Restoran Aunty Lee, Malacca, Malaysia

Quite a long time ago, Chinese settlers and traders married the locals of Malaysia and gave birth to some pretty kickass fusion food known as "Peranakan" or "Nonya" cuisine. Malacca was the outpost for Chinese admiral Zhang He and as such an intermesh of Chinese settler influx and the local female population resulted in a rather strong Peranakan population. No trip to Malacca is really complete without some tasty Nonya food. We knew this place is good when there are only about six tables in the premise and they were turning away quite a few who didn't have the foresight to make a reservation.

When I was young, I didn't really appreciate the taste of petai (also known as smelly beans) that much but somehow I now tend to order this dish whenever I see it on the menu. These were fried with shrimp and a very tasty and spicy local chili gravy.

A fluffy omelette cooked with preserved shrimp was next. I was worried this would be too salty sinced it used preserved baby shrimp but thankfully it was extremely fragrant and flavored just right.

Nonya otak is vaguely described as a fish and coconut paste cake. The nonya variants always at least abit spicy compared to the Indonesian otaks. This was steamed instead of grilled but the rich coconut taste and chunks of fish were very welcomed indeed.

Chicken buah keluak is a spicy, sourish curry dish which is characterized by the usage of nuts from the Pangium edule or kepayang tree to produce a unique taste. The contents of the nuts are an acquired taste but I do enjoy digging it out with a teaspoon, mixing it with some gravy and stirring everything into freshly steamed rice.

Chicken pong teh is another classic Nonya dish and involves cooking the meat and mushrooms in a sweet brown bean paste. Since this joint is halal they used chicken instead of babi (pork). I'm still more used to babi pong teh though, as chicken tends to be a rather boring meat.

This nonya fried chicken was surprisingly very good. Apparently the chicken is coated in balacan (preserved dried shrimp) powder before being fried hence giving it a unique flavor which isn't as strong as the prawn paste fried chicken we get at all the Hong Kong Street outlets here. Still this was extremely crispy on the outside but still juicy and succulent within.

The assam squid was decent. Definitely not bad but nothing much to shout about either.

The green dish of the meal was stir-fried morning glory with garlic. Nice big chunks of fried garlic really gave this dish quite a flavor boost, not to mention a breath boost as well haha.

As a taste-test we decided to try their cendol and see how it stacked up against Jonker Desserts. I know this answer may seem politically correct but this was very good as well in its own right. It tasted more traditional than the one at Jonker but still very nice. I'm a big fan of cendol and I'll put Aunty Lee's and Jonker's on the same pedestal as the excellent one I had in Jakarta.

D