It was Majestic indeed!

The Malacca River fronting the hotel

We took a short drive out of Kuala Lumpur, and spent the weekend in Malacca Town, one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. It is considered one of Malaysia’s most interesting city as its buildings and streets have strong influence of its founder Parameswara (a Javanese prince), the early Chinese migrants, and the three European colonial periods of Portugese, Dutch and British.

All four of us were looking forward to the trip for our own reasons, the girls imagining their history books coming to life, for me its the hotel, a refurbished 80 year-old used to be mansion belonging to a rich tycoon, and for my other half, an escape from the depressing financial markets!

The Majestic Hotel lived up to its name in all sense, aptly described in YTL Life as; “…… a lovingly restored, utterly charming and exclusive boutique hotel”.

My girls had a good time harassing Uncle Donovan, the hotel guide, with all the why-s, but-s and how-s, during “The Historical Tour Walk”.

The Christ Church of Malacca, the oldest surviving Dutch church building found outside the Netherlands.

Queen Victoria’s Fountain, one of few surviving architectural footprints from the British colonization.

Part of Porta de Santiago built in 1511 by the Portugese, as a fortress to protect the spice trade route.

Ruins of the St. Paul’s Church. St. Francis Xavier was enshrined here in 1553 before being shipped to India.

Malaysia’s Independence was announced at the Warrior’s Field on 20th February 1956

A library along Jonker Street, a street famous for selling antiques.

A trishaw puller taking a nap after a hard day’s work.

The man was busy knocking his never seen before, brick-like candy into smaller pieces.

Pineapple tarts seemed to be an extremely popular dessert with locals and tourists.

Sunset by the Straits of Malacca

Finally, a picture that I stole of him, sleeping away his stress for the 2 nights that we were there. *sneaky laugh*

Spaghetti n Meatballs

I had this strong urge to surprise my children with a made by mummy, spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs is their all time favourite food, especially the ones from Ikea, which they claimed to be the best, winning hands down with no clear contenders.

I was not keen to use the ready-made bottled sauces, but instead was in the mood to cook the sauce from scratch. This sense of “adventure” is probably due to the recent successes that I had with my cooking, and the fact that David kept insisting that homemade stuff tastes so much better than the commercial ones. He simply loves the natural flavours, minus all the artificial enhancers. Guess, it’s his way of cheering me on in my latest cooking craze.

I looked through my small collection of cookbooks, and in the end decided on this sauce recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Somehow, I have more confidence in blogger tested recipes, than those from cookbooks. The sauce was easy to put together, and tasted very good, much better than the bottled ones, according to David.

For the meatballs, I used the leftover marinated meat patties from my homemade hamburger meal. All I did was to shape them into smaller balls, pan-fried and simmered them the same way, and later added to the sauce to simmer. They turned out very well with the sauce. My girls were thrilled during dinner, and my more chatty younger daughter said “Mummy, though this is different from the ones from Ikea, they are still tasty. I like them!”

 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions

Meatballs (about 2 pound of meat in proportion to the sauce)
I used the leftover Japanese meat patties from the hamburgers that I made.

Sauce
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 cup good red wine
1 (14-ounce) can pureed tomatoes
1 (14-ounce) can chopped or diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Make the sauce: Heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and grated Parmesan (my family prefer grated cheddar)