Makantrip.com

I was on a MAS flight and while reading through the in-flight magazine, I read this article about a Calanthe Art Cafe at Jonker Street in Melaka that serves all 13 types of coffee from states across Malaysia. I thought its very interesting and told myself to check it out on my next trip there.

Finally when Nicole & Loy came to KL from Perth, they wanted to visit Melaka and while touring Jonker Street we decided to stop there for a coffee break.

This cafe is located at Jalan Hang Kasturi, if you are on the main Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat), turn in at Farmosa Chicken Rice and its along the narrow Jalan Hang Kasturi. Advise is to park somewhere easy and walk there as parking and driving in these small lanes is a challenge, for my truck at least

The cafe have 2 entrance, one is the cafe and the other is a small souvenir shop that sells t-shirts, traditional coffee cup as well as the coffee of the 13 states in a nice box.

The interior is very cosy and unique, recycling various items and decors from the olden days. The cafe gives me a nostalgia feeling that I am back in time to the 70-80′s when I was still staying in the wooden house in PJ Oldtown.

There’s a lot of food and drinks you can select from the menu, but the highlight to me is their 13 states coffee. I asked for recommendation and the waiter said if I wanted Kopi-O Ice, the best seller is Johor and I had a go with that. At first when the ice coffee arrived, its doesn’t look O (without milk) but then I realised its the foam that makes it looks lighter in color. The coffee is good and does reminds me of the flavours I had in Johor.

Mouth being itchy, we also tried some fried durian which are fresh durian, dipped in batter and deep fried and the result, it is just superb!

Calanthe looks like a very nice place to return just to relax for a nice cup of cuppa and maybe some snacks .

Calanthe Art Cafe @ Jalan Hang Kasturi
GPS: N2 11.721 E102 14.837

Most of the tourist to Melaka would surely go to Jonker Street to experience to the old Melaka, its’ invaluable heritage, history and also local goods and food. But located just right next to Jonker Street is Medan Selera Tengkera which mostly only serve the locals.

Located at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock opposite the Pay Fong Chinese school, this place used to be stalls under a big tree and even know the tree is still maintained but the food court is now much clean and tidy with roof over it’s top.

The food here are mainly local and simple stuff. The hot drinks here goes from RM1.10 up and they are pretty decent.

Tau Kua is sort of a local thing, I had never had this in KL before. Its tofu, fried one all cut up and serve with pineapples and cucumber at the bottom and chili paste on top. The smallest is RM2.00 onwards. The tofu is soft and kind of nice with the chili paste, yummy.

I was walking around the food court trying to decide what to eat… then I saw the roast meat stalls looks good, so I order the char siew and siew yok rice. As the local styles goes, there’s varieties on topping to choose from too! Its like having chap fan but the based are roast meats and you have sauce like sweet or curry to go with it. So the standard one I ordered comes with some fried eggs and the sides I chose some kangkung vege plus tau kua (braised tofu). All these cost only RM4.50, that’s value for money. However there’s only 2 char siew rice that I missed so far in Melaka is one at Bunga Raya and the other at Melaka Baru .

Not being greedy like me, Miharu opted for some simple economical fried meehoon and mee which the local style is to cover with chili paste plus dark sweet sauce. Something we don’t do in KL for sure… hehe…

I was told by Miharu the good thing is actually their Curry Rice stall but my upset stomach this morning doesn’t permits me to be too adventurous with curry, maybe the next time .

There are many other stalls here, stuff like fried lobak, roti canai, various noodles and others too.

Medan Selera Tengkera (next to Shell)
Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Melaka Tengah, Melaka.
GPS: N2 11.872 E102 14.585

I love to have breakfast at Jalan Tun Sri Lanang by the open air car park with their very good chicken rice ball and also hee kiaw mee. At night, this same place is converted to serve 2 other stalls, one is also a hee kiaw mee and the other is a char koay teow stall.

Tonight after dropping Miharu off for wedding dinner, I head there for a good bowl of hee kiaw mee. I got a little greedy (as always ) and added additional 6 pieces of pork and fish balls on top of my hee kiaw mee which is already filled with good stuff.

I asked for the soup noodles… so in my hee kiaw mee there are obviously hee kiaw (fish paste), almost 8 slices of them, a few slices of bbq pork (char siew), half a fried wanton and 3 fishball… the topping almost covered my meehoon! With an additional 6 pieces in another bowl, you can imagine how full I am now.

The soup is great, with a generous amount of Chinese parsley added really brings out the aroma and most important of all the clear soup is tasty and no thirst after drinking. The hee kiaw and fish balls are very good as well with good texture and taste.

The pricing is also good, with a drink and all the above for RM6.90. The base hee kiaw noodles itself is RM3.50. Good place for a quick and good dinner .

Hee Kiaw at Jalan Tun Sri Lanang
GPS: N2 12.387 E102 15.178