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Post date: 30-Oct-2011 20:43:55
Nyonya is the name for the women of the Peranakan, or Straits Chinese. These are the Chinese immigrants that came to Malaysia to work on the tin mines and rubber plantations, and stayed, absorbing the local culture and foods into their diet. My mother is Nyonya so although we are Chinese by origin, I am the 7th generation born out of the country. We have Chinese traditions but these have been subtly, and in some cases not so subtly, altered by the other cultures around us, the Malays, the Indians, and even the British. My family speak a dialect of Chinese, but my grandmother wore a sarong kebaya, an item of dress that no Chinese would recognise, and made out of local batik fabric. My mother will actually be helping me with this one so it's going to be pretty authentic!
We have a family curry powder - obviously adopted from the Indians. Every few months the family get several kilos of cardamom, cloves, cumin and other spices, and take them to the miller. The resulting family curry powder is distributed throughout the branches of the family in any container, usually old squash bottles, that they can find.
Come and have a taste of Nyonya cuisine. Its origins are Chinese but it is altered by alien ingredients which are native to Malaysia like coconut and local herbs and spices.
The menu will be:
Loh Bak - Five Spice pork roll - this is classic Nyonya and you are not likely to find it in Malaysian restaurants, as the Chinese eat a lot of pork but of course the majority Malay muslims do not. The origins can be clearly seen in Chinese cooking
Otak-Otak - another classic Nyonya dish originating from the northern island of Penang, it's spiced fish grilled in banana leaves. Obviously the banana leaf cooking method is adopted and you can see the influence of local herbs that you may recognise from Thai cuisine.
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Singapore Laksa - it's noodles, but not as you know them. Fishcakes and prawns in a spicy coconut gravy using local herbs unknown in China.
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Our family's Chicken Curry - using the family's own curry powder!
Stir fried Nyonya Pork and Veg - my mother's choice of dish, tasty and comforting
Acar - pickled vegetables - a real classic. I actually don't know how to make this so my mum's doing it :-)
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Nyonya Kuih - these are local sweet snacks (there is not much concept of a "dessert" in Asia). Malaysians are thrilled to see them - because you really can't get these in this country, even at restaurants. I had to learn to make them myself if I wanted to eat them! They are all flavoured with a type of plant called Pandan - thus they are all green - pandan is I suppose the Asian equivalent of vanilla in terms of perfuming, but we do use it in both sweet and savoury dishes. Onde Onde has clear origins in a Cantonese dessert known as "Tong Yuen", traditionally eaten at Chinese New Year, but it's subtly altered by rolling it in freshly grated coconut and using local palm sugar. Kuih Talam is a pandan-flavoured cake with a coconut cream topping, and is my favourite of all the Nyonya Kuihs - I doubt very much Pandan could grow in China. Another Pandan flavoured dessert is Kuih Dadar which is a pandan flavoured crepe stuffed with a palm sugar and coconut filling.
As usual please e-mail me with any bookings. Cost will be £40 of which £35 will go to MSF.
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