Melaka is famous for its chicken rice balls and there are several shops selling it. The two most popular ones are Hoe Kee and Chung Hwa. Most blogs I visited said that Hoe Kee's chicken is better than Chung Hwa but Chung Hwa's rice balls are better than Hoe Kee. Years ago, I tried Hoe Kee's and from then on, I avoided chicken rice balls. The rice balls were so hard and tasteless that I had problems finishing my share. From then on, I formed the impression that all rice balls were like that... But, Hoe Kee's chicken was good. For this trip, I decided that I would give Chung Hwa a try, not for the chicken but the rice balls.
I made it a point to go there early as I had seen enough pictures of long queues outside the shop to know that the wait could be a long one. Alas, we were later than planned and by the time we were there, there were about 10 people in the queue already. For crowd control purposes, a shop helper guards the entrance and will only open the metal gate when there are people leaving.
Fortunately, the wait was not as long as I had expected. The food arrived quickly too. As expected, the chicken was really not very tasty. It was quite bland actually. I wasn't disappointed since I already knew what to expect. But, I have to say that the rice balls are good! Much better than Hoe Kee's version and it totally changed my opinion about rice balls. The rice balls were soft and had a nice fragrance. They were flavourful as well and tasted even better if eaten with their chilli sauce. If Hoe Kee and Chung Hwa join forces, I am sure they will monopolise the entire chicken rice balls market in Melaka!
Next up is another must-eat in Melaka - Chendol! I have a sweet tooth and like all sorts of desserts, both western and asian. Chendol is an Asian dessert and a very popular one in Malaysia as well as Singapore. It has ingredients such as red beans, chendol (jelly like and green in colour), coconut milk and gula melaka (palm sugar) syrup. We tried the famous Jonker 88's chendol the last time we were at Melaka. I was quite impressed with it but thought I would try another shop this time round. I read somewhere that Bibik House at Jonker Street serves good chendol too and since it is just opposite our hotel, we decided to drop in to give it a try.
It is a good decision after all! The chendol is really really yummy. The coconut milk was thick but not overpowering. They were generous with the ingredients and best of all, they allow you to add gula melaka syrup on your own. We overheard the lady boss telling another customer to drizzle the gula melaka syrup onto the shaved ice and just eat it without stirring the syrup. We did just that and were blown away by the taste. We ordered both the original and durian flavours and both were good! The 2 bowls of chendol were wiped out by the 5 of us in no time. DH ordered two more bowls, it was that good!
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| Durian chendol (the green worm like stuff is chendol) |
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| The original flavour |
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