We Singaporeans are all siao one, willing to go through fire and brimstone just for good food. The numerous programmes on our local channels promoting food in various corners of the island is testimony to that fact. Take my family, for example, who drove all the way to Melaka over the weekend just to eat. Apparently, my parents and my brother had already been doing this on a regular basis, so I was a little slow to jump on their bandwagon.
Our trip started off on the right note. Nice, not too sunny weather with white, fluffy clouds crowding the sky. Minimal traffic at the Second Link, which was quite surprising given the potentially long Labour Day weekend if one were to take leave on Monday. Once we cleared the Malaysian immigration, we shot off like a bat out of hell and just went ZOOM! I was doing about 120 all the way, occasionally changing lanes to slow down when I lost sight of my dad’s car in the rear view mirror. Or when I was being tailgated by a souped up Kelisa with an exhaust so loud it would put any WRX cowering away in shame.
Vel fell asleep 10 mins into the ride. Which meant we didn’t have to worry about entertaining her. She only woke up when we stopped for a toilet break (my brother’s SMS read: Stop at next toilet, mummy is leaking) at Pagoh. A little stretch, a quick pee and some drinks later, we were on our way again, comforted at the fact that we were nearing our destination.
We were driving quite fast, so we reached Ayer Keroh in a under an hour. From there, it took us another 30 mins to reach Melaka town itself. Passing by landmarks along the way like the famous waterfall and the Melaka zoo, I started to salivate with the thought of getting closer to all that yummy food. Which made me drive even faster, zipping in and out of traffic.
But we had to make a quick stop at Jonker Walk to check out the famous popiah stall which, according to my mum and brother, was supposedly very shiok. However, the stall was closed by the time we got there about 6pm. So we ended up buying cincalok and other local favourites at a nearby shop before heading off to hunt down our dinner.
But we ended up going in circles because my poor dad, whose hunger probably affected his sense of direction, took a wrong turn. Some giddy turns later, we finally arrived at Newton food centre. Like its Singaporean namesake, this place also offered tons of yummy favourites. All of us came to a consensus: to order bits of pieces of everything so that we would have space to chow down more rubbish at the Jonker Walk pasar malam later. In the end, our ‘bits and pieces’ came down to 10 sticks of otah, two plates of oyster omelette, one portion of Hainanese chicken, one plate of bean sprouts, two portions of Portugese BBQ stingray, two bowls of curry noodles and 6 chicken wings. We were all quite stuffed by the time we finished everything and went through a round of drinks. The logical way to end all this was… CHENDOL!
So we all hopped into our cars and made our way to Jonker Walk. When we arrived, the place was already bustling with people. And it was really hot! We milled about for a bit, stopping here and there to buy nonsense for Vel (a Chinese fan, a stick of maltose candy, a toy and those retro throw-on-the-floor-to-burst crackers) and a 100gm bag of sotong bakar for a freaking RM$10. But it was gobbled up within minutes by the endless pits we all were. We settled on a dessert stall down the row and we all ordered chendol (or cendol as it’s known in Melaka). Mummy, not being a big fan of coconut milk, decided to be safe and go with ice jelly. Vel, as usual, was curious as to what the hoo-ha was about and shared my chendol with me. My parents and bro, being disgusting as they are, decided to squeeze more gula melaka onto the already very rich dessert. I didn’t even manage to finish everything cos it got very heeby-jeebly after a while with all that sugar and coconut milk.
When we were done, it was already past our ETD (we were targetting to leave at 8.30pm) so we headed quickly back to our cars to make our way home. A quick pit stop at the Shell station at Ayer Keroh for a final toilet break, fuel top up, chewing gum and Vel to change into her PJs. Then off we went! Zoom! Back to Singapore at 140. I shot past my dad at some point along the way and never saw him after that.
An uneventful 2 hours later when we cleared the Malaysian and Singaporean immigration (no jam!) on the AYE headed for home, my brother SMSed to say they were still at Abu Bakar.
We put Vel to bed and fell asleep as soon as we finally hit the sack at 12.30am.
Still sleepy from the night before (Mummy and I went to watch Ninja Turtles!), we wake up one Saturday with screams of ‘Mummy! Daddy! Wake up! Go beach oredi!’. Eyes still half-closed, our little monster pushes us out of bed at 9.30.
