This post was first posted at Food Melaka ~ Day 1 on Deliciouslogy | Wordpress.
My family and LC in tow were in Melaka for a makan trip recently and it was quite surprising that my parents would willingly be dragged around for food in my mum's hometown. It was of course to my advantage as my mum is familiar with the roads despite being an 'outdated' Malaccan but that was good enough to get us where we wanted to go.
Please note that all the outlets mentioned are pet-friendly unless mentioned as our poor Pug, Pegan was brought along with us from KL.
The first time I had satay celup in Melaka, it was by the riverside. I was a kid at that time and was warned not to go near the river because there are crocodiles lurking and waiting to attack me. I no longer remember what was the name of the shop back then but the crocodile story remains etched in my memory and is synonymous to my satay celup experience.
The 2nd time I had satay celup was at Capitol Satay. I don't recall there being a long queue for a table (now there is!) but I remembered their satay celup being very good. This time around, we drove past Capitol Satay and looking at the queue, we did not even want to attempt to eat there so we vroomed right past the shop and headed to Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup instead.
Ban Lee Siang is on Jalan Ong Kim Wee and is easily found with the help of Waze or a GPS.
Ban Lee Siang had about 2-3 tables empty when we arrived at about 6pm sharp on a Friday.
Do take note of their new prices that take advantage of the weekend crowd.
Options are abundant with choices of the usual steamboat skewers: fishballs, pork meatballs, seafood tofu, 'flying saucers', cuts of chicken, pork and seafood, taufu, taufu pok, stuffed meatballs and fu chuk.
The rarer items include bacon, skewers of brocolli florets and rolls of otak-otak.
Items I had:
Flying saucers and whole squid. They price by the stick so the squid is usually pierced with 3-4 sticks depending on the size.
Taufu pok to soak up all that tasty sauce (beware that they store heat as well) and stuffed fu chuk.
More stuffed fu chuk which was good because the ridges pick up all that sauce.
Nice firm tofu and fish cake.
Fish cake and stuffed fishballs.
It may look like cockles but it's actually scallop.
Pork balls.
Prawns.
Overall, it was a satisfying meal without the crazy long queue. The seafood/steamboat items were all fresh and the variety is good. Those who like chunky satay sauces will like Ban Lee Siang's satay sauce but you'd have to scoop up the chunky peanuts that sink to the bottom of the pot.
I know there will never be an option to add on chili oil for a kick like our normal satay sauces - it would be perfect if it was possible!
After a full dinner, we went to Jonker walk for cendol and as the name says - to walk!
Jonker88 came recommended by food blogs and LC who ate there when there were still 2 entrances (there's only 1 entrance from Jonker Walk now).
And old sign to convince you that they're old.
We ordered 2 kinds of cendol - the normal cendol...
And the durian cendol.
They were not as good as expected. The cendol froze after sitting under the bed of ice and the gula melaka was not fragrant. The durian splashed on the durian cendol tasted artificial.
At RM4 per bowl of cendol and RM5 per bowl of durian cendol, I'm sad to say I've tasted better in KL.
Taste Better's Durian Puffs also came recommended by blogs so we had to try the one-bite puffs.
You have the option of the durian or yogurt stuffed puffs. My mum, the non-durian eater had the yogurt while the rest of us had the durian.
It was surprisingly good and like they advise you, please eat it in one bite as the puffs are adequately filled. We recently came across a Taste Better outlet at Setia Alam Mall but we didn't try any of their puffs. It's nice that there's an outlet closer to KL now (Shah Alam is still very far though). Update 23/07/15: There is also a kiosk at Atria Shopping Centre. Try the durian soft serve, it's amazing!
---
Contact info and review links for all food mentioned in this post are as below:
Taste Better Durian Puff: Website, Jean (Chinese review), Fabulous Actually (also has Jonker 88 review), stooffi.com