Melbourne. Little Malaysia?

We love Singapore and Malaysia. We first visited Singapore in 2001 as a tentative first step toward exploring Asia, and liked it so much we've been back many times since. Singapore features a wonderful melange of cultures, languages and cuisines, all in a clean, polite, and easily traversable package. Nearby Malaysia also turned out to be a fascinating place to explore and ... oh, the food! Malaysian food is fabulous. Spicy, flavoursome, and sometimes delightfully quirky. (I've mentioned my attempts to sample every Malaysian restaurant in Canberra before.)

Anyway, my point ... and I do have one ... is that we visited Melbourne for four days earlier this week, and were intrigued to note how many more Malaysian eateries have appeared in recent years. Just as Andrew likes to eat French toast in lots of different locations (you can see some of his attempts here and here and here), we like to try new Malaysian restaurants and cafes when we travel. This week we ate at Killiney Kopitiam in Bourke Street, Papparoti in Elizabeth Street, and Straits of Malacca in Swanston Street. All were yummy.

Kaya toast with hot coffee and soft boiled eggs, at Killiney Kopitiam

Fried kway teow at Killiney Kopitiam

Chendol with grass jelly, at Killiney Kopitiam

Nasi lemak with beef rendang, at Straits of Malacca

Satay (a mixture of beef and chicken) at Straits of Malacca

Is Melbourne turning into Little Malaysia? Perhaps! It's an exciting and enjoyable city to visit, and the proliferation of spicy food is the icing on the cake.