Mother's Day 2013

Happy Belated Mother's Day to my fellow ladies bloggers and readers. 

I had a enjoyable Mother's Day this year.  A few weeks ago I told hubby I would like to do something different for Mother's Day, like a weekend getaway to someplace out of KL but not too far away.


To me, the place that best fits the bill is Melaka, and at one of our favourite mid-range hotel, Hatten.  Melaka is only 1.5 hours away by car, has loads of good food, the famous Jonker Street, and a family friendly, modern hotel that gives unbeatable value.  

Read my previous post on Hatten HERE

We went with some friends who are also a young family like us.  I asked my son to pray hard for good weather, so that we can make full use of the pool and go walkabout in Jonker Street.  And so we had brilliant weather for the two days.  

We left early to have lunch in Melaka, and had originally wanted to try a shop called Tangkak Beef Noodle, but couldn't find the place, so we ended up at Yong Peng Fish Ball Noodle.  It turned out to be a real blessing in disguise because the food was very tasty and reasonable priced.

Located at the end of Jalan Melaka Raya 12, YPFB is a no-frills, corner coffee shop. 

I ordered their signature items - Loh Mee, Dry Noodles set, Curry mee and a selection of yeong tau foo items as well as their popular sai-tou fish balls.  The taste of their noodles was almost exactly like what we have in my hometown, so hubby and I both enjoyed the meal thoroughly.

Hearty bowl of loh mee with minced pork and black vinegar.
Hubby said it was very good.

Curry mee - just the way I like it, the watery version
with more beansprouts than noodles :P
and loads of other goodies

Yeong tau foo

My son's dry noodles with minced pork. 
I had to fight with him over this because it was very yummy.
The sauce was very similar to Ipoh style,
heavy on the black sauce flavour.

Directly opposite Yong Peng Fish Ball is a bakery that sells very decent Portugese egg tarts.  They couldnt measure up to the awesome ones we had in Macao, but nevertheless were much better than many that we've tried in other local bakeries.

Sorry no photos here coz they disappeared pretty quickly!

We went back to the hotel to check in, had a short snooze and hit the pool.  The kids had a splashing good time!

The pool bar was having a promotion for some set meals, so the adults indulged in a fish and chips set (with a mountain of fries and coleslaw) that also came with a drink and icecream.  

For dinner, we went to the hawker corner at Jonker Street, but sadly the food there were very underpar.  The minute we sat down at our table, the stall people descended upon us like vultures, thrusting menus in front of us and barking their offerings, making me cringed inwardly.  Places with good food would never need to do this.  I regretted that we didn't go to Bei Zhan for dinner instead.

Chicken rice balls - very ordinary

Then we headed straight down the street to Bibik Chik Cendol.  We've eaten here before, and I seriously think this place makes the best ever cendol you can find anywhere.  It is not cheap, but worth every cent.

The ice was absolutely powdery, like powdery snow.  A ladle of santan is doused on top, followed by a dollop of good quality durian puree and another ladle of thick, amazingly fragrant gula melaka.  Their gula melaka here is top notch - it is almost as thick as honey, with a smoky sweet fragrant that beats any gula melaka we've tried so far. 

They serve the cendol separately in a tiny, communion size cup.  The best thing is each table has a container of gula melaka syrup that you can help yourself to.  Ooooooo!  This spelt disaster.  Those of you who know my weakness for gula melaka would understand this :P

Not satisfied, we went hunting for satay celup, but couldn't find the famous Capital Satay Celup, so had to settle for some very mediocre version in a shop that I didn't even bother taking photos of :PP



Our very mediocre satay celup. 

The next morning, I woke up rather early (whilst hubby and son are still snoring away), and went downstairs for a leisurely me-only breakfast.  How nice it was to just have a totally relaxing, 2 hour breakfast, with ready foods cooked by other people, no washing up.  I can certainly get used to this :P 

Maybe we'll do this again for next Mother's Day :P

Healthy start to breakfast - oatmeal with maple syrup,
and a frothy cup of latte

Teochew porridge and soft boiled eggs