History

“If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. ” 
~Michael Crichton

   

                                                                                                                                                                    

Jonker Street, today called Jalan Hang Jebat, was the name of the street through Malacca town, the core zone of the Malacca UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name "Jonker" was derived from the word "junk", in which refers to the Chinese vessels.

Hokkien Clan Centre

The early Jonker Street was made up of different Chinese clans with their identical associations. Among them, the Hokkiens were one of the earliest dialects to establish their clan which was in 1837, along with the clan associations of Tan, Lee, and so on. Most of the shophouses in Jonker Street date to the early 20th century, while some may trace to the 19th century.

Baba Nyoya Musuem

The Baba Nyonya culture is another focal point in town which couldn't be neglected in Jonker Street. This has been a gradual process lasts for more than 400 years since the great Chinese explorer, Admiral Cheng Ho first brought Chinese settlers to Malacca. Over the centuries, the Baba Nyonyas have developed a highly interersting culture and a distinct community only in Peninsular Malaysia, particularly Malacca and Penang.
People can now view the historical artefacts unique to this heritage at a captivating private museum run by the Baba Nyonyas. 

Today Jonker Street is the venue of the weekly Jonker Walk Night Market.

Activity

"Much of everyday life is filled with opportunities to be distracted. Our possessions... entertainment... cares and anxieties... and even the passionate desire and pursuit of things, some good and not so good, can keep our minds and hearts caught up in a flurry of activity."

~Joyce Meyer

Morning

Jonker Street is always renowned with its salivating food and teeming with goods which attract tourists especially at night. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, we arrived in the early morning to discover more what will be the tourists and locals doing in the street.

This is the very first picture I took as we reached the Jonker Street.

Very little motorists and operating shops could be seen at that time.

An oasis of serenity is spreading out from the bistro 

with customers having their breakfast as a kick-start of the day. 

Afternoon

The noon had come. An influx of tourists, the sound of the street and a chance of business had come along too. 

Tourists from different nations paid a visit to the Jonker Street.

This is a photo of a delicacy shop, San Shu Gong where most of the tourists would 

enjoy their Durian Cendol and the signature Icy White Coffee. 

Souvenirs such as dodol, chicken biscuits, sweetheart cakes (wife cakes) 

and pineapple tarts are the bestsellers in the shop. 

Not to forget about the Chung Hwa Kopitiam, 

which is famed for its Chicken Rice Ball would not let tourists and locals hesitate to queue up 

for a "Chicken Rice Ball Feast"!

A couple was on cloud nine as riding a trishaw would be a good choice 

if you feel that going on foot is tiring.

However, I found that a few Malays were basket weaving, 

a common handicraft among Malays and Indonesians called "Anyaman Bambu".

Night

After 6 O'clock, all the cars will have to move out from the street for hawkers to set up their stalls. 

The bustling street filled with people packed in like sardines at every weekend night. 

The vibrant street was thronged with people. 

Hawkers were selling a variety choice of food, handicrafts, toys, etc.

This is a stall selling dimsum with big steamer baskets.

Because of its freshness and tastiness, many gourmands will come and buy from this stall.

That is why it's always fast-selling. 

In 2010, a stage was set up at one end of the street. 

The performance including singing oldies of different dialects, talkshows, 

and sometimes acrobatics and cultural performance

is one of the elements to attract more people to visit the Jonker Street.

Cultural Conservation on Buildings

For this group assignment, we have decided to visit the place which was listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Melaka. 

Jonker Street was the main spot of our work.

Temples can also be seen easily along the street,

 as the residents there are mostly Chinese Buddhist. 

The temple is fine designed with the infusion of chinese traditional culture through the carving of dragons.

 Old houses are still kept in good condition by the effort of the local authorities.

Most of the owners chose to remain the most original look of the houses 

and some are even transformed into themed cafes or shops.

The houses around Jonker Street are mostly built narrow and long 

because of the limited land given in the past. 

The houses combined both wooden and concrete into one.

These houses left trace of the harder life the people been through in the past.

   The most significant buildings in Melaka will be the houses of Baba Nyonya.
       
Baba Nyonya were considered as the upper class last time as they're usually rich and owned many lands. It thus lead to a more magnificent kind of architecture design.

Baba Nyonya's houses usually emphasized more on the detailed carvings 

by using gold and silver color to indicate their wealth.

Photos above is the interior of the usual Baba Nyonya houses,

which through what we've observed, focus more on fancy and detailed carvings.

Another interesting part about the architecture in Melaka Jonker Street that we hardly find in other states will be these centers for the different groups of dialect.

 This is "Lei Zhou" center,

the design of this building is more to flower and nature carvings.

There are mini statue of animals installed to the rooftop.

 This is "Hai Nan" center,

which we can see it's actually more to simplicty.

The architecture is kept neat and simple.

Lastly will be the "Fu Jian" center,

It has a strong representation of the ancient Chinese cultural design,

with the carvings of dragon and phoenix and also the drawing of Chinese God on the front door.

 Different types of tiles are also been used in different locations.

Through the uses of these tiles, 

we can feel the cultural impact to this place started from the most basic thing.

Food

We started our journey at 8 in the morning, after a hour and a half of drive, we finally arrived at our destination, Jonker Street, Malacca.
We had our stomach emptied because we wanted to save some space for the local cuisine, our hunger strikes, so we started to hunt for food.

Chicken Rice Ball

This is one of the chicken rice ball shop found at Jonker street, 
we can see that there's a lot of chicken rice ball shop alongside the road since it is Malacca's famous cuisine.

Not only standard steamed chickens and rice balls, 
they also offered other chinese dishes like roasted chicken, roasted pork etc.

 We did some research and found out Chung Wah restaurant serves the most famous chicken rice ball, 
it's located at the end junction of Jonker street. 
This is the long queue outside the restaurant, 
we queued up for almost an hour in order to get a seat and enjoy the food.

After a long wait, 
we finally got our seats and the workers just bring us the portion according to the number of person seated.

This is what we have long craving for, the famous ping-pong-ball-liked rice balls.

Steamed chicken served together with the rice balls, 
although is is not that good-looking, 
but it is really juicy and the original aroma of a chicken is maintained, 
no wonder it is the most famous shop in Malacca.

Durian Cendol

San Shu Gong, the local product shop located opposite to the chicken rice ball restaurant which sells local products ranging from healthy beverages to local flavored biscuits. 

It serves many different beverages, durian cendol is one of the most selling product. 

So after our lunch we had some desserts.

The durian cendol is one of the famous product in San Shu Gong so their packaging was designed to come in handy in order to be convenience for the tourists and also the local to dine in or take away. 
The cendol is full of flavors, the aroma of durian stands out the most, is a must try for durian lover.

Nyonya Cuisine

To try the local nyonya cuisine, we had chose café 1511, since the reviews towards this café is quite good and it's also awarded tourists' choice at trip advisor, a travel app.

This is the nyonya laksa served, many different ingredients in a bowl, there are fishcakes, fish balls, Fuzhu and prawns, and of course the noodles, the soup is richer in coconut gravy compared to the normal laksa.

This is the nyonya otak-otak, it is slightly different from the one we found in Muar because it is served in bigger portions and the taste are also different.

Nyonya style popiah, this is really the first time ever we tried a nyona popiah, 
the skin are made up of egg batter which are slightly thicker than the normal popiah, 
and it really worth a try because this is the taste we have never had before.

This is called Pongteh, a dish which potato and chicken are cooked till tender in soya sauce.

A very common and traditional dish in the Baba Nyonya.

And these are some of the nyonya dishes we ordered, 
although the dishes seems similar to the chinese cuisine but the dishes will prove you wrong, 
never try never know.

Satay Celup

Satay Celup is a dish where an assortment of raw and semi-cooked seafood, meat and vegetables on skewers which are dunked into a hot boiling pot of satay gravy, which is similar as the idea of steamboat.

 The boiling satay gravy which are continuously added.

The skewers were chose on our own.

And then, everyone dip in their own skewers and start to enjoy.

Egg-shaped Ice-cream

Ice creams are normal to be found in night markets, 

but egg-shaped ice-cream is an iconic dessert in Jonker street, Malacca. 

The ice-creams are available in a lot of flavor but mostly fruit flavors, 

there are a lot of stalls which sell these ice-creams, 

After a long walk at the night market you must be thirsty and hot, 

so grab an egg-shaped ice-cream to enjoy the coolness.