Mabuk kat Semabuk

‘Mabuk makan’ that is. For the uninitiated, Semabuk is a place in Melaka town, about 5 minutes drive away from Melaka Raya, the sin city of Melaka.

I was in Melaka last weekend. A much needed break to get away from the hustle and bustle of KL. And also something different from the usual weekend clubbing, that further drains my energy supply (whatever that’s left for the weekend). I was eager to find and ‘kena’ some good food in Melaka.

Day 1.

First stop was the infamous Chicken Rice Ball. Oily, greasy balls of rice that’s the craze in Jonker Street. But then again, not all the self-proclaimed chicken rice shops there serve ‘good shit’. I headed for the shop at the start of Jonker Street. My earliest lunch ever in Melaka. 11.45 am. I wanted to be there early to avoid the horrendous lunch crowd. They can be really annoying. But the most annoying thing would be waiting in line just to eat. And that wouldn’t be such a good idea. Because as we all know, ‘hungry people are angry people’.

Besides the usual chicken rice, they also served asam fish. Boy, was that good. They served a big chunk of fleshy siakap, with lady’s fingers, all immersed in a generous amount of asam gravy. The taste was heavenly. I would have fainted in excitement, if there was bread to dip into the gravy. Coz the rice didn’t really go well. So to all of you asam lovers out there, bring a loaf of Gardenia when you come here.


Dinner

Dinner was simply awesome. I was at Golden Phoenix Restaurant, Hotel Equatorial. We ordered 4 main dishes. Fried prawn rolls in mayonnaise (ahhhhh…my favourite) Ostrich Meat kam hong style, (topped with fried, tiny anchovies – simply superb) Broccoli in crabmeat sauce and Braised chicken with Yam (we could have done without that). Just the two of us, with a week-supply of food. How were we ever going to finish all these in one go. Undeterred, we made a pact to finish everything. Only if we thought ourselves as pigs, and with the right ‘piggy’ attitude, no amount of food will be impossible. We started out fine. Halfway through, Piggy No. 1 started feeling a bit uncomfortable. Piggy No. 2 was already burping. But we had a lot more to go. We then took a break. We made fun of our gluttony to while the time away. There was also a theory that the chefs in the kitchen would have made a bet with their colleagues if we could have finished everything.

After the short break, we continued. We went slow to make sure we chewed on everything, because there was no room for error. Or more so, no room for more food. We tucked every bite of food into the corners of our stomach. Just like how we always compress the rubbish in our dustbins. Soon enough, lo and behold, we finished! Hoooooray! It was a great achievement. And to top it all, the chefs lost their bet!


Day 2

Breakfast.

Breakfast was at our hotel, Semabuk Inn. Sausages, scrambled eggs, bread and the odd one - fried koay teow. At first I thought of skipping the fried koay teow. I was already feeling guilty of last night’s bingeing. But ah, just try la. To my surprise, it was bladdy good. One of the best fried koay teows I have every let my hard-to-please tongue taste. It was spicy, greasy and simply awesome. The taste simply indescribable.

Lunch

We didn’t know where to head for lunch. So we thought we’d just drive by Melaka Raya and see if we spot any interesting place to eat. Nothing. Then we headed to Jonker Street. We parked and we walked around. In our quest for food, we discovered a few interesting antique shops. But I’m not gonna blab on that.

We asked the locals if there were any good place to eat. From lunch, we diverted our attention to getting some cendol. Walking around in the blistering heat, is no joke. Hungry, sweaty, sticky, all you can think of is to quench that thirst. And what better way to do that with a bowl of ice-shaven cendol. Jln Bunga Raya has good cendol. So we were told by our friendly pineapple tart seller which we bought 3 containers from.


So we headed there. We couldn’t find the bladdy cendol stall, as described and directed by our friendly local. We were too hungry. Not far from us was this popiah seller. I was quite interested to try whatever he was selling. Hunger was getting out of control. We ordered one each. But it took ages for our popiahs. There were other customers waiting for their popiahs too.

Alas, after about 20 minutes waiting, we got our popiah. It was piping hot. Because he has the ‘sengkuang’ his main ingredient boiling at all times. It was good shit. He’s sengkuang was the one that made the popiah taste so good. And the crispy pig lard just made it even better. Popiah never tasted so good.

Then we found our supposedly famous cendol stall after much asking around. I was anticipating some good shit. But the cendol was a letdown. Bland and watery.

It was time to go back. It was already late afternoon. But I didn’t feel complete. I still haven’t kena some good chedol yet. So we decided to head to the Tan Kim Hock cendol shop which the whole of Jonker Street was recommending us.

On the way there with much anticipation and expectations, we saw another cendol stall by the side of the road. There were lots of people crowding around. I was hesitant about trying it, because after all, we had already decided to go kena some durain chendol. But what made me stop was because this cendol stall was under this gigantic tree which provided a cooling shade. And there were tables around. Some of them makeshift tables. Without wasting time, I stopped by the side of the road. I told myself, if this wasn’t good, I could still head to Tan Kim Hock.


We sat. We ordered. The cendol came. It looked almost the same as the one we had earlier at Jln Bunga Raya. I didn’t expect much. I took a sip of it. WOW! This is it! This is the one! It was good. It tasted different. It had the X-factor that I was looking for all this while. It had something different in it. I shared it with Piggy No. 1. She agreed that it was good. Being a very good cook herself, she identified the X-factor. Salt. That was what made the cendol taste so good.

Where there’s cendol, there will be rojak. Since the chendol was good, I decided to try the rojak. I ordered a plate. My rojak came topped with piping hot rojak gravy. The gravy was dark, as opposed to the light ones that we are all familiar with. This is the first time I have come across rojak served with boiling gravy. Wow. I mixed the rojak evenly so to spread the heat as well. Took the first bite………Ahhhhhhhhh………SUPERB! It was spicy. The kuih rojak was crunchy. The gravy sweet and spicy. Heavenly.

After devouring the rojak and ending it with the cendol, I felt a sense of relief. I DID IT! I found my cendol, and in my pursuit discovered some good shit rojak. WOW! A feeling as close to an orgasm. I was satisfied. Mission accomplished.


It was already evening. Time to go home. But before that, I took some pictures of this Food Utopia. It’s a place that I will remember forever. It made me feel great. It did justice to my tummy. Now it deserves to be in my blog. And I still haven’t gotten over the hangover of Semabuk.