This was an impromptu or semi-impromptu short trip to Melaka with Hua. It started with me having post holiday syndrome and then saw pictures of chicken rice in instagram. Yep, instagram is evil. It makes my mind go crazy. It’s like showing pictures of sweets to a drooling kid but don’t give him/her the real thing. ARGH…
Anyway, to stop myself from going crazy, I whatsapp Hua and jio her to go Melaka with me.
We bought the coach from Grassland Express & Tours Pte Ltd to Melaka and coach from Konsortium Express & Tours Pte Ltd to return to Singapore. Don’t ask why I didn’t book the return ticket from Grassland, otherwise I might get angsty again.
So on that Saturday, we took the coach from Boon Lay Shopping Centre at 8am.
We didn’t take pictures of the coach because we were so sleepy. It’s not our habit to wake up that early on weekends.
The coach was really slow. We only reached Yong Peng after 2.5 hours (without any traffic jam). During the Yong Peng stop, Hua and I went to get Ramly burger.
This is probably the most expensive and unique Ramly burger (RM5.90) ever. Not only the egg is cooked separately from the patty, there’s even cabbage in it. Luckily it didn’t taste too bad.
We finally reached Melaka at 1pm. That’s a long 5 hours ride on the coach. Or I should say slow coach. Previously, I took a Malaysia coach from Larkin, and it only took less than 3 hours to reach Melaka.
Our hotel in Melaka is Hatten Hotel. The check-in process was quick and we were given a deluxe room in level 16 (highest room is level 21). The hotel is very new and clean. Staff were all very friendly and helpful. For a moment I thought I was in Thailand, the land of smiles~
I took this photo from the room door. There’s a sofa area with a TV on the wall.
Next to the door is the mini bar area.
That’s our King bed with another TV mounted on the wall.
Toilet is pretty spacious and clean, but without bathtub.
We had partial sea view from our hotel room. =)
The weather was hot and so we were more than happy to have a good shower before we head out for our chicken rice.
Hatten hotel is conveniently located just next to the shopping malls, and 5-10 mins walking distance to the Jonker street.
Our first stop was to the Chung Wah Chicken Rice shop which is next to the Hard Rock Cafe and facing the San Shu Gong shop. If you can’t locate the shop, just look for the long queue which sometimes stretches to the Hard Rock Cafe.
We queued for about 20 mins before getting a table. The standard (minimum) set for 2 pax is half a Hainanese Chicken and 10 rice balls.
That’s the half chicken and my plate of 5 rice balls.
I will never forget the taste of Chung Wah’s chicken. The meat is so tender, even the breast meat is moist. Minimal fats under the yummilicious chicken skin. And the gravy is to die for.
=b………
(For readers who can’t under the emoticon above, obviously you are too young. LOL~)
The small firmly rolled chicken rice balls are the best~ These fish ball looking rice taste good on its own, but best when dipped in the chicken gravy and chilli sauce. Yep, the chilli sauce, spicy but addictive. If you can’t take spicy food, shame on you! LOL~ Just kidding…
It’s just you missing out one enjoyment in life. =P
I asked for lime juice, but the drinks uncle said that they no longer sell that because it’s too much work and they have too many customers to cope. So they only have homemade herbal tea or barley. Even coffee and tea has ran out.
Wow~ Chung Wah is really that popular!
In my previous trip to Melaka, I tried Famosa chicken rice. Personally, I think Chung Wah is way better in terms of the texture of the chicken and fluffiness of the rice balls.
After our very satisfying meal in Chung Wah, we head over to the Jonker street to start our shopping.
As we passed by San Shu Gong, we bought a fish-shaped kaya pancake to share. That’s dessert, I guess. =)
Walking down Jonker street, we were attracted by these Mak Mak shops that sell all the vintage toys~ From paper dolls, to marbles, to tikam tikam, to gasing. These toys brought back so much childhood memories! I remember how I used to get coins from my parents and run to the shop to get snacks and try my luck at the tikam tikam. Sometimes I get to win a sweet, but most of the time it’s “Thank you for playing”. LOL~
This is way better than those iPad games which parents give to their children nowadays. *roll eyes*
Love the vintage car models and cute soft toys! I bought a few mini legos, cheap tank tops and freshly baked pastries from Jonker street.
We walked one round and back to San Shu Gong to grab all the goodies and coffee powders before heading back to our hotel. Needa bathe and recharge before we return for the street food at night!
After resting, we head up to the hotel’s rooftop bar to get our welcome drink.
The rooftop bar is a nice place to chill out. It has a clear view of the Melaka city.
After the drink, we went back to Jonker street for the street food. The stalls will only be set up after 6pm, and the whole street will be so packed that it’s a challenge to walk through. I really wonder how some parents can bring their little kids there and attempt to push the prams. Maybe the prams are acting as a bulldozer?
Later that night, we went to Capitol Satay Celup for lok lok. I told Hua that I will not go home if I didn’t eat that. LOL~
The queue at 10.30pm was horrible. We waited for an hour before we finally got in. The satay sauce was good and the staff kept helping us stir it to prevent it from burning on the bottom of the pot. My favourite item is the fried youtiao which will absorb the yummy satay sauce~
No pictures for the lok lok because Hua hasn’t sent me any yet.
(Hua, are you feeling guilty now?)
We were soooo bloated after the lok lok supper, and were dragging our feet back to the hotel. I would say that the streets are relatively safe, but we were still on our guards as there were just 2 of us.
We had a good night sleep and almost didn’t want to wake up. See our puffy faces from waking up early.
Breakfast buffet was at Chatterz. It’s a really big dining area with a good selection of international cuisine. It’s nice that they allocate the table for us so that it wouldn’t be so chaotic when there are plenty of kiasu tourists around.
There are Chinese, Malay, and western selections. I skipped the salad section and went straight for the eggs and porridge.
Scrambled eggs section had a super long queue, so I took the soft boiled eggs instead. It’s so yummy that I had 2 servings of it.
The Malaysian style of eating soft boiled eggs is to add light soy sauce and pepper. In Singapore, it is more common to eat with dark soy sauce and pepper. I prefer the saltier version. Thanks to my heritage~
Porridge is nice with 3 types of eggs: Fried egg, century egg and salted egg.
We finished breakfast and went for last minute clothes shopping in the malls. Our coach leaves at 2.20pm from Equatorial Hotel. We requested for late check-out and then walk over to Equatorial Hotel (5 mins walk) to catch the coach.
I really like the short food trip to Melaka and taking coach from Boon Lay is so convenient for us. I guess it won’t be long before I return for more chicken rice!!
My Daily Moo 