I was eagerly anticipating it- a 250km cruise through the sometimes undulating but always scenic, vast and calm Malaysia North-South Highway to Malacca. So calm, I had to chew fresh calamansi limes, a couple of times, just to keep the eyes apart when the pretty hillviews was shutting me down. Crossing the finishing line meant indulging in two days of food, culture and wine in this Unesco awarded World Heritage Site, the birthplace of Peranakan culture and a landmark for Eurasian heritage in South East Asia. Neat, I was about to learn what “die-die-must-try” sounds like in Cristao, the unique and adapted local lingua franca of these creole Portuguese Eurasians in Malacca. Finding out, over a true blue Nonya meal at one of their oldest Peranakan restaurant, about the subtle differences between Malacca and Singapore’s nonya chow would be doubly enriching too.

I could not go wrong this time, after many disappointing self guided trips in before only to wind up at all the cheesy and touristy “travel 101” corners of this historic city. I had pal and “local encyclopedia” Bonny Wee as my Pied Piper of the trip. He is the author of a few books on his hometown and his latest, Malacca, A World Heritage Site, was, to me a gem in a haystack. It looked more like a 255 page colourful commercial brochure but the information he’s buried inside are truly gems only a local born, bred and proud Malaccan, can uncover. He raised money, wrote and inked it all own his own and it touched on places, faces, things, tastes and the multi cultural facets of this charming old city. So, I was very ready to eat debal(devil’s curry), feng, smore and even pork tambrinu (tamarind pork stew), and digest their culture. The first night was naturally at the Portuguese settlement area which was recently redeveloped with a seaside Eurasian and Portuguese food court with a little esplanade.

Ok, I shall keep you in suspense no more. We dined at one of the more “popular” stalls there and in the words of Bonny, after a disappointing meal, fronted by bland chop suey, plain deep fried eggplant and no curry debal, cited “Yeah, the Eurasian and Cristang makan here is a bit sad lah, especially today. Don’t know what happened, it was not like this thirty years ago.” There was a nice saving grace sambal prawn dish, but it was as Malay in style as it came. I felt like a kid who walked two hours to the playground only to play with mud.

The Puchuk Paku Masak Lemak and the Jenak Goreng Chilli
clearly were the winners here.

In compensation Bonny suggested “let’s makan at the Nonya restaurant that Malaccans swear by”. He breathed some life into my mud castle. Restoran Nonya Makko began life in 1984 when Maureen Guan and her mother Madam Chock, set this second Nonya eatery in Malacca, a year after Ole Sayang, their oldest. You won’t see too many old European tourists attempting ayam buah keluak as they are sited away from the pretty tourist magnet old streets of Jonker and Tan Cheng Lok, in an unfancied modern corner of town. The restaurant is not much of a looker, old marble tables with cursory attempts at décor and has some coloured stained glass windows. It reminded me of our old Guan Hoe Soon restaurant in Joo Chiat.

It’s the food, not the décor, that dazzles, in Makko

I must admit, that this is indeed one of the finer (in terms of food quality) Peranakan eateries I’ve ever had. One difference with this Nonya restaurant is they don’t dish out buah keluak, pongteh, chap chye or otah as a signature (as they often do in Singapore). I will always go back for their Puchuk Paku Masak Lemak (wild fern cooked in coconut curry). The dish, which has a light crunchy texture with an agreeable garden fragrance, is something we can’t find in Singapore. Their Jenak Goreng Chilli Garam (crispy fried fish with chilli sambal) was the second best version I’ve ever devoured (Nonya Kenny Chan’s version tops it all) and the chilli sambal was teasingly engaging. Their simple, again not easy to find here, Chinchalok Omelet had just enough hint of that pungent fermented shrimp sauce laced with fresh onions and chilli. I wished their tightly packed and rolled Ngoh Hiang (meat roll) was made in the original pork version, instead of chicken. It was well made, chunky and juicy to the bite but alas, it just lost out in texture.

Rarely found elsewhere, even in Malacca, the Puchuk Paku Masak Lemak.

I noticed all the staff at Makko were women and Maureen revealed “we didn’t plan it, but it is all women power here... three chefs and about four front end staff”, Maureen revealed - which accounts for their homemade makan sensation and is the key reason why many Malaccans like it.