KL Trip – part 4 (Melaka Chicken Rice Ball)

Every place has its own delicacies and so does Melaka, with the chicken rice ball, cendol, satay celup, popiah, and other Nyonya foods. I think travel agents should include some culinary tour into their travel deals for destination like Melaka.

But, I don’t have interest in trying those delicacies, except the Hainanese chicken rice ball from Chung Wah kopitiam. I wanted to try it so badly. But, when I went there with boyfriend on last April, the stall (both Hoe Kee and Chung Wah) was already closed. Left the infamous Famosa Chicken Rice Ball. *disappointed*

So on last June, we decided to go down Melaka earlier abit so we can have lunch at Chung Wah kopitiam. After exploring Melaka zoo for more than 1 hour, we headed down to Melaka town.

It was almost 3pm when we arrived and immediately located the Chung Wah kopitiam at the corner of Jonker Walk (Jonker street), opposite OCBC bank.

Chung Wah is well known for the chicken rice ball and the crowd (long queue). Luckily we arrived after lunch hour. It was full house, but there was less people coming in already. And they closed before 5pm.

One person = one plate = 5 pieces of rice ball. I managed to finish all. Yay to me!

Boyfriend and my brother still felt hungry so we ordered another 10 rice ball for both.

The hainanese chicken wasn’t cooked 100% but 90%, or so I heard. It is yummylicious, but not something oh-so-wowing though.

Here’s the man behind the yummilicious and famous chicken rice ball.

One more thing that hasn’t fulfilled yet is to visit the Baba Nyonya museum. Mum has been wanting to pay a visit ever since she watched the Singapore-Malaysia drama called The Little Nyonya. -__-” We did go there on last June, but the museum was closed already – it was almost 5pm.

Never mind, there will be next time.

KL Trip – part 3 (Melaka Zoo)

My first visit to Melaka, the historical town in Malaysia, was on 2002. It was a study tour with high school mates including Penang, KL and Melaka. The only thing that I remember from Melaka was the red building, the huge ship museum and that it was a boring small town.

The mindset changed when I had my second trip to Melaka on early 2008 with family. We took the river cruise, went to the red building ‘Stadhuys‘ and other historical monuments, and took HOHO – Hop On Hop Off bus to go around Melaka town. It was Chinese New Year, bad timing to visit Melaka, cause shops at Jonker Street a.k.a Jonker Walk and the Chinese restaurants were closed.

But, the second trip changed my impression. Melaka turn out to be a very interesting town and 2 days 1 night is definitely not enough if one really wants to explore the town – including foods. For a great selection of places to stay with discount prices visit Melaka Hotels for more info.

The third trip was on last April, when I strolled down Jonker Walk/Jonker Street with boyfriend. The architecture of the old shops and buildings along Jonker Walk was really amazing. The down side of this trip was, the chicken rice ball from Chung Wah was closed already, cause by the time we arrived it was 6pm.

The fourth trip was on last June, with family and boyfriend. Highlight of the trip was to eat the famous hainanese chicken rice ball from Chung Wah kopitiam. Before that, we visited Melaka Zoo first. It is said to be the 2nd largest zoo in Malaysia after zoo negara (correct me if I’m wrong), so we thought it should be worth visited. And yes, it even turn up to be better than zoo negara cause it has more trees so visitors can hide from the bright sunny sun. Another thing, the zoo was quite clean and not smelly, except at some certain places.

I can’t help but to think of Faber Castell watercolor pencils – where the front part of the packaging is a painting of two parrots.

First time ever seeing Tapir.

Look, Ma! It’s Rafiki from Lion King the Disney movie! Erm, I mean, a baboon.

Welcome to ‘my family’ kingdom! I’m a shio tiger, that’s why. The weather was quite hot and I think it affected them.

But this tiger was quite active, kept walking forth and back.

The tigers were sleeping at the back, can’t really see them.

The ugly crocodile.

Don’t know what is this called. The right hand side looked young and healthy. The left hand side looked aging and oh so skinny, the two-legs-at-the-back couldn’t even stand straight. Sigh.

The deer family.

The cutie primate. A visitor threw some food to him and he shared it with his mate. So sweet.

Giraffes and us. Although boyfriend doesn’t like to take picture but his camwhoring skill is still as good as ever.

Another pic.

The handsome/beautiful bird.

Hello, ostrich!

Bottom line, the Melaka Zoo is large enough with loads of animals from various kingdoms. Kids should be brought there so they can have a real life lesson, instead of sitting in the classroom and learn from textbook’s pictures.

Two hours in Melaka town

Ah yes, boyfriend and I went down to Melaka/Malacca on yesterday afternoon with the help of GPS from Nokie E71, our very own road-guide. Thanks G we didn’t get lost though we went to a wrong direction once.

It was an extremely short trip. We started the journey at 4.30pm and arrived Melaka town, Jonker Walk to be exact, at 6pm. Spend about two and half hours there before we headed home at 8.30pm. Return toll ticket was around RM25.

We walked through the long lane of Jonker Walk, also known as Jonker street or Jalan Hang Jebat, an open air night market that looks like Petaling Street (read: Chinatown in KL) but is more exciting cause of the old buildings along the lane. My first time there as Jonker Walk didn’t open when I went to Melaka on Chinese New Year Eve 2008.

Next, we walked to Stadhuys, the reddish building, which is located at the opposite side of Jonker Walk. A quick sightseeing before we headed off for dinner at some dimsum restaurant, that we came across after driving through a confusing road of Melaka town. Wanting to go to Dataran Pahlawan shopping complex but couldn’t find the parking lot. Besides, it was so wtf if we went to shopping complex there since Melaka is known as a historical town instead of a shopping town. Enough of shopping complex, we can find a bigger one in KL.

I was craving for the chicken rice ball but the famous Chung Wah kopitiam was closed already and so did Hoe Kee chicken rice ball. Left only Famosa chicken rice ball which (people said) is expensive and doesn’t taste nice. You could see the word disappointment being stamped on my forehead. What is going to Melaka mean if I don’t get to eat the very famous chicken rice ball? Both restaurants didn’t open too during my 2008 CNY trip. I thought I would be able to try it this time, but no, they didn’t open for dinner. Now you can see the word disappointment falls onto my head and breaks me into pieces.

Spot a man that was camwhoring with his phone camera.

I don’t mind not having the chance to eat the ’satay celup’ and ‘cendol’ cause all I want is chicken rice ball! You know, the feeling of wanting to try something (that everyone has been talking about) so much but after several attempt you still not able to try it. It s*cks big time. But never mind, I’m in the acceptance stage now which means I have somewhat overcame the disappointment and able to accept it now.

Put aside that chicken-rice-ball disappointment, it was a great trip. A quick escape from a busy city to a historical city with the love one is priceless. Really.