Melaka food adventure

I was determined to cross off as many of the local foods as I could today so I went on a little walking tour of my own...

Capitol Satay serves the local specialty called 'satay celup' where you take sticks with various meats, fish and vegetables and cook them in a pot of peanut satay sauce. I'd seen a very similar set-up multiple times in Kuala Lumpur where the ingredients are cooked in water and then sauce is added but this kills two birds with one stone. The restaurant opens at 4pm and gets extremely busy, so to avoid the queues I got there five minutes before opening and they were already manically trying to set up the tables while customers (including me) rushed to get a seat. I didn't really know what I was doing but I went up to the self-service fridge (see the extra photo) and picked out items which I recognised. None of them had labels so I didn't want to risk eating something I'd regret. The sauce was very tasty and the whole experience was fun but it's not the most exciting food. I had 13 sticks and a couple of plates of crispy wontons (also to dip in the sauce) and it all came to RM 21 (£3.60). By the time I left at 4.30pm there was already a fairly big queue outside. It must be crazy on Friday and Saturday nights!

Next up was a family-run business making 'Nyonya chang', a glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in banana leaf. A group of women were making them as I went in and mine was still warm. I took a bite expecting it to be filled with something sweet (I hadn't read the description properly and the presentation makes it look like similar sweet versions) but it was actually filled with highly-seasoned pork, mushroom and candied winter melon. It probably would've been great if I'd known what to expect.

Then I bought boxes of two types of Portuguese pineapple tarts (from the Portuguese settlers in Melaka): the original version is round, open and made with margarine (see the extra photo of a lady brushing trays of them); the other is a softer pastry roll made with butter and filled with the pineapple jam. I prefer the butter ones.

After a 15 minute walk, I finally found the 'dessert house' which had evaded me yesterday and had their version of cendol topped with iced durian. It was refreshing and very tasty but I think I prefer the two things separately. I've included a nice photo of a durian stall to show my love of the king of fruits. 


A few hours later I had a cheeky roti canai to finish off a day of eating!