Malacca has plenty of good food and good food items to buy home for cooking purposes. Just 2 hours away by car, it is possible to visit bi-monthly to stock up on these goodies. If you need information on where to buy the following items, you can refer to my blog post Weekend in Malacca – Day 2
1) Gula Melaka
Everyone who visits Malacca has to bring home a pack of Gula Melaka. ( brown sugar ) This sugar is greatly used in many different desserts and the sweetness and fragrance it offers is very different from normal sugar. Some of the items you can cook with it is green bean soup, ondeh ondeh, sponge cake, muffin or cake filling/frosting and steam cakes ( you can see my recipe here Homemade Coconut palm sugar steam cakes ) The potential of these brown sugar is huge and you can experience baking different desserts with it.
2) Rice flour vermicelli
These handmade vermicelli cooks easily and taste very good. They do not have the sour taste to it like many of the boxed versions that you find here in the supermarkets. The noodles taste very natural and fresh. They have both the thin and thick versions where the thick ones can be used for frying. The noodles also do not break up and disintegrate even after cooking for a long time. We always top up a few packets whenever we are there.
3) Mixing noodle sauce
The bottle has a mix of dark sauce, light soy sauce and cooked oil. The ingredients look very simple but surprisingly taste amazing. Although most chef would prefer to mix their own sauces and have their own recipes, this is a godsend for all lazy folks like us. You can simply mix it with any noodles or instant noodles and it taste so good. You can even use this as a sauce for steam meat, tofu and even vegetables.
4) Coconut sugar white coffee
This is not like normal coffee. Firstly, the coffee is very fragrant and the coconut palm sugar adds that unique sweetness and fragrance unlike any other sugar. This comes in individual sachet and is very convenient to drink. Coffee lovers should give this a try.
5) Teh Tarik ( Foam milk tea)
The tea under the lao Qian brand is milky smooth and has great tea flavour. Not too sweet, this is suitable for all ages. The only thing missing is the foam, if not it will taste as good as the ones you have at the local coffee stalls.
6) Aged Lime Liquorice concentrate
When you have an unquenchable thirst, this little bottle is just the thing you need. Mix 2 tablespoon of this with water and ice and you get a fantastic thirst quencher which is both sour and sweet. This drink also reduces your body heat and promotes healthy digestion.
7) White Sarawak pepper
We use pepper in all our cuisines and as well as to spice up the dishes we buy from outside. Some of the pepper bought from outside only taste spicy but lacks the pepper fragrance. This bottle holds Sarawak pepper seeds which are fried dry in the hot wok before grounded into pepper powder. For people who likes pepper in everything they eat, this is the thing for them.
8) Garlic Chilli
Chilli lovers listen up! This is one power packed chilli in a small bottle. This is so good that it goes with all dishes except it is slightly too spicy for me personally.
9) Ipoh Salted Chicken Mix
This is something you can find in Ipoh and actually in Singapore but when you buy it in Malaysia, it is about 30% cheaper. The spice mix provides an aluminium foil in each pack and you just need to place the chicken in the foil and pour in the spices in the pack and some water and steam the pack. The taste is great and is similar to those imperial steam chicken you find in soup stalls. This makes for a great meal and is super easy to prepare.
10) Pepper Mix for Pig stomach soup
Just as how the pepper is great this mix is extremely easy to cook with pork ribs and you can immediately get restaurant grade Bak Kat Teh right at home. You need to give it a try without further description.
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 