http://www.umakemehungry.com/2017/12/nancys-kitchen.html

Nancy's Kitchen is one of the popular places to go for authentic Peranakan Food in Melaka. Looking at its crowd, walk-in customers need to have some patience in the queue.Today's Nancy's recipe has been passed down from generations and this is the 3rd generation. With the precision towards quality of each dish being served and practices strict cooking skill, it is no wonder that the authentic Peranakan dishes bring new and as well as returned customers.

Looking at the lunch crowd on the lower level, we waited for quite a while before getting our seats.

 Interior was homely and air conditioned. The reason why we visited Nancy's Kitchen is because of its popularity and that it is non-halal.

 Being Non-Halal, we get to choose more variety to certain dishes like with pork than chicken.

With the lunch's crowd, we only managed to get seats on the upper level. The kitchen transfer all cooked food using a elevator from the ground level to the upper level.

Steamed Spring Roll aka Popiah is served with turnips , cucumber, fresh bean, coriander leave, eggs, garlic and many other vegetables. It is one of the popular starter before meal and is a must try.

 Kueh Pie Tee came in crispy hat cone form and filled with vegetable. The fillings are similar to what we have in the spring roll but in a different serving.

Having their last appetizer on the menu, they have this pork fried with bean curd skin on the menu which we often called it Ngoh Hiong. The pork is wrapped with bean curd skin and deep fried to obtain its crispiness on the outside with sweet tasty juicy pork on the inside.

Chap Chai is anohter classic Peranakan dish that we will often order. Its a combination of black fungus, lily bubs, cabbage, glass noodles, bean curd sheet and cook with preserved fermented soya bean. It is a stew mix vegetables filled with natural sweetness of the vegetable simply irresistible for young and old. However we find that the style of Chap Chai was too dry for us and was not soaked with gravy.

 Ayam / Bak Buah Keluak is a truly Peranakan classic dish. The black nut (Buah Keluak) is sold at additional cost of RM 2.00 each. Buah Keluak is originally from Indonesia and taste like truffle. Nut is cut open allowing the dish to have a sweet spicy and sourish taste.

Ladies fingers can be served 2 ways, either boiled of fried with chilli. We had chosen the steamed version and it was served with lemony chilli paste.

This is scrumptious! Duck soup was cooked on slow heat with salted vegetable and white wine, giving the taste of sourish to the dish. The dish has been passed down for 3 generations.

Last but not least, we had the classic dessert, Cendol for a sweet ending touch to the meal. Savour with Gula Melaka, coconut, green bean and coconut jelly.

Overall, Nancy's Kitchen has a home style Peranakan Food with reasonable pricing. To be honest, I am impressed by most of their dishes and will recommend to anyone who goes to Melaka and looking for Nyonya Dishes.

With new Cafes popping out once in a while in Singapore, it may seem a norm but I was rather surprise to see the increase number of cafes in Johor Bahru during my recent visit there.Chaiwalla & Co. is an open air cafe which you cannot find in Singapore with tables and chairs sitting on the open ground sand and cement. Having its unique part with her working space operated out of a container. If you heard of the famous Hiap Joo Bakery that sells traditional baked Banana Cake, Chaiwalla & Co Container Cafe is just around the corner.

Enjoy a cup of beverage, either coffee or tea from Chaiwalla. Pies can be grabbed from here too if you decide to have some food to go along with your beverage.We ordered a cup of Thai Milk Tea at RM 9.30 and enjoy this refreshing drink under the hot weather which fits our plan in beating the heat. However if you are keen in toppings like pearls or jelly, they are available at additional cost.

https://www.umakemehungry.com/2018/06/jwc-just-want-coffee-factory-30.html

As the name suggests, Just Want Coffee is located in an industrial area and to be precise, its housed in a Factory which is surrounded by containers and run down buildings.

 The facade just reminds me of Wheeler's Yard in Singapore making use of industrial factory to run a cafe business. Though they shared the same industrial theme, Wheeler's Yard is more on Bicycles.

Just behind the entrance door, you will notice that even the door handle is partially made up of the coffee filter holder, impressive!

As soon as we swang the main door, we realised JWC is a 2 Storey refurbished place and with their cafe themed industrial. Take a look at the upper level railings, they are make up of pipings.

 Over the counter, this food elevator has bring convenience to staff of the cafe. It reduces the working staff from carrying heavy dishes up and down in the cafe. Up at the ceiling, there are a number of sacks hanging above? Don't worry about it falling down as they are only stuffed with shredded papers.

There are long tables in the cafe, suitable for group gathering. Under the cozy lights and air conditioning environment, this place make it so comfortable to chill out especially over a hot weather outside.

To me, the "Customer Menual" is designed to be more like a technical instruction Menu to operate machines instead. Of course, there are pages with their food menu in the mixture of the technical information.

The concrete screed wall and flooring is no stranger to an industrial environment. Not only that, with the steel basins, old school type of pipes and taps, everything fit well to the industrial theme, even the overhead lamp.

The cut of Tiramisu's served was generous but ultimately not to our liking as the entire piece of cake was kind of frozen and tough to cut. Totally not the kind of soft and chilly Tiramisu we have expected as its not as moist. However in terms of taste wise, its still pretty ordinary.

Texture of cake as described was really silky like Tofu. The cheese cake was supported by a thin layer of biscuit as its base. Tasted not too bad.Having order the Luxurious Affogato, we get to see the entire process of making it in the video, involving naked flames over the alcohol.

Choco Powder on the glass of cold chocolate is more than enough, making up a thick layer at the top neutralizing the sweet chocolate with a tad of bitterly taste.

With the all day breakfast menu, though its near dinner time, we cant help but to order one set and share among ourselves. Hungry Jack Big Breakfast comes with Nachos, Eggs, ham, cheese sausage, Bagel, greens, mushrooms and tomatoes. Nachos comes with Thousand Island / Ranch Sauce and the milky small pan of scramble eggs are perfect!

Seems like its tough to cafe hop without driving around in Johor Bahru. On the good side, if you manage to drive around in Johor Bahru, with google map's aid, cafe hopping is definitely much easier this way!

For this round, it was an impromptu visit and we did not bring too much stomach space here, I hope to be back for their waffles.

https://www.umakemehungry.com/2018/03/choco-choco.html

Having been to KSL multiple times, I did not realise Choco Choco exist until my pal told me about it.

 Choco Choco is located in the open space area and it is rather easy to find them. The furnishing is simple with the usual tables and chairs under the shopping mall lighting.

I was kind of excited looking through the beverages menu as that was my first time ever to order beverages with 3D arts or graphics.

For those who are looking for bites, you can try out their All Day Brunch or Sandwiches, Pasta but these orders does not come together with the arts.

We did not specify any special request and the art drawn was all random and the creativity by the staff. Though our orders were served one at a time, I find that its already quite fast in speed.

Look! They have drawn me Crayon Shin Chan on my cup of chocolate.

While my friend got her cup of Hot Mocha with my favourite character, Doraemon on it.

On the other hand, I find that the Iced Cappuccino is more interesting as it consist of 4 different faces from a cat illustrating joy, anger, worry and happiness.

The black forest cake was ordinary and on the plate it was accompanied by the skillfully drawn Sanrio Character, Keropi Frog. Its outline was thinly drawn with chocolate syrup.

 Here's our combination of orders. With so much cute stuff on the table, we could not help ourselves in taking more pictures before we got these artwork eaten up and destroying them.

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Road trip is make interesting exploring different places especially to Baba Charlie. With so many trips to Malacca, this is my first trip to their shop and it was an eye opener to me. It seems like converting the whole residential estate to a main central kitchen for their Nyonya Delicacies.

We made a few rounds in the vinicity before locating the elusive location of Baba Charlie. Perhaps the main reason is the small road to the place was rather narrow and we didnt know it was meant for a 2 way traffic. The route to Baba Charlie maybe a little bit tricky even using GPS.


 As soon as it opens, we went through the main door and observed the number of people rushing into Baba Charlie. I noticed a team of kitchen workers are still preparing the food. This is good as this tell us that food is freshly made. One of us was a little bit disappointed as Kuih Dadar was not available at the time of visit as they are still preparing it.






As it seemed, everyone has its own dedicated duties and were well organised. Preparing curry, some cooking Ondeh Ondeh balls, some packing it into plastic boxes, some manning the shops and some at the cashier counter to receive payment.

I went into the inner shop and was astonished by the wide variety of Nyonya Snacks, from dumplings, Kueh Bahulu, Ang Gu Kueh to Kaya





And Chinese New Year Snacks were also available.

 My friend is a fan of Ondeh Ondeh and I must admit, their box of Ondeh Ondeh was delicious. The skin was chewy and though it did not have much oozing effect of Gula Melaka bursting out (The portion of fillings and their skin is kind of proportionate.), I would say these are freshly made and fragrant with coconut as well as sesame seeds.


We also bought a box of 3 Ang Gu Kueh which contain Mung Beans. The taste was pretty ordinary and cannot be compared to the nice ones I had back in Singapore.


There was no rainbow Kuih Lapis but a 3 tone (Red, pink and white) Lapis here.Layers were soft and not too sweet.


Besides having the cake shop, they do have their own cafe but we never visit it. If you need Catering for buffet, they also offer such service but since we are not local, we can only enjoy take away to fix our Nyonya Kueh cravings. Perhaps if I have chance to come here, you may want to try your luck to come abit later after their opening hours to avoid disappointment that the food is not ready yet.