Malacca - Famosa Chicken Rice Ball

[antonego07]

Arrived in Malacca for the famous market night event (Fri-Sunday, every week) and entered the restaurant at 6. Having been burnt by the indifferent attitudes of the Nyona restaurants, (Ole Sayang will not serve you if you arrive 15 min before closing time, and Nyonya Suan is only open for Lunch: not mentioned on the web-listing), we decided to eat before the door was shut in our face again. Bad call, because the stall food in the market offered more variety and better taste!

Anyhoo, the famous chicken rice balls were nowhere near as good as the normal hainanese chicken rice, although the chicken was quite tasty.

The street food was excellent: chicken gizzard (my favourite), neck, wings and feet, slow braised in star aniseed and soya till tender.

The yau char kwei is slightly different shaped (img*47 is Jalan Alor, like a loop; img*39 is Malacca, like a fork!), but tasted the same.

Famosa Chicken Rice Ball
No. 28-30, Jalan Hang Kasturi,
Off Jonker Street, 75200 Melaka.

Jonkers Street Food Stalls
Jonkers Street
Melaka
6-12 pm
Fri-Sunday

[M_Gomez]

Thank you so much for reviewing food from my hometown, antonego07. And so sorry for your bad experience with Ole Sayang. I know the family who owned it and I must feedback to them that they have become too commercialised and business-minded. In the old days, we Malaccans pride ourselves with our manners and etiquette ("sopan-santun") but now with the flood of tourists and especially Singaporean visitors, all good manners have gone out the window!

For chicken rice balls, you should also try either Hoe Kee or Chung Wah. They have been around longer than Famosa. In the old days, fewer people knew about these places, but these days, oh my goodness, long queues.

[antonego07]

Ooo-er that landed too close to home, didn't it! Sorry for the careless broadside, I didn't know you were Malaccan! I do enjoy your Singapore reviews and appreciate the willingness to put life and limb (and belly!) on line in order to give us first hand reports from the frontlines of the Singapore food scene!

I was determined to get the best Nyonya cuisine under my belt this time round, in a proper Nyonya setting, and did all my homework. Unfortunately, I never expected to see a very Mediterranean trait surface here in Malacca, the equivalent of the Spanish siesta, when no one is interested in doing business (is there an equivalent in Portugal?). I reached the restaurant at 1:45, and didn't know 2 was an acceptable closing time! I did get up late and had a late breakfast (I'm on holiday, right?!!!).

Shouldn't have been surprised, considering the Portuguese influence in the region. Saw the same thing in Goa, also a Portuguese colony. I was quite happy to see dodol, and a type of bibinca being sold in Malacca! Love the stuff!

I did not leave empty handed, though. There's a new startup, Cottage Spice Nyonya which delivered quite capable Nyonya food, although I could not see what I had planned to order on the menu.

My sister arrived a few days later (Sunday) and had a fantastic meal, opposite the hotel at Seri Nyonya (She loves Nyonya food, and she's the expert. I'm just the wannabe, having only tasted a few rendang, in mixed buffets).

I have shown my children the photos of the food in Malacca, and they are already planning their next sortie. They love Portuguese desserts, and have so far experienced it only in Goa and Macao!

Hope all my sweet talk has earned absolution from you of my faux pas!

[M_Gomez]

Oh no, please don't apologize, my dear, you didn't say anything out of turn. The bibinca type sweet you had must be Malay kueh bingka, very similar and yet distinctly different.

I started posting on Chowhound about Hongkong and Macau actually, as I lived there for many years and up till now have family members there (2 sisters with their grownup families, one sister has a Portuguese-Macanese husband). There are some similarities and yet some differences in Malaccan and Macanese cuisines:- we have laksa, they have lacassa, we have belachan, they have balicao, etc etc.

I'm Portuguese-Eurasian myself (probably 60% Anglo, 30% Indian and 10% Portuguese) whilst my husband is 100% Singaporean-Chinese. So we are a mixed bunch. I prefer Macanese food to Cantonese food, whereas it's the other way round for my husband.

Next time you're in Malacca, you have to try satay celup. Or let me know what other hawker food you're looking for, and I can give you dining tips to places only Malaccans know and go to, not tourists!

[antonego07]

Thank you, for the gracious reply, and for the offer of information for my next trip. Will definitely take it up.

[antonego07]

Image *47