Auntie Lee Baba Nyonya Restaurant, Malacca

Monkey's favourite Lime Juice
Auntie Lee uses Kasturi Lime and blended everything including its pulps and skins
hence the intensity of this drink
superb!!!!!

too thirsty!!! I needed 2 glasses...hahahahah
yea we drove to Malacca for 2 days trip and headed straight to this restaurant

with its limitation of only 6 tables...pls pls pls do make ur reservation in advance
however if u come in small group of 2 or 4 person, there are a few more smaller tables and stool seating on the next lot of her restaurant.

fried jenak fish topped with fragrant fried garam chili on top

very spicy but very very good

the fish was so fresh with its flaky white juicy flesh
while its skin and edges were so crispy!!!!! *J'ADORE!!!!!*

another all time favourite of Monkey's

Cincaluk omelette!!!!!

super YUM!!!!

it's spicy too with traces of chili surprises innit

Kerabu timun and nenas

spicy salad of cucumber and pineapple
very refreshing despite its chili content
and it was served chilled!!!!!

pucuk ubi!!!!

potato leaves in spicy belacan sauce

hmmmm already sweating reading this post???
wait till u see this

freshly pounded chili and belacan and lime!!!!!!

wished I could take this home....hehehehehehe

Auntie Lee was so shocked to see both of us finished everything

coz she was trying to suppressed our order :P

Auntie: "very big portion.....later u kenot finish!!!"

Monkey: "can can can...just bring it on...JS ar..do u want sambal squid?"

Auntie's mouth wide open

"Enuff already.....just the two of u only!!!!"

Monkey & JS -_-"

from the pic above..u can see we polished everything off

next came the to die for Malacca Cendol
they made the green thing themselves here

with really really fresh coconut milk

there some red beans at the bottom but not too much to "cloud" the original taste of cendol
and certainly they used pure authentic Gula Melaka!!!!!!
it was this Gula Melaka palm syrup that give this cendol THAT distinctive yummyness

ooooooOOooooooo my absolute favourite dessert!!!!!

*lick lick lick*

JS piak-ed Monkey...

"wait!!! I need to take pic 1st"

QUICK!!!! it's melting!!! FASTER!!!

 

and we continued our makan journey in this historical town

:))))))))))))

Auntie Lee Baba Nyonya Restaurant

385 Jalan Ujong Pasir,

75050 Malacca.

Tel: +606 283 1009

Land of Nyonyas and Babas *by JS* Part 3/3

Melaka is not all about jonker street, christ church, A' Famosa (St Paul's hill), popiah along Jalan Bunga Raya, ikan bakar/nasi lemak at Sg Duyung and Nyonya food at Aunty Lee restaurant or Ole Sayang.......it's goes back further than we think.

JS: we must visit Hang Li Po's well next to the Sam Po Kong Temple at the foot of Bukit Cina.


Monkey : what for?? why the sudden interest??


JS : it's in our history lar. It's all about Chinese heritage in Melaka. We should also take a hike up Bukit Cina and who knows......maybe you can trace your history afterall you have roots there :)


According to the Malay annals, in the mid-15th century, princess Hang Li Po, the great granddaughter of the Chinese Yongle Emperor, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was sent to be married to the sultan of Malacca, Sultan Mansor Shah, to seal relations between the two countries. She brought with her a vast retinue (500 sons of ministers and a few hundred handmaidens). The hill, Bukit Cina, a gift from the sultan, was established as their residence. The presence of Ming vases and pottery found in Melaka in present times suggest close relationship between the two countries back then.


On the contrary, was Hang Li Po really the fifth wife of Malacca's Sultan Mansur Shah as taught in our history books? It is disputed whether such a person exists because she was never recorded in the Chinese court of the Ming Dynasty in the Ming Chronicles and in the genealogical record of the imperial house of Zhu, the royal family of the Ming dynasty. The claim of a Ming princess converted to Islam is also disputed as the conversion of any aristocratic member of the Ming court to a foreign religion or belief was forbidden. However, in many chinese historical text, she was said to have been a princess in the court of the Yongle Emperor which was dated back to 1402–1424 but no mention of her travelogue to our part of the world.


So what is what then?? What is history?? Should we doubt history? For those of you who are my age, you could have been learning "lies, lubbish and lonsense" from history books!!! :)
Admiral Zheng He could have been the person who discovered the Americas and sailed round the world (with the treasured fleet consisting of 100s of ships) but instead Christopher columbus entered history as the man who discovered the Americas with merely 3 ships (the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria) and to make it even more unconvincing, he had a map. WTF!
To me history is the outcome of the clash of civilizations which resulted in the winner writing history be it true of false.......some food for thought :)


We found ourselves at the entrance of the Sam Po Kong temple on the quiet Sunday morning. In order to beat the crowd we woke up early (woke up at 8am.....believe it or not!!).



At the right hand side of the temple you will find Hang Li Po's well. This well is reputed to be always filled with water despite the worst of drought.

Note the weathered sandstone paving stone.

Yes, it's still full of water :)

On entering the left hand side of the temple you will find the statue of non other than Admiral Zheng He. Some of you may have noticed that i have on many occasions mentioned about Zheng He's achievements......yes, i do admire the man!

A commanding statue of Admiral Zheng He.

We then proceed up Bukit Cina. This is reputed as the biggest cemetery outside of China with about 12000 graves!

Early morning joggers on Bukit Cina. Note the tombstone next to the joggers.

Although this is a cemetery, it's a favourite jogging spot for joggers be it morning or evening.

The hillside was littered with graves and believe it or not, during ching ming you can still find relatives cleaning century old graves......probably 7+th generation!

Amongst the newer graves, you will find many forgotten graves with inscriptions missing(eroded) .......the sandstone tombstone of some graves had already crumbled from the effect of time.

This one probably belong to a sailor who sailed with Zheng He....my imagination going wild :)

Notice the "tei chee kung" stone at the far end.

A more recent grave on Bukit Cina.

The feeling of trekking up Bukit Cina is one of Dejavu. I cannot help feeling some closeness to this location even though it's my first time here. I had the same feeling when visiting the forbidden city and walking through the "wumen" = Meridian gate, the largest gate leading into the forbidden city. Maybe i have been watching too many Jet Li's movie or maybe......just maybe, i was really part of history......in my previous life :)

*this line was edited and added by Monkey: Rooooolllssss eyes tsk tsk*

As we descended from Bukit Cina, i took a quick glance back and yes, this place is so so familiar..... i do really feel the attachment and like i have been here before!

That dejavu feeling as i glanced back.......and with that our tour of Bukit Cina came to an end.

For waking up so early, we then treated ourselves to the famous Taiwan noodles on the other side of town. This is like compulsory routine everytime we visit Melaka and it's worth the drive and wait.

The famous melaka Taiwan noodles.

"Kah Liew" of deep fried spare ribs.

You may have noticed i missed out part 2/3 ............. will try to fill in the next time around :)

Land of Nyonyas and Babas *by JS* Part 1/3

It was the weekend of May day and Monkey and JS had already planned a trip to Nyonya and Baba land. The plan was to depart at 10am and arrive at 11.30am and then head to Aunty Lee Nyonya restaurant for lunch before we start our walkabout around the historical town where Zheng He and Hang Li Poh used to tread.

According to historical records Admiral Zheng He made 7 trips on the treasured fleet in the early 1400s to this part of the world. He reached as far west as Sri Lanka, India and the east coast of Africa and as south as Indonesia where today he is still worshipped by the Chinese and there you will find a chinese temple dedicated to him. Strange though cos Zheng He was a Muslim!!

Back to the 21st century......as we approached the sg besi toll, OMG...look at the F***ing traffic. Yes, it was a start of a nightmare!!

chocker block at sg besi toll

crawling traffic along the NS highway.....that's what i call "the speed that kills"

The usual 1.5 hours journey took 4.5 hours but the driver for the day was still cool as a cucumber.......

On arrival at the Majestic Hotel, we couldn't wait to check in then quickly go for lunch. We couldn't make it to Aunty Lee cos they close at 2pm. In addition, the restaurant only have 6 tables. WTF. So we are in Nyonya land but no nyonya food!!

Reluctantly we headed out on foot and came across a coffee shop style hawker centre.

The aroma of the fry Kway Teoh and Satay was so damn tempting especially when we were so dead hungry!! so we sat down and ordered what our eyes saw......was the stomach hungry or was it the eyes that was hungry?? haha.

we were so late and kway teoh stall ran out of kway teoh so we settled for mee.

This is Melaka style pork satay. The sauce has smashed pineapples in it. Pork and pineapple are perfect partners.

The Melaka wan tan mee is pretty bland and has a clean after taste, Not everybody's "cup of tea"......or rather "bowl of mee".

Sui kow and wanton to accompany the wan tan mee.

and barley lime to cool off.

That was a sumptous meal of variety i guess and somehow we were still feeling .......errrrrrrrrr, hungry!!

So we continue to walk towards the town. Forgot to mention that Monkey grew up partially in Melaka and has got Portuguese blood running in her!! So i had a local tour guide bringing me around town and that was a somewhat comfortable feeling actually :)

Then we stumbled upon this stall along Jalan Bunga Raya.

Monkey : this is the most famous popiah seller in the whole of Melaka.

JS : really??!! why are they so famous??

Monkey : look at the queue at this time of the day!!! Don't think you get this in KUL.

JS : then what are we waiting for?? lets go for it.

Monkey then queued up and was given a "queue" number when she ordered!!!

Monkey : uncle, how long to wait??

Uncle : come back in 30mins!!

JS : o_O WTF!!

So monkey said lets go for some cool stuff first and we headed down Jln Bunga Raya to this very old fashion ice cafe which was Monkey's fav ........strange name.

Yes, they only serve ice kacang, chendol, etc. Having Chendol is a must when you are in Nyonya land.

The palm sugar has such great length.

what's this?? ice cream soda with a scope of vanilla ice cream....as the name suggest, it's ice cream soda lar.....ice cream and ice cream soda....get it!! you don't get this anywhere anymore.

After the ice stuff , its back to the popiah........

Look at the queue.....it's got longer!!!

Anyway we collected our popiah and couldn't wait to sink our teeth into the nice juicy filling.

JS took the first bite........and yes, there was pork scratching and that gave a nice texture in comparison to the soft filling.

They are also very generous with the filling.

One hell of an amazing popiah and i affirm it's one of the best i have had and eating it by the roadside made it even tastier!

For those of you who are interested, it's call Popiah Bunga Raya and it's outside Madam King's departmental store and they only open from 1.30pm to 9pm....strange opening hours!!

Incidently you will find the best O chien in Melaka along this street at night!

Then it was time for us to march on through the old town and finally arrived at Christ Church which is the town centre.

Watch this space for part 2 outta 3 parts series.

Satay Celup

we actually went to Malacca for this!!!
satay celup....
JS had yet to try it so........

served with bread and cucumberfresh raw cockles
basically u just cook all the sticks in this boiling spicy peanut sauce

sorry very few pics coz too busy eating
this place is next to the one famous one - Capitol
i forgot its name :P
along Lorong Bukit Cina