It was a super quiet night with absolutely nothing to disturb my sleep. Not even a single noise from other guests — because I was the only guest in A.I Smart Hotel during the off-peak, off-holiday, off-weekend period. I slept till 8am.
Coming to the end of the West Malaysia trip, I was back in Malacca simply because I did not want to travel long journey by bus. Of all the places, Malacca was the nearest to the south of Kuala Lumpur and offered more food options and cafes. It was a great place for rest and relaxation before going home.
I left the hotel at 9am, which was a little late than usual, and headed straight for CSDR@Jonker (昌盛茶餐室), a traditional cafe almost to the end of Jonker Walk but just few steps from the hotel. It had some retro exhibits both inside and outside the shop.
I wanted a light breakfast so I could stick my butt in a cafe later to sip coffee and write journal. On recommendations from the young lady owner, I ordered butter and kaya toasts and their highly-popular garlic toasts, plus 2 soft-boiled eggs and a cup of kopi-o — I forgot to say "kosong" and it came with sugar. I did not expect the garlic toast to have 4 pieces but it allowed me to sit in the cafe longer. while eating slowly The garlic toasts, with fragrant garlic-butter spread, were surprisingly good with crispy crusts but very soft inside.
Barely 20 minutes after leaving CSDR@Jonker, I came across French Brown Cafe just beside Heesan Kopi and stepped in. I had no chance to try French Brown when I was last here over 10 days ago because I always walked past the cafe after a meal, which was the same this time but I went in regardless.
As I just had my morning coffee, I ordered a cold Purple Serai kombucha, but did not expect it to be a bottled drink. It was my first time trying kombucha and it tasted like some fizzy soft drink — reminded me of toddy (both were fermented). I had a Caesar salad as I had not been eating a lot of vegetables since the start of the trip but "itchy-mouth" added smoked duck. The cuts of smoked duck were pretty thick and tasty. Even though I ate twice within an hour, it did not feel like I had eaten two meals.
For the next 2 to 3 hours, I did some shopping at some of the product stores, (Old Shop, Tan Kim Hock, San Shu Gong and the new LuLaLa). I bought a pack of musang king durian pastries, two packs of peanut candies (花生糖) with different flavours and some sauces for noodles. Not buying a lot as I was more interested in freshly-baked traditional pastries than other things.
I returned to the hotel, drop the goodies, took a short rest, and came out again at about 2pm for late lunch. I came to Jonker 88, which usually had queues under the hot sun, but was easy at this time of the day. I walked in and grabbed a small table.
I ate Nyonya assam laksa kahwin Baba laksa (鸳鸯叻沙), a combination of Nyonya assam laksa and Nyonya Baba laksa, from a stall inside the shop. The laksa was so spicy and yet I could not stop drinking a few more spoonfuls of its broth. I finished the noodle dish in a pool of sweat.
After a few minutes, I bought a cendol added with nata de coco and durian purée. The iced dessert helped to cool off the spiciness of the laksa.
As usual, a short stroll around the old town and Dutch Square, got bored and I was back in the hotel to get out of the sun.
At 6:30pm, I hit the streets again. Most of the shops and cafes were already closed and left with restaurants that were suitable for bigger groups of diners. Wednesday had always been a quiet day in Malacca Old Town with lowest number of visitors.
I would like to end the day with a light meal, so I headed to Hygge Cafe, probably the only cafe that opened till 8pm. I had one more objective to achieve at this little cafe.
I ordered their Chinese bao with grilled king trumpet mushroom in hot spices, pressed sandwich with chicken ham and egg salad and their homemade iced honey lemon again. The trumpet mushroom bao, which was unavailable the last time I was here, completed my objective to eat at Hygge Cafe — I had "collected" the full set of the Chinese baos. Simple contentment.
I stayed till closing time, then I returned to the hotel. After shower, I tried packing all the goodies into my backpack but failed. I would have to hand-carry some of them.