Mashed potatoes at the movies, buttered and fried coffee but not roasted.

March 25.26, 2009

Melaka, Malaysia

We made a short (2 hours) trip down Malaysia to Melaka. For hundreds of years Melaka was the centre of adventure in this part of the world. A logical port for the ships waiting for favourable trade winds there were, at times, 2,000 ships in the harbour. For 500 years local kingdoms, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English and Japanese fought over it. A Ming Emperor even sent one of his daughters (with 500 retainers) to wed the local ruler.

Nowadays the biggest thing in Melaka is the mega-mall. To be honest it is a really big mall that seems to stretch for miles and it is air conditioned (a big plus in this part of the world).

There is a little left of Melakan history with a few old buildings and a little section of the original fort. There is a chapel that was built in 1540 of so and some really old tombstones but the town has changed. The fort site, which once guarded the harbour now looks over shops and business built on land reclaimed from the sea. There is a cool Chinatown with narrow streets and small shops. Unfortunately, my search for a kreis, the traditional knife of Malays, didn’t find anything that I could afford.

Wondering about the title of this entry? Well we went to the movies and one of the treats you could buy was mashed potatoes. Caramel corn was there along with a nice tub of lite and sweet corn.

How about the “buttered and fried but not roasted”. Well the coffee in Malaysia tastes a little different. Coffee beans here are not roasted but are fried in butter. Actually a lot of coffee is a blend of coffee, chocolate and sugar. Not bad once you get used to it.