Cendol Taste-off Winner - RM3 Cendol
Now that we’ve pretty much finished our cendol taste-off while in Melaka, I think I have come up with a definitive winner.
This cendol is also the priciest – RM$73.50 or so. Well, it was RM$70 round trip to go from our hotel to the stand and RM$3.50 for the actual cendol. Was it worth it?
I couldn’t afford to do it every time I craved cendol, but it certainly helped give a solid benchmark.
The winner? Aunty Koh’s Cendol
The run down on the cendol vendors we tried can be found in my previous post, but the clear winner (to date) is Aunty Koh’s Cendol.
How did it rank against the main components?
- Coconut Milk: creamy and plentiful. I could see her pour it on from a ladle.
- Gula Melaka: you could taste the butterscotchy flavor; she even let me add a little extra myself!
- Pandan Noodles: dark, rich green, firm, thick
- Shaved Ice: felt very light; but it’s so hot, it melted pretty quickly
- Red Beans: there were none! But, I didn’t count it against them; if they have it, fine, then it better be good; but if not, I’m okay.
So where is it located?
It is far, far, far away from the center of Melaka. Round trip our taxi ride was about RM$70!
I knew it would be far and potentially costly, but I really wanted to find out what great cendol could taste like.
It’s also a little bit difficult to find. The driver got us pretty close, and I used my GPS with coordinates to get me the rest of the way there.
GPS Coordinates: N2 14.804 E102 11.516
Street Address: Aunty Koh’s Cendol No. 5113, Jalan Batang Tiga Kampung Bukit Rambai. 75250, Melaka
Time
The blog posts I read said it was open only on weekends from 12-1pm. We got there maybe 11:15 AM…and *there was already a line!**
When Aunty Koh went to get her ice, I looked inside the cooler and saw that she was almost out. At the rate she was going, she could have easily run out of ice by noon.
So, we were actually fortunate to get there when we did. One person said to get there by 11:30AM, I saw a huge line twice the length of mine form around 11:30AM. It’s hard to tell if this is the norm, however. This weekend was Malaysian Independence Day.
So, is it worth it?
Depends on your goals. I think Makko’s as I wrote about here is quite good and is close to the city center. Back in Penang, I’d have to try again but it could be a toss-up between Fort Cornwallis and Macalister. This will be TBD.
If you have your own car and some time to kill, I would go. If you have to cab it, I’d pass.