Skip to content
Melaka in Three Tenses

IIToday

Present tense

Night markets, river walks and a heritage city that is still lived in.

Since 2008 the old town has shared a World Heritage listing with George Town in Penang. These essays are about the city as it is now: what people eat, where they walk, and how six centuries of history feel on an ordinary Friday night.

  1. 2 min read

    Palm sugar, rice balls and devil’s curry

    Melaka’s food is its history in edible form: Malay, Peranakan, Portuguese-Eurasian and everything in between, often on the same table.

  2. 2 min read

    The river that came back

    For decades the Melaka River was something the city turned its back on. Now it is where everyone goes in the evening.

  3. 2 min read

    Friday night on Jonker Street

    Every weekend a quiet street of antique shops and clan houses becomes the loudest, most crowded and most delicious few hundred metres in the city.