Nyonya Food Melaka The Tranquerah Damansara GLO Kuala Lumpur

The Tranquerah located at Damansara GLO Kuala Lumpur is imbued with an old world atmosphere, which makes for an enchanting and authentic Nyonya Food Melaka dining experience. The focus in The Tranquerah which was awarded by Malaysia Tatler Dining - Best Top 5 Nyonya Restaurant in KL & PJ 2015 and it is renowned as one of the restaurants to go for its Nyonya delicacies.

The Tranquerah Damansara GLO Kuala Lumpur Address

LG09, Lower Ground Floor, GLO Damansara, 

No 699, Jalan Damansara

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

There is a huge difference between the different Peranakan Dishes that are available, you can check out the details on Wikipedia but the 2 most popular are the Nyonya Melaka and Nyonya Penang that are often mistaken as the same by many. The Nyonya Penang has a sourish tone like the popular Assam Laksa, while the Nyonya Melaka has a richer flavour like the Buah Keluak dishes and the Ayam Pongteh.

The menu at The Tranquerah is specially curated by the Nyonya celebrity chef, Florence Tan, which serves authentic Malacca Nyonya Cuisine. A few of their signature dishes are Ayam Buah Keluak, Ayam Pongteh, Gerang Asam Fish, Udang Masak Lemak Nenas, Tamarind Prawns, ltik Tim soup and Pai Tee.

One of the most popular delicacies in the Nyonya Melaka dishes is the Buah Keluak. Little is known about this ingredient as one of the delicious ingredients. We were told that this Buah Keluak (Pangium Edule) is poisonous and needed to be treated in the right way to enjoy this delicious offering.



Buah Keluak is a rather mysterious fruit. The whole plant is poisonous, and yet the seeds are painstakingly prepared and eaten as a Nyonya delicacy. The fresh fruit and seeds contain hydrogen cyanide and are deadly poisonous if consumed without prior preparation. The seeds are first boiled and then buried in ash, banana leaves and earth for forty days. The method relies on the fact that the hydrogen cyanide released by the boiling and fermentation is water-soluble and easily washed out. Check this out on Wikipedia.

So naturally our first dish that we reviewed is the Keluak Pasta (soon to be introduced in the standard menu). From the look of it, our first thought was a black pepper pasta, but once it reaches our mouth, you can taste the Buah Keluak which has a slightly bitter nutty taste that’s almost reminiscent of a good single origin dark chocolate with an added spiciness from the use of some black pepper to prep it out a little. A great taste to start our review.

Malaya Hainan @Petaling Street China Town Kuala Lumpur - Authentic Nyonya Peranakan Dishes Down Memory Lane Review

Feeling nostalgia of late, Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to review Malaya Hainan @ Petaling Street - a new yesteryear kopitiam style of the 1950's era located at Lot 16, Section 24, Jalan Panggong 50000 Kuala Lumpur, a stone throw away from the famous Petaling Street.

Upon entering this restaurant, it brings back many memories of the days that I used to hang and play around; as a kid of 5 to 6 years old. I used to loiter around the Petaling Street area during its hey days which was a trading hub for many Chinese businesses.

This site where the restaurant sits, is the post office of those days, where there are many bustling business around the area. It has since been abandoned for a while and recently the management of Malaya Hainan have taken over and refurbished it to the charm of this forgotten era.

Sipping a cup of hot Hainan Coffee by the marble table, sitting on a redesign kopitiam chair, marvelling the decor and memorabilia, one can easily be transported back to the period where life was much simpler and carefree.

We started the dinner review with the ROTI JALA WITH POTATO CURRY CHICKEN (RM6.90). A Malaysian favourite snack food.

The texture of the Roti Jala was soft and fluffy, which the chef uses pure pandan juice which are added to the batter and then made into the jala shape and serves with a bowl of Curry Chicken.

The potato chicken curries was cooked with a unique combination of spices and herbs, which was perfectly blended and cook till a strong aroma and fragrant and was perfect for the Roti Jala

Next, we had the SPECIAL KERABU MANGO (not on menu) - (RM7.00), which was infused with the finely shredded dried shrimp mix with chicken meat, shrimp and topped with freshly slice green mango was a delightful starter treat.

Taste wise, it was not overly sourish while the green mango still have the distinct crisp and fresh feel while the strong aroma of the Bunga Kantan leaves your taste-bud tingling.

This is then followed by the NYONYA FRIED RICE - (RM9.50) - It is a belacan infused fried rice. According to the chef, there are more than 15 condiments that are added into this special Fried Rice.

The strong aroma of the condiments and spices are very apparent in every spoonful that we have eaten. The additional spiciness of the sambal belacan and flavourful special fried dried shrimp enhances the whole Fried Rice dish.

Another special rice that was dished out by the Chef is the YAM FRIED RICE - (RM9.50). The YAM are first steamed to a soft texture and dice into little cube shapes before adding to the rice and fried.

You are able to taste the natural sweetness of the yam, which was totally blended with the chicken meat to extract out the flavours. It has this special distinct taste that you can't stop eating it. One of the thing that we noticed from the 2 Fried Rice, is that these rice are not overly coated with oil.

Malaya Hainan@ Petaling Street, is a Pork Free restaurant, so to improvise, the Chef has created ROTI AYAM (RM6.50), which is a rendition of Peranakan famous ROTI BABI.

The preparation is similar to that of ROTI BABI (but of course there are also some that deep fried the whole bread too), in that the bread are coated with a layer of battered eggs and then toasted on the pan and eaten with a dash of Lea Perrin sauce and coleslaw topping.

The last dish for the night is the ASSAM LAKSA (RM9.90). This is a real test as there are many restaurants and chefs that has claimed to be able to dish out the best ASSAM LAKSA.

So, when the noodle arrive, the first taste of the soup was the test; which has a strong aroma but not too overly sourish, the kembong fish which was used still retains a soft texture which we were a little surprise as most places the fish tends to be a little hard. Moreover the soup was not of the watery type and was very florally flavoured by the Bunga Kantan, Fresh Mint Leaves and the strong fish broth.

This has got to be one of the better ASSAM LAKSA that I have tasted and would definitely be one of the dishes that I will come back for. So, for those real fan of this noodle, give this a try and let me know your comment.

For those that would like to be mesmerised and to enjoy that tranquility of that bygone era, make a stopover at Malaya Hainan @ Petaling Street to reminiscent and savour the past while sipping your cup of Hot Hainan coffee and enjoy the delicious Peranakan and Malaysia local favourites here.

HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG – Melaka Home Cook Nyonya Food Comes to Puchong Review

What is the first food you think of when it comes to Melaka Food, to many it has to be the Nyonya Food. Well they are many version of Nyonya Food which have gone thru many changes i.e the true blue Nyonya and the improvised version.

We had the opportunity to try out a real home cooked Nyonya Melaka food, which have recently started to operate in Puchong which is HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG located at 5G, Jalan Puteri 1/6, Bandar Puteri Puchong, PUCHONG, Selangor

By the way, the owner cum chef is not a Baba Nyonya, as one might expect but she has mastered the skills of cooking Nyonya Melaka food ever since she was a very young teenager and cooked many simple yet appetizing Melaka specialities. 

The design of the café is a very straight forward, no-frill café that caters mostly to office workers and families around the area. 

One of the Melaka Specialities at HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG is the ASSAM NENAS PRAWN. Served in a clay pot, the entire dish was cooked with plentiful of quality mixed spices, some of which comes from Melaka itself. The use of salted fish adds a new dimension to this dish. 

The pineapple was cooked, until it was very soft and you can taste the pineapple juices which blended to give it a natural sourish and sweet taste. The end effect, the gravy had a strong and distinctive flavour that complemented very well with the Prawns.

This is one of the daily specials from HOUZ WARMING @PUCHONG i.e. this dish is not served everyday on its standard menu. To be able to savour this dish, you probably have to drop by on the days that this dish is being offered only as a daily special set. With a generous serving of 4 medium size prawn and if you are a small eater, this serving can be eaten by 2 person. 

The daily special sets come with a rice, a fried egg and a glass of honey jasmine tea for only RM13.90. Check out what is their daily special as we understand that there are more than 20 dishes on a rotating basis.

Another of the specialty dishes on the daily specials is PATONG CHICKEN CHOP. This dish is a Thai inspired dish. The chicken chop is first fried. The Thai sauce are then cooked and layered on the fried chicken chop.

This sauce is sweet, sour & spicy all at the same time but blended harmoniously. If you are familiar with the Masak 3 Rasa, it is somewhat similar but the use of the condiment here is obvious and gives you a satisfied taste. 

The last daily special we tried was the BUTTERED CHICKEN CHOP, this chicken chop is first coated with batter and then deep fried. The buttery sauce which has strong curry powder and leaves fragrant are cooked with butter and cheese to give you that extra creamy sauce, which is then layered at the bottom of the chicken chop.

Taste wise, it is quite similar to the Butter Prawns taste, which we are familiar with, but with a scent of cheese flavours, and the sauce was thicker and very much more creamier.

After sampling the daily special, we had some ala-carte dishes namely the HOUSE SPECIAL SAMBAL FRIED FISH.

It is a CENCARU fish, which have been deep fried and laden with a generous amount of sambal topping. Although, I find the sambal a little too subtle and light for me, as I am used to the sambal type, which has a very strong distinctive belacan taste with a lot of dried shrimp, for this kind of sambal fish.

Next, we had the ASSAM BANDUNG SEAFOOD – this is quite similar to the Assam seafood or the Assam fish which Melaka is famous for. The differences here, is the chef had added in coconut milk to cook this dish and henceforth the dish is called with BANDUNG – remember our sirap bandung. 

The use of the coconut milk makes this dish more flavourful and a little sweeter and creamier than the pure assam fish dish. You can taste the strong aroma and flavours of the seafood which have been infused into the gravy in every spoonful.

Another one of the special dishes, you can hardly find it anywhere else, is the HAKKA VINEGAR PORK. We KL people are used to the black type of VINEGAR PORK cooked with ginger, which are usually found at Bak Kut Teh stall or during confinement period of the new mothers’. 

But, here is the surprise, instead of the very sourish taste; the vinegar pork is of a sweet type with a hint of spice, as we were told that, they uses a small amount of Assam and dried chillies. Once again, this dish has a light sweet taste from the raddish, a tinge of sourish and a very light spicy taste.

On top of that it uses the white vinegar instead of the black vinegar. It will take a number of spoonful to start to like this dish, as our chain of taste for this dish is the black sourish type, which we are normally associated with.

All, the above dishes are usually found in home cooking and are suitable to be eaten with white rice.

For the noodles, we had their signature PRAWN MEE, the soup was very rich broth of prawns taste. The sharpness of soup was strong, and has the oomph factor. 

Lastly, we were offered the PORK NOODLES SOUP, but we just had the soup instead i.e. minus the noodles. The soup based was of the clear type. The soup was a recipe of over 30 years. They had a shop in IPOH selling pork noodles with this recipe. 

So, if you have a craving for some nice Melaka food, head over to HOUZ WARMING @PUCHONG to give it a try and leave us a comment or two after your visit.