When you are in Malacca and are hunting for seafood to sample, ask any Malaccan and more often than not they will recommend the ones in Ujong Pasir-Portuguese Settlement. In fact, if you ask me, my answer will be the same. The laid-back village is not only famous for its stunning Christmas decorations during the month of December, it is synonymous with glorious spread of seafood for tourists who flock to Malacca. If you have not raised your fork and spoon here, it means you have not visited Malacca.

While waiting for our food to be served. :D

So before we enjoyed the marvelous Christmas decorations at the Portuguese village, my family and I made haste to the esplanade where the seafood restaurants are located. It was 6:30p.m. and by then the whole stretch of place was almost inundated by seafood lovers and tourists alike; Welcome to Portuguese Square where you can enjoy any imaginable fresh food that can be harvested from the ocean ranging from huge, succulent prawns to mouth-watering crabs。 Heck! You can even enjoy the alien-looking horseshoe crab which bleeds green blood. Are you game to sink your teeth into them? Not us of course.

Otak-otak! :)

You have to squeeze the lemon juice onto the spicy meat to "diffuse" the stings!

The moment you arrived at the Portuguese Square, you will be greeted by a huge statue of Jesus. After a two-minute walk towards the beach, you will be ushered by different waiters to patronize their difference restaurants. In other words, they will be swarming you, "pestering" you to follow them to their respective joint to dine in. Don't worry you will get used to it. So which seafood stall/restaurant is the best in Portuguese Square? IMHO, I would suggest the 1st, the 7th and the 8th restaurant. :)

Omelette

 Arrghhh....how could I not snap this perfectly? My favourite spicy kang kung...looked so horrible.

Steamed fish

Perfectly cooked fried chicken!

Rojak as our "dessert"

We got ourselves seated at our usual restaurant-the first one. Very swiftly, the waiter will start to pen down what you desire to feast. You can also ask for recommendations. After placing our orders, we...waited for around 15 minutes, which was relatively fast and voila! Our dinner was served. First dish to land on our table was the extremely spicy otak-otak (fish meat mashed with prawn). It was so darn spicy that my lips and taste buds could barely take have another contact! Still my mind commanded my hand to shovel the fiery peppery morsel into my gaping mouth. OMG~Dayum! Perhaps it might not be suitable for everyone. But it was just nice for me. You just need to have plenty of water by your side. LOL

Behold... *drooling* our salted, butter crab!

Then we had the usual dish of fried omelette with onion, steamed fish, spicy kang kung (another favourite of mine), mixed vegetables (YUCK!), fried chickens (so these chickens can swim?) and of course the highlight of the our dinner was the flavourful salted egg, buttery crab! I had a lot of servings of rice thanks to the chili. Of course you can order fried calamari and huge succulent prawns to chow down. :)

Let's dig in

The whole feast was so enjoyable and relaxing at the same time. I must admit that my family loves dining here not only because of the scrumptious seafood, but also due to the amazingly beautiful atmosphere. The sight of children playing around the esplanade really breathe live into the whole place, making it so friendly and comfortable. If you arrive at the right time you could even enjoy sunset while spooning those juicy prawns into your drooling mouth.

Walking around the jetty and esplanade after our dinner

As the moon shyly peeped out from behind the clouds, you can enjoy the breathtaking night scene around the Portuguese Square. There was actually a jetty here for you to have a stroll, you know...to digest all those crustaceans which had made its way into your tummy. The reflections of neon lights on the water made the whole place so picturesque. Weirdly, I could feel a sense of calmness as we slowly walked around, enjoying the cozy ambiance.

The hotel near the beach

Once we were done admiring the beautiful night scenes, we made our way to our car. Just beside the Portuguese Square, there will be a few hawker stalls selling more snacks for you to enjoy. They must have known that we were hungry after strolling around the jetty and esplanade. Ha :D That day, there was even a game stall for us to throw darts to poke some balloons. Both my children were jumping up and down, pleading us to let them have a go-which we did. They steeled themselves, they stared at those colourful balloons as they aimed and their thew those sharp, pointy darts...and they missed. LOL But they had fun trying.

Aim...aim...steady...and...

After that we continued to visit those houses which were beautifully decorated with neon lights, Santas, Angels, reindeer and Mr. Frosty. Tantalizing seafood dinner and stunning Christmas decorations for the day. What more can we ask right? All in all, we really had a great time. Will surely be visiting Portuguese Settlement again next year for seafood and Christmas. :)

Beautiful, isn't it?

Address: Jalan Daranjo, Perkampungan Portugus, 75050 Melaka.

Opening Time: Daily (5 p.m. till 12 p.m.)