Thinking of a getaway during long weekends to savour Malaysian food? Malacca is definitely the first foodie destination that comes to my mind! Located north of Johore, Malacca is one of the popular Malaysian state for vacations, shopping and food. In 2008, it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site with unique architectural designs incorporating influences from the East and Southern Asia as it was previously colonised by the Portuguese and Dutch.

It was my first weekend getaway to Malacca with my family with a self-planned itinerary consisting of shopping and foodddd

A bus journey from Singapore to Malacca is about 3.5-5 hours bus journey. For our transportation, we bought one way bus tickets (~$20-30) to Malacca and upon reaching Malacca, we made a stop at the coach’s pickup stop for journey back to Singapore where we could purchase the return ticket (RM30). This way, the return tickets would be slightly cheaper.

From the alighting stop, we had a 10 minutes walk to The Shore Shopping Gallery along the river. There, one can enjoy shopping at Tangs and restaurants like Sakae Sushi, Nandos, Haagen Daaz and Seoul Garden. On the day of departure, we came back once again for ice cream at Haagen Daaz.

Strolling along the river towards Jonker Street, it offers a spectacular view of Malacca’s river banks and the Eye of Malacca where one can also opt to enjoy a river cruise. 

Along the journey, we chanced upon a dumpling shop which is famous for its Baba-Nyonya Dumplings, traditionally and all handmade by owner, Madam Dumpling. Prices are reasonable with meat and Nyonya dumplings at RM 5 each and salted egg dumplings at RM 6 each.

Joo Huat Dumpling Shop– 6, Kampung Hulu 75200 Melaka

Previously, we did not reserve any accommodations as our visit was during off-peak seasons and on weekdays. As such, it was much easier to find a proper room along Jonker Street.

After settling our accommodations, we located Jonker 88 dessert shop and headed straight for cooling bowls of Baba chendol 🙂 Amongst the desserts offered, I would highly recommend Sagu Gula Melaka, a sago dessert topped with fresh coconut milk and Melaka’s representative delicacy, Gula Melaka. The coconut milk was light with a satisfying freshness and sweetness to it while the gula melaka syrup added a viscous flow to blend the softness of sagu and coconut milk. As compared to chendol, one can directly enjoy the coconut milk and gula melaka better.

Jonker 88 also serves main dishes like Rendang Chicken, Curry Noodles and many others.

For lunch, Restaurant Nancy’s Kitchen was our first choice. The restaurant is highly recommended by many food blogs and reviewers for its authentic Nyona dishes like Assam fish, curry chicken and popiah. We visited the restaurant twice as popiah was sold out when we were there for the first time.

Restaurant Nancy’s Kitchen– 7, Jalan Hang Lekir, 75200 Melaka

It was my first time trying authentic Assam fish dish which cannot be easily found in Singapore. Assam fish, literally known as sour-spicy fish, was well prepared with mouth-watering sour curry taste and cooked with fresh seabass.

Pai Tee was my favourite dish there. The thin tart shell was very crispy, filled with thinly sliced vegetables like cucumber and specially made spicy sauce. Overall, the mouthful of Pai Tee had an initial crispy crunch and later juicy and moist chilli sauce.

For the famous Malacca chendol, I would recommend visiting this lesser known chendol shop, Christina Ee.

Christina Ee– 8, Jalan Hang Lekir, 75200 Melaka

I really enjoyed chendol from this shop, with lesser crowd and quieted atmosphere. From my opinion, this chendol tasted better than other recommended as the taste of coconut milk was very smooth and fresh. Sweetness of the dessert can be adjusted according to one’s preference as gula melaka can be added more.

Next morning, we headed for the famous chicken rice ball stall beside Hard Rock Cafe. Here, the chicken rice balls are really small and moist and the chicken is really tender. However, I prefer chicken rice with a more flavoury taste…

Hoe Kee Chicken Rice– 468, Jalan Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka

For dinner, we opted to try a renowned Hakka restaurant near Jonker Street, Hakka Zhan Restaurant.

Hakka Zhan Restaurant– 76, Taman Kota Laksamana, 75000, Melaka

Past evening, one can also head to a street behind Casa Del Rio hotel with eateries serving dishes like satay, rojak, sambal stingray and many other street food.

Apart from food, Malacca is also a great city to understand more about Malayan architectures and literature history. Around Christ Church Melaka, the iconic red building representative of Malaysia’s Dutch-era buildings. There are a few museums available for visits, for instance Malaysia Architectural Museum, The UMNO museum and Stadthuys with exhibitions of Malayan literature history.

For shopping, I would recommend visiting shopping malls in Mahkota. These are located near Holiday Inn Melaka and Mahkota Hotel Melaka. There are Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall with Factory Outlet Store, Nike, Esprit and other brands and Mahkota Parade Melaka with many more shops like World of Sport, Hush Puppies and other restaurants. In the latter mall, we also enjoyed foot reflexology at  RM 25 for 30 minutes.

One highly recommended cafe in Mahkota Parade is Nadeje cafe, a well-known mille crepe cafe.

There are many different flavours offered, non-alcoholic (Original, Green tea, Mango Yoghurt, Malacca etc) and alcoholic (Rum and Raisin, Cafe Mocha, Chocolate etc).

My 3D2N trip in Malacca ended with a food shopping spree in SanShuGong for delicacies like coconut cookies, white coffee, durian dodol, tarts and more. These are great gifts to be brought back for relatives and friends and to savour more of Malaysian delicacies. In addition, we also went down Jonker street again for other street food like coconut shake (coconut blended milk shake) and ondeh ondeh richly filled with gula melaka.

This trip was definitely satisfying for me, a little foodie who has just traveled back from UK and Europe after 6 months. I definitely missed all the above food and satisfied my craving for Malaysian cuisine 😛