After all this time…

It was so many years ago when my nephew took us to this restaurant in Malacca…

It did not look like this then. I remember a dimly-lit unimpressive looking place and we were the only customers all the time while we were there. The food was great and the cendol was so good that even though I was so very full after the dinner, I simply had to have another one.

A few years later, I went with my missus and daughter to spend a few days at a resort nearby and a friend drove all the way to pick us up to take us out for lunch. He took us here but unfortunately, it was not open for business that day so he took us to another nyonya restaurant some distance away across the road which was not too bad but not as great.

Thus, when I was in the historical city again the other day, I made it a point to go to this particular restaurant, no second thoughts about it. The moment we arrived, I knew it would not be like the first time I was there – there were people waiting outside…

…but even that did not deter me from my determination to eat here. They have this very peculiar system whereby you would have to go inside to the counter to write your name on the waiting list and then you will have to go and wait outside for them to call you back inside…

Even when there are some vacant tables around, they would not let you sit down and wait – like it or not, you will just have to toe the line.

Business was very good and it certainly was very packed inside…

The moment you’re seated, you would be served this plate of tapioca chips…

…but no, they’re not on the house. You will find it charged to your bill when you go and settle it later – it’s only RM1.00 though so it isn’t too bad but if you ask me, I would rather have keropok, be it fish, prawn or sotong.

The last time around, we had the chicken pongteh which is basically chicken with taucheo (fermented beans) so this time, I decided to order another very popular nyonya dish – the chicken with buah keluak  or in English, the Indonesian black nut (RM15.00)…

…as I have heard so much about it but I cannot recall ever eating it before. My mother, on the other hand, is very familiar with this buah kelauk – I remember her telling me about how it is not so easy to prepare as a certain part of the seed is poisonous and would have to be removed prior to cooking…or something to that effect.

I did not quite like it initially – I think it has some kind of acquired taste that I simply could not put my finger on. But as we went on eating, it did not seem too bad after all. Still, I do not think I would order it again as there would be many other peranakan dishes that I would enjoy a lot more should I happen to drop by any restaurant of this kind again.

I also ordered the cincaluk egg (RM7.00)…

– another popular nyonya dish that I have heard so much about. I’ve tried cooking it myself and although what I managed to dish out was pretty good, I did not think it was all that sensational as to go raving about it. As a matter of fact, I can think of many other nicer ways to use cincaluk in one’s cooking. Thus, I simply had to order it that day to see how they did it and figure out whether there was anything I had missed. Well, as it turned out, I thought my version was a lot nicer, probably because I used our local Bintulu homemade cincaluk which would be of a better quality and would taste a lot nicer…and it did not appear as if I had missed out anything in cooking that.

The sambal prawns with petai or stinky beans (RM17.00)…

was good but I prefer what I had here or maybe, even here. The sambal prawns were very nice but I thought the petai were a bit undercooked or raw and were very hard.

The fried long beans with belacan/dried prawn paste (RM7.00)…

were pretty good but like the first time around, it was the cendol (RM3.50)…

…that took my breath away and it certainly saved the day. It simply is the best that I’ve had and I really enjoyed that so much.

I don’t know if it was because in my mind, I had a wonderful dinner at this place and over the years, it had grown out of proportion or it really was a lot nicer the first time I went there. Maybe the business is much better now and in trying to cope with the crowd, they have to sacrifice a bit on the quality? It was still very nice, don’t get me wrong on this…but it just wasn’t as nice as I remember it to be. Perhaps, should I happen to drop by the town again, I might as well give the others a try to see if they’re any better – I did notice when I was there that there are so many now, popping out of every nook and cranny like mushrooms after the rain.