🇲🇾 TRULY AMAZING NYONYA LAKSA in MELAKA! Nyonya Dumplings & BEST CENDOL!

Good morning friends, we are back in Malaysia and we are in the city of Melaka right now, a World Heritage City. First of all, for the regular viewers of The Gourmet Plate, I have recovered from COVID, I have gotten my sense of smell back which is why we are filming again. Very sorry for missing quite a number of food vlogs, but we are now back and that is what matters. So, Melaka is a historical city and since the Melaka Sultanate, they have gone through the rule of the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and subsequently the British before forming part of Malaysia. Hence, the Melaka food culture is deep, diverse and very exciting. We will be in Melaka for 4 days and obviously we are here to explore the foods that Melaka has to offer from noodles, kueh, satay, nasi goreng, nasi goreng, nasi goreng, nasi goreng, desserts, street food, anything we can get our hands on within these 4 days. And we are starting with what I personally think is the most important cuisine in Melaka, the Peranakan cuisine. Since today is our first day, we are going to start with something light. Let's go and have some laksa, not just any laksa, but Nyonya laksa. Let the Peranakan food hunt begin. Oh, by the way, that building behind me is called the Stadthasje, I hope I pronounced it right. That is I think the oldest remaining Dutch building in Asia. It used to be the office for the Dutch governor, but now it's a museum. There's also a church next to it called the Christ Church of Melaka. So do visit the red buildings. Pretty fun stuff. Alright, back to the food. Alright guys, we are at our first stop which is the Bendahari Markets. It's actually a shop lot, a pretty old shop lot that they refurbished. And right at the back, they sell some souvenirs, they sell some Melaka-related produce. And up in the front, you can see they even sell palm sugar, gula melaka. But what we are here for is this pop-up store right over here. And it's called Doner & Lili and they sell Nyonya laksa. If I understood correctly, Doner & Lili used to have their own restaurant selling Nyonya food but due to the pandemic, they were forced to close down. And now they have this pop-up store in Bendahari Markets which open I think every Friday and Saturday. For those of you who don't know, Nyonya laksa is a soup noodle dish that comes from the descendants of the Chinese immigrants who married the Malay here. And they are called the Baba Nyonya. And it's actually sort of a creamy type of laksa, similar to Kuala Lumpur curry laksa but different base. Their base is made out of a mixture of like chicken and prawn broth together with belacan. And they use a lot more aromatics compared to the Kuala Lumpur laksa. So they generally have a more fragrant and more piquant smell. Without further ado, let us order the Nyonya laksa first from the lovely lady over there called Jennifer. Just look at this delicious bowl of goodness. This bowl of Nyonya laksa right here, you can see the broth is so thick. And look at the amount of tau pok which are like fried tofu puffs. And then they also have this kerang which are black cockles. On the side, some cucumbers. This is daun kesong. It gives you that very nice piquant flavour with a very nice fragrance. They've got an egg on the side. And obviously, you've got to have that sambal. I'm hoping it's very hot. Without further ado, let us quickly try out the broth first and see what it's like. Oh, look at this broth. It's so thick. Yup, this broth has that. You first get that coconut milk flavour, that saltiness. And then you get a sort of like shrimpy undertone which I think comes from the broth. They probably use belacan as well, I'm guessing, which is a fermented dried shrimp. It gives a very fragrant like shrimpy sweetness in the broth. And then, you get the spiciness. The spiciness actually comes after. And this is what is so interesting about this bowl of Nyonya laksa is that the kick of the spice comes after you have savoured all the flavour of that prawniness, that coconut milk flavour. And then you get that kick of the spice. And it's very addictive. You're like, what just happened? And then you just want to go in again. Let us quickly try the noodles now before they get soggy. Noodles are cooked well. A little bit chewy, I think it's due to the nature of the noodles itself, but definitely not overcooked. It's not soft. But the broth though. I love the broth. It's so aromatic. In a way, it's sort of like Sarawak laksa. Not exactly the same, but sort of along those lines. Just that Nyonya laksa is a lot creamier and in a way richer as well. It's actually pretty addictive, this broth. With the spiciness that hits you. It's like the spiciness is a little bit slow. It comes half a second after you've tasted all the flavours, which is fantastic. And these little green pieces here. They give you that very nice aromatic, sort of piquant taste. And it helps cut down a little bit on the richness of this pretty creamy Nyonya laksa. Now I'm going to add in the sambal at the side. Just mix it into the broth and see if it makes it even richer and whether it increases the depth of the flavour of the broth as well. I'm going to give it a good mix. Let's try this again. I think it makes it saltier, but it's still acceptable. It's not like over-salted. So I think if you're a person who is more like, you have a lighter tasting palate, you might not want to add the belacan in. But generally, it does give it a little bit more body. I would recommend putting it in. Let's try the blood cockles at the side. I believe they are like raw blood cockles. And when they pour in the broth, they already cook a little bit there. Let's see if it has that nice iron taste of the blood cockles. Fresh. You taste the iron flavour of the blood cockles. And because it has been soaked in the broth, the broth gives it a little bit of flavour as well. The saltiness and the spiciness. Very nice. Very fresh. Some of that tau pok, which is like deep fried beancurd puffs. And look at them just soaking up all the beautiful creamy broth. I'm excited to have this. Let's go. Let it dip in a little bit more. Very fragrant. Very fresh tau pok. And as you bite in, all the broth that's hidden within has been soaked into the tofu puff. It explodes in your mouth. I think the main narrative for this bowl is the freshness of the ingredients, which I think is essential for every single dish. The fundamentals is that you have to have very fresh ingredients, and this place definitely has that. You can definitely tell from the depth of the broth, the noodles that are cooked nicely, and even the tofu puffs, the blood cockles, they're all fresh. For those of you who have not tried Nyonya laksa before, I think if you like generally creamier based laksas, this might be for you. And they even come with an egg. Creamy yolk. Yolk has flavour. Definitely a good egg. If this is what Nyonya laksa is about, yes. Very addictive. Very nice. Very good. I love it. Alright, now that we're done, let's move on to the next spot. That's a cute depiction of the orangutan. Hey guys, after some really hearty Nyonya laksa, we're at our second spot. We're going to have some desserts at this place called East and West Rendezvous. They sell Nyonya dumplings. They also sell a dessert called cendol, which is some shaved ice with coconut milk and with this green jelly that we call cendol. And then drizzled with gula melaka. I would say the setup of this eatery is relatively simple. It's a one shop lot, and then they have this huge table in the front where you can see them making the Nyonya zap. And behind they have three tables where the patrons sit and enjoy your cendol and the dumplings. This eatery is held by Auntie Grace, and you can still see her making the Nyonya dumplings, like right now. In fact, they don't make it every day. So today we were quite lucky. We managed to catch them in the process of making it. They started by putting on some glutinous rice, the white glutinous rice as a base. And then they put in the mixture of minced pork together with winter melon sugar, the coriander seeds. Everything is mixed together and cooked. They stuffed it in and they topped it off with the blue colored glutinous rice, which is colored with blue pea flowers. And then they bring it up to the back where they boil the Nyonya dumplings in this huge stainless steel pot, put it under high fire for an hour before it's ready. And then after that, they will hang it up and just let it sort of dangle there to cool off. We're going to order one now. And then after that, we will try the cendol as well. Okay guys, the Nyonya Zhang is here. I'm sorry I keep calling it Nyonya Zhang. It's Nyonya dumplings. Over here, we call it Nyonya Zhang. So it's here and you can see that the rice has turned into a more yellowish hue and taken on a very beautiful blue color on the other side from the blue pea flower. So let's cut in and see what it's like. Nice, see all the filling within? Beautiful filling. And I can smell the fragrance. I think that's the coriander seed fragrance. That is the hallmark flavor and fragrance of Nyonya Zhang. So let's quickly grab a bit and try it out. This is a pretty good Nyonya Zhang. You can definitely taste the coriander seed flavor. It's got a very distinct, sort of nearly peppery notes. But of course, I think they added pepper inside as well. There's a bit of peppery flavor. I think it's from the winter melon candy. Yeah, it's a candy winter melon. Actually, a lot of Nyonya Zhang nowadays they normally put this in. So I think this is actually quite important because it's very different from... It has a layer to it. Instead of just adding plain sugar in. I quite like it. The rice, even though on the surface it does look dry. It looks dry, I'm not going to lie. But when you bite in, it's actually okay. It's got a nice chewiness. It's not dry at all. It's not super moist. It's actually surprisingly better than it looks. And there are also some mushroom pieces inside. Yeah, I think it does add to the overall flavor, the umami. Of course, the mushroom itself is already marinated with everything. You can't really taste the mushroom. But it does add to the overall flavor. It's got a very complex pepperness with certain layers of depth. You've got to eat it to understand what it really tastes like. The only way I can say is that it really tastes like coriander seeds mainly. So if you know what coriander seeds taste like, you will roughly be able to gauge what Nyonya Zang tastes like. And this is a pretty good rendition of it. Despite the looks, it's pretty good. I think this is a dish that you definitely must order especially on a hot day, which is every day in Malaysia. So this dish is good every day. And I noticed they drizzle the gula melaka first, then only the santan. A lot of others I see, they actually put the santan first, then the gula melaka on top. So that's a pretty interesting switch. Which is why you will notice that the gula melaka doesn't look like it's really thick, but when they put it on, it's actually very saucy. That's because the santan has sort of diluted it down. And of course, the green chendol jellies will be underneath. We will see them later. This one is very addictive. Oh, this one is good. This one is actually one of the better ones, definitely. The good ones. Why I like this particular variant is because it's very balanced. You don't taste anything first. You actually taste everything together. You get the santan, the saltiness from the coconut milk, and then you get the gula melaka. It's not very smoky, but it's got enough caramel flavour. And the smokiness is there, but it's not overpowering. The sago I tasted, it's got a decent chewiness. I think it adds to the texture. Let me try a little bit with that chendol and kidney beans. The kidney beans are very soft. I think they will cook sometimes. It's not too soft. There's a little bit of firmness, so I quite like it. And the chendol is very smooth, and you can see that it's actually very naturally coloured. There are some chendol that are just like alien green, but this is natural, coloured with pandan juice. It's smooth, a little bit of chew. Yup, this is a very good chendol. Yeah, the balance is very good, between the softness and the sweetness. Yeah, the key point is balance. It's just very addictive, very refreshing. Absolutely recommended. Alright, we're going to head into the plating time segment now. Let's talk about the Nyonya laksa spot, Donald and Lily. A really good bowl of Nyonya laksa. The side ingredients are very generous. Yeah, very generous ingredients. For the price point, I think it's very generous. I think it's about $14. The ingredients are definitely fresh. And the broth, it has a good balance between creaminess while not being cloy. That is very important for laksa. And the spices. You can definitely taste them. You need to take some time, but it's there. You can taste the belacan, especially in the broth itself. So it was a very enjoyable bowl of Nyonya laksa. And in fact, I'll go on a limb and say that I will crave for it. The problem is, it's in Malacca. So we have to drive for 2 hours. We have to drive 2 hours to come here. But yeah, absolutely recommended. Really good bowl of Nyonya laksa. You gotta come here and try. And with that being said, don't let Elias cause a heartbeat on the Gourmet Clique. Which means it is some high-quality Nyonya laksa right there. Absolutely recommended. If you are in Malacca, you must try. If you love laksa, just drive down 2 hours from KL and try. Okay, moving on. Auntie Grace's Nyonya dumplings and jendol. Let's talk about jendol first since it's right in front of us. Everything is just right. The balance ultimately between the santan and the gula melaka. Good jendol, definitely try it out. Now, on to the nyonya zang. I would say for its price point, very very decent nyonya zang. Way above average. The filling within is quite generous and it's pretty well flavoured as well. Pretty well spiced. You could taste all the flavours that is iconic of a nyonya zang. So I definitely recommend trying out a nyonya zang when you are here. And then having the jendol. But if I were to nitpick a little bit, I would say the flavours are very direct. It could do with a little bit more refinement. But if you were to refine it further, I think it wouldn't cost how much it costs now. It would cost significantly more. And with that being said, East and West Rendezvous by Auntie Grace scores an OK on the gourmet plate. Which means it is some good quality nyonya zang and jendol. I actually recommend it as well if you are in Melaka. Definitely try them out. In fact, I would say try this jendol first and the nyonya zang. Then you try the rest of the flavours. So I guess that is it for today's episode since it is our first day. We are going a little bit light. Tomorrow we will carry on with exploring Peranakan cuisine. We are going to go for some nyonya kueh at a really famous nyonya kueh spot in Melaka. And then after that we are going to a Peranakan cuisine restaurant for dinner which is recommended by a friend of ours who is a Melakan. So that's it for today. See you guys next week. Stay tuned. Bye bye.