that there are usually different menu for tourist and locals, but didn't realise that it apply for mid-class restaurant like Un's as well. For those who know Malay, try to converse in their local language and ask for local price or menu for the locals, maybe you can get much better deals. Nonetheless, the dinner is still worth it even with the tourist price.

UN'S Paradise Restaurant Kuta
Jalan Pantai Kuta
Reference Website: Un's Restaurant (Bali Kuta)

Bali - Day 1

2012-03-03T09:59:00.002-08:00

Free and Easy Bali - Day 1 Itinerary
1) Arrive Bali around 7pm
2) Dinner
3) Massage
4) Night stroll at Kuta Beach

We bought Air Asia tickets to Bali during promotion, each return ticket cost around S$115.
As a budget airline, their landing area is a small distance from the arrival hall and there is no linkway connecting the plane to the arrival hall. Designated air asia coach will bring you to the arrival hall in less than 2 min.

A nice Balinese Hindu style gate is there to welcome us at the arrival terminal. Clearance was quite efficient and fast.

Bali Arrival Hall

You can simply get a taxi at the Taxi Service counter just outside the arrival hall, rates are fixed and you pay at the counter before the driver bring you to his taxi. It cost 50,000 Rupiahs (IDR) from Bali international airport to Kuta area, it is only 15 - 20 minutes drive.

Taxi Service Counter

Best Western Kuta Beach is along the same stretch of beach as Hard Rock Cafe Hotel. Didn't expected that the hotel to be in a small dark alley, but its only less than 1 minute walk from the main road.

Best Western Kuta Beach

Although a bit small, the hotel is very new and clean. A small cozy standard room cost around S$85 per night. Welcome drinks and snacks are provided at Triple S Bar.

Best Western Kuta Beach

Welcome Drink and Snack

There is a small pool at the roof top which look nice in pictures and cater to those who desperately want a dip in the nice sunny weather.

Rooftop Pool

The beach is conveniently located across the one-way main road, just 50 meters away from the hotel. The beach is for surfers and swimming is prohibited due to safety reasons. The stretch of beach is relatively less crowded, besides surfers, there are a number of people enjoying suntan and stroll along the beach. You can also enjoy a nice walk at night under the starry skies and soft sand at your feet.

Kuta Beach at Night

While we were looking for a day trip, we got tips from a local tour sales on where to have our dinner. Just before we reached the mentioned restaurant along Jalan Pantai Kuta, we chanced upon a sign showing Un's, which is highly recommended restaurant on the Internet.

It was a wise decision to dine in Un's Restaurant - good food, nice ambience with friendly service. More information in the next post - Bali Day 1 Dinner.

Un's Restaurant

Bali is famous for their happening nightlife as well - bars, pubs with live bands, DJs and dancers. You can see couples and groups all dressed up in the middle of the night, getting ready to party the night away!

Kuta Night Life

If that doesn't attracts you, you can also choose to have a quiet walk at the beach, chilled out at ice cream parlour or just sit back and enjoy a relaxing Balinese massage.

There are many shops offering massage service, we chose one which looks more established and clean. It's definitely worthwhile to pay a little bit more to have some assurance for a comfortable environment, clean massage oil and skillful massage service.

Massage Area

Massage is very cheap, a 60 minute foot massage cost Rp. 65K (S$9) while a 60 min Balinese body massage cost only Rp. 95K (S$13). Foot massage was good, but would not recommend female for body massage here as there is not much privacy in the skimpy curtain divided "cubicle".

Smart Massage

Gastronomical Travel

Malacca Day 3c - Muara Sungai Duyong

Malacca Day 3b - Jonker Stroll

Malacca Day 3a - Food Trail at Jonker Street

Malacca Day 2e - Supper at Dirty Lane and Pak Putra

Malacca Day 2d - Aunty Lee Nonya Restaurant

Malacca Day 2c - Nadeje Patisserie Cafe

Malacca Day 2b - Malacca Dutch Heritage Trail

Malacca Day 2 - Dim Sum, Baba Charlie

Malacca - Good Food To Try

Malacca Day 1c - Dinner and Hotel

Malacca Day 1b - Family Heritage Cafe

Malacca Day 1a - Tangkat

Malacca (Melaka) - Heritage Town

Itinerary for our 3 days Malacca trip

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 1 Itinerary

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr) 2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh 3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe 4) Shopping and R&R - Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall 5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza - Pork Porridge - Wok & Pan 6) Menara Taming Sari 7) Massage

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 2 Itinerary

Bali - Day 4 Dinner at Jimbaran

Bali - Day 4

Bali - Day 3

Bali - Day 2 Dinner - La Lucciola

Bali - Day 2 Part D

Bali - Day 2 Part C

Bali - Day 2 Part B

Bali - Day 2

Bali - Day 2 - Breakfast at Best Western

Bali - Day 1 Dinner - Un's Restaurant

Bali - Day 1

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr)
2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh

3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe
4) Shopping and R&R
- Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza
- Pork Porridge
- Wok & Pan
6) Menara Taming Sari
7) Massage