Melaka has always had a good reputation when it comes to food. And most of the time, they don’t come from fancy cafe’s or five star restaurants. Being one of the attractions for tourists, the local food and cuisine is best at telling the story of the local culture.
Many places would have something similar but nothing beats the local flavour of the satay celup in Melaka. Having reviewed the craziest satay celup in town, we have all witness the long and absurd queue. People are willing to stay in line to squeeze themselves in one tiny shop to dine.Here in the Ban Lee Siang, there are always available seats, and dining is at a much comfortable state. Also amazing is the closed fridge for their skewers. I absolutely love that. On top of that, food taken is not returnable. So watch how much you take on your tray from the fridge. Each skewers cost RM 0.70 each.Here are a few photos of the available skewers. Look how fresh they are.Also served is the plain white bread and freshly cut cucumbers. Every bite is still a little chilled and juicy from the fridge. I respect the effort and appreciate the freshness of their ingredients.And speaking of freshness, one tiny drawback would be the continuous serving of satay sauce in the same pot for every customer. Some might not like that if they are particular with hygiene. People dislike the sauces being recycled from one customer to another. Good thing, they can make you new sauce at your table itself upon request and with charges of RM 40 per pot.The satay sauce is also really thick with spices and peanuts. Not fiery hot, but delectably a little sweet yet savoury with the blasting aroma of the herbs and spices. And the good news is, you can now bring your favourite sauce home with you. The dried chili and spices are sold in boxes and they are only available at the Ban Lee Siang on the left. Three boxes of these made a pot of rich and thick satay sauce.

Baboon House freezes time and allows the calm and quaint surrounding to engage dinners with serene and lots of greens and natural sunlight. Upon entering the narrow façade, this restored heritage is not only arty and filled with serenity but at the same time mesmerizing visitors through a time tunnel tracking back to the heritage of this building from its décor. Sit back and venture great gastronomical contentment with some furry friends roaming freely around the open space.
Carefully indulge in every piece of decorative item in this art gallery while embracing the fabulous and almost natural elements along the way. The tranquility is the relaxing diversity when you experience beautiful natural lights as well as water tanks with fishes swimming freely in it.The only thing tempering my focus at the ambiance was my hunger. Looking at the menu, their best are the gourmet burgers. It was certainly not the best I’ve had but I vouched this as the best in Malacca. It is no doubt that this place ranks #1 on tripadvisor for the entire package prevails to be on top in virtual and spiritual satisfaction of both gastronomic and sight.
The Oriental Chicken Burger (RM 13.80) was carefully prepared and stacked with fine qualities of ingredients, and served with some wedges, and onion rings at the side. I absolutely love the thought of diverse choices instead of the usual wedges or fries options. Baking their own buns, they have one of the best burger buns I’ve had in my gourmet burger voyages so far.The patty was relevantly good in texture but the use of good and fresh ingredients prepared upon ordering is worth admiration. The freshly cut slices of cucumber and tomato is a very touching gesture. They might not have prepared their sauce right from scratch but the right ratio of sauce in it made the burger divine.Wedges are seriously good when I had mine. It was almost the best wedges I have ever had, but the onion ring really needs drastic improvisation. It was soft, slightly mushy and not very attractive looking even though the prices for the burger range are unbelievably reasonable.The Baboon Green Salad is yet another ambrosial indulgence sinfully topped with streaks of pork bacon and chicken pop corn. With options to include feta cheese (RM 16) or without feta cheese for those selective on cheeses (RM 13.50). Alas, it was out of feta cheese when I visit.I solemnly swear that I would prefer no one picking anything from my plate if I’m ordering this for solo consumption. It was sinfully amazing and pork lovers would go berserk over this plate of salad. I should confess that I would greedily and selfishly want to whack it all by myself and not sharing this with anyone. And to be very honest, there were more meats than vegetables in it. So note to vege lovers, the plants are mostly just simple cucumber and tomato so the rich poultry is solely the pull factor in this one. Tossed with vinaigrette dressing and accompanied by simple toasted bread slice, the serving portion for this one was rather generous.The Lemonade was indeed perfect in every way including the serving size. The solid ingredient for lemonade was generously permeated into this glass of solution to thirst. It was absolutely perfect during mid day.Coffee range appeared sufficiently satisfying when it comes to the choices and varieties offered. Alas, my usual tea didn’t appeal to be extravagant, instead just ordinarily decent while showcasing our Cameron Highland tea bags.The hot tea and coffee uniquely comes with a piece of Klassiske Vaniljekranse (Danish butter cookies) which I doubt is baked by them. Nevertheless it is still a novelty combination amongst most cafes.Believe me when I vouched this as a must visit place in Melaka. The food is decent; burgers are the best in town, ample extent of coffee choices, and most importantly amazing tranquility from the surrounding. On weekends, aroma of freshly baked on the spot muffins waft in the entire café and would be one amazing experience. Should anyone is interested with the ambiance of this beautiful gallery café; feel free to browse through the internet as there are many which showcased many angles and corners in this café.Note that this gallery café strictly prohibits photography but is nice enough to still allow visitors taking pictures with them in it of course. Photos taken with no permission are no different from act of stealing and hence I must proclaim that all photos in this post are taken with consent from Roger Soong (the owner) and I hereby thank him for the warm hospitality from his café.

Tea is an indispensable part of the life of a Chinese. A Chinese saying identifies the seven basic daily necessities as fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. The custom of drinking tea is deeply ingrained in almost every Chinese, and has been for over a thousand years (Jing Tea Shop, 2009). The Chinese were the first to discover tea. Wherever Chinese go, the custom of drinking tea follows. Back when I was spending enough time in Hong Kong China, almost every morning in any parks would be the spot for retired elderly, gathering leisurely around a small pot of tea.Tea is made from the young, tender leaves of the tea tree. The differences among the many kinds of tea available are based on the particular methods used to process the leaves. And believe it or not, all tea comes from the same plant; the Camellia sinensis. There are a great variety of teas – over 3000, in fact. All of them have one thing in common: they are made from the leaves or buds of some variant of Camellia Senensis. The key to the whole process is the roasting and fermentation. Through fermentation, the originally deep green leaves become either reddish to brown in color. The longer the fermentation would result in the darker colour of tea leaves. Depending on the length of the roasting and degree of fermentation, the fragrance can range from floral, to fruity, to malty (Parkinson. R, 2012).Historical records reveal that Ming Dynasty’s Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) visited Melaka (Malacca) at least five times during his famous seven voyages to the Western Ocean (Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean, Middle East and Africa). Some claims that he set up a huge warehouse complex along the northern side of the Melaka River. However, many others do not agree. (http://chengho.org, 2012).Together with Cheng Ho Cultural Museum, this Chinese teahouse is a tranquil break free from the crowd and noise on Jonker Street in Melaka. Situated in a historic building, this tea house is preserves the heritage design of atmospheric space with high timber ceilings with a central courtyard and rather airy space.The linings of its walls are wooden panels inscribed with Chinese calligraphy as well as beautiful Chinese painted carvings.Apart from the amazing ambience, the tea house also allow visitors to understand the ancient art of tea ceremony for RM 30 per table for 4 person, and watch the puppet show about the Admiral Cheng Ho’s voyages (1371-1433).

This place is really huge with quite a bit of interesting interior and furniture to be appreciated. There are many antiques and furniture that has been very well preserved.Served with light nut and seed bites, this tea break is perfectly amazing for some quality bonding time. At the same time, enjoy and learn a little bit of the art of tea ceremony from the tea connoisseur who will share the Chinese art of tea tasting.The proprietress serves us well and it was indeed lovely to have that quick chat with her. Here is the demonstration of tea ceremony and how we should be savouring tea. A common mistake people often make is to steep tea leaves for a long time to achieve the thick extract out of it.

The Roasted Suckling Piglet which is heavenly amazing. But, I honestly haven’t tasted any roasted piglet that is not tasty. This dish is a pretty standard dish with not much variant anywhere else because it is pretty much just done by plain roasting, so what could probably go wrong? Served with this is some fresh raw mango slices.

This one is a very famous Wan tan mee noodle in Melaka. There are only two places which sells wan tan mee with this flavour and you must really taste this one to be able to segregate good wan tan mee. The sauce and gravy to mix the noodle would be the one that makes this noodle super awesome. Instead of the usual black soy sauce that makes wan tan mee commonly looking brown, they use light seasoning and super thick broth with intense flavour, as well as lard oil. The noodles are also great in the sense that they were not mushy but cooked with the right technique and timing to make it springy. It is probably the in Melaka.