Time-Out: Malacca, Malaysia - a weekend food trip

Malacca, being a former Dutch colony, had always been interesting for hubby. 
One day, we hopped into a bus on an early morning @ Beach Road and can't wait what's in-store for us.  As soon as we arrived,  We dropped our bags at Hotel Equatorial - good location, but the room was so-so and then off we go to start our journey.  We went to all the tourist spots and must see...

Fort A Famosa, Stadthuys, Maritime Museum, Sultanate Palace = check!

Of course, another agenda was....EATING!  We just can't leave Malacca without trying these...

Chung Wah Chicken Rice Balls (4/5) - at Jonker Street.  We were so happy that they immediately accomodated us in a vacant table and they tried their best to talk to us in English.  And yes, we got our orders right. 

We love the sticky texture of the balls and a very efficient way to eat rice.  The chicken and chili were great but nothing spectacular.  Singapore still is our place to be for chicken rice.

To wash off the heavy lunch, we walked around and Ta-Pao KOPI-C.  This is how an Ang Mo takes his

 kopi along the street.

Since we were in Malacca, only for the weekend, it was too much for a day, so we headed to the hotel, lied down and got ready for supper.  It was easy to navigate around the area of the hotel and lots of eating places were available.  However, we have to go for this eatery everyone is bragging about...

We forgot to research how to get there so we took one of these nicely decorated Malacca rickshaw.

Me, sounding very touristy: 'We need to get to Capitol Satay Celup'. 

Rickshaw driver: ok, 30 ringgit.

Hubby and I boarded the vehicle and enjoyed the trip.  As soon as we arrived, wooah, they ain't joking...the queue was long! 

Driver:              hotel? *signalling to go back*

Hubby:            let's get down here and just look for other eating places.

Me:                ok (sounded disappointed...trying to transmit to hubby...can we please wait???)

I was successful and...we joined the queue with his grumpy face.  After waiting for about 1 1/2 hours, we got our table yippeee!  It was very busy so I didn't even bother taking so much pictures and I was hungry then. 

Satay celup (4.5/5) is your typical steamboat where all items from fish balls, tofu, veggies, meat to prawns were stuck on sticks and dipped in a deep pan of sizzling and spicy peanut sauce.  There's a huge variety of food and they refill the frozen area fast.  The peanut sauce was one of the best we've had.  It's thickness and less watery made it tasty thus, constant stirring was necessary.  This is not an eat-all-you-can place but you pay per stick.  The big prawns, were taken out from the kitchen and provided on the table.  Per stick costs around 60-70 cents ringgit (i think) regardless of the item.  

When done, they count the number of sticks and multiply with the cost...Ta da.  It's cheap and reasonable as you pay only what you ate instead of charging a fixed amount.  Overall, it was worth the wait.

And it was a bountiful weekend.  Looking forward to the next trip...and eat outs...soon.

Capitol Satay Celup
Chung Wah Chicken Rice Balls
Malacca, Malaysia