Malacca: What We Ate

The only picture I took in a restaurant: R
goofing around waiting for our food

I'm a failure as a food blogger, because I never remember to take pictures. (One of my friends takes a picture of every meal eaten when on vacation, however small, which is so awesome and a great way to remember the trip. I must try harder to do this.)

In any case, Malacca has superlatively good food (even though I don't have proof and you will just have to take my word for it). There's a lot of diversity in the dining scene, despite the city's small size: cuisines include Chinese (of many varieties), Malaysian, Indian/Pakistani, Portuguese, Japanese, Peranakan (known as Nonya here), American and European. Most of the food (especially the hawker centre or street food) is very similar to that available in Singapore.

My recommendations:
--Cendol (I love this: a dessert I can eat! Plus, you can't go wrong with coconut milk, sugar, ice and cendol on a hot day).
--Nonya food (We really enjoyed Nancy's Kitchen)
--Pak Putra (Delicious Tandoori, at least according to everyone else--I can't eat it due to the yogurt sauce. The naan was excellent, however.)
--Chicken rice balls (dish unique to Malacca; they taste just like the Hainanese chicken rice available in Singapore. R loved these and ate most of them).

Malacca is pretty touristy, but all of these dishes/restaurants are patronized by locals as well as tourists (and many of the tourists are Malaysian or SE Asian). I would avoid the more "foreign" food (mainstream Chinese, Japanese, etc.) as it's aimed more for tour groups and thus is not good. Stick to the small, Malaysian-oriented places and you won't go wrong.