It was Friday night again, Jian dropped by my place to pick me up for dinner. Not knowing what to eat, we headed out for town in search of some eye-catching spanking new cafes or restaurants.

As we were cruising along the coastal highway, Jian chanced upon this particular eatery, which I later recalled reading about it from a fortnightly local pullout that recommends good food in the historical city of Malacca. We decided to give it a try as we were lazy to scout anymore.

A pretty standard kopitiam interior, but brightly lit and very spacious. The wooden tables and chairs looked pretty cheap for today’s standard. I reckon one could carry it, smash it on one’s head and it did break into two easily. Moreover, it was far from comfortable, especially for the ones fitted against the wall. Ventilation was good even without air conditioners.

The shop branded itself as the place that sells traditional homemade noodles and pan mee. The menu practically consists of only six types of food, fried, curry, soup version, dry version, tomyam and prawn. Then, you have the option to choose from thin noodles, broad noodles, kuey teow, rice vermicelli, pan mee and etc.. That’s about it, no rice-related food. All you can order is noodle, noodle, noodle and more noodles.

To add in some varieties, they have a number of finger foods like fish balls, deep fried seafood tofu and etc. Also, they sell barbecued stuffs like hot dogs, chicken, prawns, pork balls and fish balls at RM1 per stick.

Also, they have really cheap breakfast combos. For less than RM5, you get toast breads, half boiled eggs, hash browns and a cup of coffee / tea. Sweet!

Jian’s mango drink.

I ordered some barbecued chicken to go along with my fried noodles. It was nicely marinated with curry powder and then barbecued. For RM1, it was decent enough although the size of the meat was really small. I later ordered another two sticks of hot dogs as well.

Together with the barbecued stuffs, came the chili sauce. I was grinning from ear to ear because this type of chilli sauce is always my favourite. The chilli sauce that my grandmother used to make whenever we have chicken rice. It’s hot, it’s spicy, it’s a little sour and most importantly, it’s delicious. How I miss my grandmother’s homemade chili.

My fried noodles came rather quickly. Two pork balls, a few strands of vegetable and a spoonful of minced meat. That wee bit of minced meat made the just-another-fried-noodle dish tasted better, or at least, stood out from others. Taste wise, it was average for a simple dish like this. The noodles were springy, probably because it was homemade rather than machine produced.

Jian ordered his dry version of pan mee.

Overall, taste wise, it was mediocre and the portion was quite small, even for small eater like Jian. Due to the untoward incident that left a very bad and sour aftertaste, I am not going to put a picture of the shop’s outlook or even recommend it. Also, I heard from my two sisters who went there for a drink found worms in their herbal drink. All the boss offered was to waive the fee for the drink from the bill, nothing else.

I was taking pictures of my food and interior of the restaurant, just how like I always do whenever I visit a new restaurant or cafe.

It was until when the boss, who looked like a late 20’s chao ah beng that has quite about 30% resemblence to Singapore’s famous actor Mark Lee 李国煌, came over and spoke to me.

The boss stutters (A speech disorder involving hesitations and involuntary repetitions of certain sounds.).

Conversation was in Mandarin, but translated for blog usage.

“You… You… You… You cannot take pictures, do you know that? Why are you… you… you… you taking pictures? Do you… you… you… you know that you are scaring away my customers?”

“Huh? How does me taking photos scaring your customers? Why I cannot take pictures? I love photography and I want to take pictures to keep, that’s all.”

“You… You… You… You still cannot take pictures.”

“Why? You tell me why first, then I shall see.”

“You… you… you… you still cannot take pictures.”

“Why lah?”

The boss left.

Not satisfied with the answer, I proceeded to continue to take my pictures. However, with respect, I took off my external flash and proceeded to take pictures without any flash, to avoid disturbing other customers. On top of that, I have always choose a corner table at the end of the restaurant or a mcuh more quiet area to avoid disturbing other people when I take my pictures.

After finishing my meal, I proceeded to call the boss for the bill.

“Boss, I just to love to take pictures. Don’t worry too much.” (I was trying to be nice.)

“You… you… you… you still cannot take pictures, do you… you… you… you know that?” (The boss said with a very disgusted face and bad attitude.)

“What’s the problem?” (I said in a very agitated tone.)

“You… you… you… you still cannot take pictures. I… I… I… I CAN CALL 999 AND ASK THE POLICE TO COME AND CATCH YOU.”

“……” (I was dumbfounded for 3 seconds.)

“Boss, you actually want to call the police to come to catch me just because I take pictures of my food? Are you out of your mind?”

“……”

He left.

I left the restaurant in a very agitated mood and not wanting to go back there again even though the food was quite good.

I would have politely keep my camera if you give me a valid reason, but definitely not when you don’t have a valid reason, speak to your customer in such tone and with that disgusting look. Moreover, all you ever know how to say is “You… You… You… You cannot take pictures.”, like a three year old child arguing.

If you are selling designs, I understand. If you are selling unique items, I understand. However, it’s food. How can I copy the ingredients used, method of making / cooking, tastes and etc. through a picture? It’s just pure bullshit. If you are confident with your food, why are you afraid of people exposing your business or eatery? If you know your food sucks, why bother to start a restaurant in the first place? Most importantly, there was no “No Camera” sign,

Later, after coming back from home, when I tried to reenact the scene by speaking like the boss, I realized how funny it was.

I wouldn’t have laugh at him for his stuttering, but when he threatened to call the police to catch me because I was taking pictures inside his shop, I couldn’t help it but to find it amusing, ridiculous and absolutely ridiculous.

Amusing, indeed.

Jian and I headed to town for Amber Chia’s Mahkota Fashion Runway and before heading back to Bukit Beruang, we decided to have something else for dinner. Jian suggested East Garden at Melaka Raya and since I couldn’t come up with anything else, I took his suggestion.

It sure looks like any other cafe in town. The good thing is that it doesn’t smell smokey inside the cafe. On one corner, there’s a work station, which I am not too sure whether one can use it to surf the internet or not. There’s free wifi and newspapers / magazines placed around for diners to surf or read while waiting or having their meal.

Two page menu for food and drinks. Nothing special, nothing significant, nothing different.

Jian ordered a glass of Tiramisu (Yeah, tiramisu has became a drink. WTF!) while I had plain water.

Bored while waiting for our food, I snapped around.

The waiter recommended their fried chicken chop, with different sauce to go along with it. I had one with thousand islands sauce while Jian had his with sweet and sour sauce with sesame seeds. It is served with barely a spoonful of coleslaw, handful of fries and some lettuces, cucumbers and tomatoes for garnishing. Well, its tasted not too bad, but it’s plain normal at the same time.

I had warm longan with white fungus for dessert. It tasted pretty decent, with generous amount of longan inside.

The bill came up to roughly RM25 for the both of us. It wasn’t as expensive as I expected and for the price I am paying, I am not going to be very picky with the taste.

Sleepy Hao, Akiraceo Jian and I headed to town for a more decent (Anything better than Sushi King or maybe Sibaraku is considered decent.) Japanese food. Actually, I have nothing to blog anymore, so I dragged these two scapegoats along so that I have more pictures to be used in my post.

I read about this particular restaurant from Yung.’s blog and decided to give it a try. Who knows, I might have another place to have my all time favourite unagis whenever I feel like I want to.

Wa Zen 和膳 Japanese Restaurant, located not too far from Portuguese Hotel, operates quietly in Melaka Raya. It’s relatively easy to find and parking is ample. However, do take note the lane opposite the shop is drawn with yellow lines, so, try not to park there during the day time.

There aren’t many tables in the restaurants. A glance at it, there could be less than 10 tables, with separated cubicles on the left and a private room at the back. Warm lighting and fully air conditioned.

My complain is that, they actually allow their patrons to smoke inside the air conditioned restaurants. Not very wise, I would say. Ample space between each tables and still comfortable to sit in. I think the restaurant is quite popular in town, as we had to wait for a short while before being seated as all tables were occupied. There were a lot of Japanese customers having dinner there too, to my surprise.

Then, I noticed this cat again. Its in every Japanese restaurant, I believe. I seen it here, Sibaraku and also Sushi King. Meow~

Upon seated, hot towels are served to all patrons. However, with three photographers around, hot towels ended up being cold by the time we use it. As usual, pre-packed wooden chopsticks and chilled green tea.

While waiting for our food to arrive, I played with the stuffs available on the table. The Japanese soy sauce, chilies flakes and tooth picks.

For starters, Hao and I had the fresh salmon handroll and soft shell crabs handroll. Taste wise, it was edible but definitely lost out in terms of taste. The seaweed used to wrap around the ingredients were not easy to tear off, making it quite a little troublesome to eat and with all the egg roes falling off. I wonder the seaweed got “stiffed” because of our photo taking time. The waiter did remind us to eat them quickly.

We ordered the sets, which come with a bowl of white rice, salads, steamed eggs, two slices of watermelons and whatever you ordered main dish. It was really disappointing to see a small pool of water after I finished the bowl of salads, which could only mean they didn’t drain the lettuce properly before serving. The steamed egg contained too much water and has lost its texture. A failed cawanmushi.

Hao ordered tori rose katsu set (deep fried pork chop) while Jian ordered teriyaki chicken rice set. I don’t know how it tasted, so let it be.

As for me, definitely and nothing else but unagis. Yummy! I was telling May Gin this early evening that I was having cravings for unagis.

The unagis were much drier compare to many other unagis that I have tried in other Japanese restaurants. However, the taste was there albeit not that strong. The delicate white meat was cooked to perfection, retaining its firm texture and yet soft and smooth enough to glide down my throat. Again, some sweet sauce onto the white rice would be nice, for its too dry, the whole set that is.

In Malacca, there are only a few Japanese restaurants, with Sushi King dominating the market. However, with Wa Zen around, the locals have another options. I would definitely come back again, especially when I feel like having a more proper Japanese food rather than the sucky but still edible Sushi King. There’s another Japanese restaurant that is about to open soon in Dataran Pahlawan, but that will be another post.

Wa Zen Japanese Restaurant
38, Jalan Melaka Raya 15,
Taman Melaka Raya, 75000 Melaka.

06-2823882

While I have personally visited Asian Havana Cafe twice (first and second), it was my third visit that I came in the name of work and that means free food.

As I have written about them before and feeling lazy (again), I shall just post a raw (unedited) copy of my write up on Asian Havana Cafe. It’s tiring and brain exhausting to write the same topic / material twice with two different style and yet have the same points, you know?

While other cafes are die trying to woo tourists and locals with authentic Nyonya, Portuguese and Hainanese food, Calvin Loke dares to be different by introducing authentic western and fusion dishes to the local food scene through Asian Havana Café.

“The western foods here have been localized to suit the taste buds of Malaysians and have lost the basic elements like fibers, proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates and minerals.

“I not only retain the basic elements, I also emphasize on the foods’ presentations, textures and retaining the true essence of western food. In fact, I have improvised it and created a whole new fusion menu,” said Loke who started the restaurant in 2004 after returning from the states.

Capital of Cuba, Havana, is very similar to Malacca when it comes to the historical values, colonization history, cultures and peoples.

It was from there where Loke got his idea of naming his restaurant, Asian Havana Café, intending to recreate an Asian version of the Havana in Malaysia.

“Everything is made using the freshest ingredients and from scratch, with no artificial flavouring and preservatives used,” added Loke.

One could expect a huge variety and extensive menu of food and beverages, serving a wide array of local, western and fusion main courses, cakes and desserts, coffee and other beverages.

Best sellers and top favourites among the customers are Havana chicken cordon bleu, seafood baked carbonara, pan fried miso fillet, saba teriyaki, pad Thai Noodles and Thai pineapple fried rice.

Seafood baked carbonara is highly recommended to those who like strong and milky sauce to go along with their spaghetti.

Unlike most carbonara, mozzarella cheese are melted evenly on top of the noodles and seafood like mussels, prawns, clams, fish fillets, bamboo clams and slices of Australian giant squids.

“The combination of cheese and carbonara is the best, complementing each other and bringing out the full flavor of both ingredients, creamy and cheesy simultaneously,” said Loke.

To avoid the customers complaining that the chicken breast meat used in the Havana chicken cordon blue are too dry, Loke added layers of ham and mozzarella cheese in it before rolling them together to keep the meat moist and juicy. The meat is then wrapped with bread crumbs and deep fried.

You get two different textures combined into one, absolute crunchiness on the outside, soft, creamy and succulent meat on the inside.

Served together with spaghetti noodles and homemade Napolitana sauce as the base sauce, the sweet yet with a tiny bit of sourness sauce does a great job in opening up your appetite.

“We got ourselves a Thai chef to teach us the original and better way to cook Thai style pineapple fried rice and the key to a good plate of pineapple fried rice lies within the amount of turmeric powder used,” pointed out Loke.

Just the right amount of turmeric powder is used to bring out yet not overpower the taste of the fragrant rice and mixed seafood inside the dish. Raisins, sultanas and spring onions are used to garnish and add more colours to the fried rice.

Another specialty of Asian Havana Café is the flourless cheese cakes, mainly the white chocolate, dark chocolate with orange, Baileys’ Irish cream and the almond and orange cheese cake are a must try for diners to complete a wholesome meal.

“Only a flourless cheese cake is able to produce a pure, soft, moist and non sticky cake texture. It should melt in your mouth,” said Loke.

There are different promotions throughout the week, with coffee lovers’ day taking the lead on Monday, “Ho Cake Ah” on Tuesday, Queens’ day on Wednesday, sport days on Thursday, chill out Friday, “Yummm Sengggg!” on Saturday and hot plate Sunday.

On Fridays and Saturdays, diners can even order freshly made and rolled sushis starting from 7pm till 11pm.

Asian Havana Café
No. 2 & 4, Jalan Melaka Raya 26,
Taman Melaka Raya,
75000 Melaka.

06-2827117

Flaunt your student card and you are entitled to 10% discount, that was what I remembered during my last visit. Heh!