Eat devil's curry in the only place where Papia Kristang is still a community language
Curry debal, and a creole still spoken
An eleven-hectare neighbourhood at Ujong Pasir, about 3 km south-east of Dutch Square, set aside for the Kristang in 1933. Medan Portugis, the square at its centre, holds Restoran de Lisbon, Restoran Belia and neighbouring seafood restaurants.
Why it's unique
The Portuguese Settlement at Ujong Pasir is an eleven-hectare neighbourhood set aside in 1933 for the Kristang, descendants of Portuguese soldiers and traders who arrived after 1511 and married locally. They speak Papia Kristang, a Portuguese-based creole with Malay and Dutch in it, documented by SOAS as Malacca Portuguese Creole. Revival classes run elsewhere in the region, but this is the only place where the language survives with a community around it rather than as an archive recording.
The way to meet it is over dinner. The restaurants around the square are openly non-halal, which is the point: pork and alcohol are on the menu in a way they are nowhere else in central Melaka. Order curry debal, the devil's curry built on vinegar and chilli from Boxing Day leftovers, and cabidela, chicken cooked in its own blood. Those are Kristang dishes, cooked by the community whose language named them.
Before you go
The square's restaurants are dinner-only, roughly 5pm to 9pm, and no booking is needed on a weeknight. Order curry debal and cabidela; grilled fish in banana leaf is the safe order but not the interesting one.
The square itself is a 1980s tourist build and looks it. The streets behind it are where the community actually lives, and walking in costs nothing.