Eat Hainanese chicken rice served as balls
Rice rolled by hand while still hot
Poached Hainanese chicken with the rice rolled into balls, eaten at old coffee shops on Jonker Street: Kedai Kopi Chung Wah at 18 Jalan Hang Jebat and Hoe Kee Chicken Rice at number 4.
Why it's unique
Melaka is the only place where Hainanese chicken rice comes compressed into ping-pong-sized balls instead of a mound. The rice is cooked in chicken stock and rolled by hand while hot, which is a job somebody has to do all morning for every plate that goes out.
The accounts trace the form to dock labourers at the old jetty who needed to eat fast and with their hands, and to a fisherman's wife who started selling to them when her husband was detained in Indonesian waters. Chicken rice itself is everywhere in the region; the ball is this city's, and you order by the count of balls rather than by the portion.
Before you go
Chung Wah is the queue you can see from the street and it sells out. It opens late morning and is often finished by mid-afternoon, so this is a lunch rather than a dinner.
Order by the head count of balls rather than by portion; five to six per person is normal. The chilli sauce here is looser and more sour than the Singapore version and locals drown the chicken in it. Go on a weekday: Melaka is a Malaysian weekend day-trip city and the Saturday queues are absurd. Cash is preferred.