Baba Freds Nyonya Restaurant in Malacca, Malaysia

This place is smack in the middle of Malacca's tourist district, complete with a parallel brand called Jonker Street Chicken Rice Ball next door (15 Lorong Hang Jebat, 012-633-3449). Its commercialized location suggested that it wasn't anything to get one's hopes up about, but we needed something convenient and local.

And it satiated those needs, especially with things like those small chicken rice balls in the background. They were almost polenta-like in texture with hardly a sense that they were distinct grains of rice previously. The chicken and char siew in our set did the job, as did the tofu, steamed ladyfingers, and soup.

Actually, the most notable highlight for me was their udang lemak nanas. It was a Peranakan way of serving prawns in a pineapple-based curry, and this one was pleasantly spicy rather than fruity. All of this set a good comparison base for what we else we might encounter later this week.