Nyonya Food
One of the most recognisable & known form of the Nyonya culture is the Nyonya food/ Nyonya cuisine, which is a combination of Chinese & Malay influences.
Peranakan cuisine can be described as cooking Chinese ingredients with Malay spices. One can find the use of coconut milk, galangal, candlenuts and other herbs and spices, usually not commonly found in Chinese cooking.
The Nyonya food usually takes a lot of time to prepare, and more so under the arms of the fussy Nyonyas, who went they do anything – only ensures the very best.
Nyonya Cuisine
Some of the more popular Nyonya dishes:
Buah Keluak
Babi Pongteh
Chap Chai/ Chap Chye
Kangkung Belacan
Nyonya Asam Curry
Kuih Pie Tie
Mee Siam
Nyonya Laksa
Popiah
Bubur Cha Cha
Onde Onde
Nyonya Cendol
The Nyonya cuisine in Penang differs from the Nyonya food of that of Singapore & Malacca/ Melaka. Some populare Nyonya food in Penang are:
Curry Kapitan
Inchi Kabin
Sambal belacan
Essentially, sambal is dried red chilli, sometimes mixed with some fresh ones, pounded or blended together with shallots, a little garlic, and a host of other ‘secret’ ingredients, to become a smooth paste and then fried in oil until it becomes a rich dark red colour, and a little lumpy but still smooth.
Sambal belacan, naturally, has belacan added to it. Belacan is a dried shrimp or prawn paste, usually sold in little round cakes.
Cincalok
Cincalok is made from really tiny shrimp fermented in salty brine, usually packed and sold in glass bottles and jars. This is another one of those that probably really stink to a foreigner and could be considered an acquired taste. But once acquired, a paradigm shift of sorts takes place, and you begin to redefine your perception of ‘stink’ and ‘fragrance’.
Many use cincalok to really enhance their cooking and give ‘character’ to their dish. The Nyonya use it to marinade pork along with other ingredients like lemongrass, garlic and chilli; some recipes call for it to be stir-fried with meat, and sambal cincalok can turn a really dull dish into an exciting culinary experience.
Nyonya Laksa
Laksa is curry noodles. It sounds simple but one could not be more wrong. If done properly, this dish is just sublime, especially to lovers of chilli and spice. As expected of the Nyonyas, a lot of care and attention, not to mention effort, goes into making the laksa paste, which consists of chillies, galangal, candlenut, onions, dried shrimp, belacan, and tamarind paste among many other ‘secret ingredients’.
The paste is then fried in oil until it ‘breaks’ and then cooked in broth and tantalising creamy coconut milk. Other than the noodles, it usually comes with bean sprouts, slices of fish paste or balls, prawns, tofu or tau pok (deep fried ‘puffy’ tofu), and delicious blood red cockles.
The Nyonya Laksa is known for its creaminess and satisfying curry. It is recommended that one adds the Nyonya’s sambal into the curry even though it is already spicy. Believe it or not, it tastes better that way.
Buah Keluak
To the uninitiated, this is definitely a strange thing to eat, much less a delicacy. But like a lot Peranakan culinary items, it also has the strange ‘power’ of ‘conversion’. It is an acquired taste, but once acquired, one will begin to preach to others about the ‘salvation’ of the buah keluak – salvation of one’s culinary soul that is.
Buah keluak is the seed of the fruit of the Pangium edule, which grows in the wilds of Indonesia and some part of Malaysia, and is actually poisonous. Its crushed raw seed can be used to poison fish and insects, but fortunately its poison can be easily extracted using water and most ‘buah keluak’ seeds that are sold already have gone through this extraction process, but it is still recommended that one soak the seeds overnight before cooking them.
The Nyonyas use them for cooking their ayam buah keluak/ babi buah keluak (chicken buah keluak/ pork buah keluak).
Dealing with ‘buah keluak’ is very tedious and may require days of preparation. Generally, the hard shell of the seed has to be cracked open only slightly, and its contents has to be dug out through a small hole. Then that is mixed and pounded with a variety of spices and seasonings like minced prawns, ‘belacan’, some salt and sugar then tediously put back into the shell. A spice paste or ‘rempah’ has to be made, consisting of, e.g. galangal, yellow ginger (kunyit), candlenut, tamarind etc. then fried and made into a stew for the chicken or pork, or both.
Pongteh
Pongteh is another delightful Peranakan dish and is a definite must try if ever in the vicinity of good Peranakan restaurants. Some call this ‘miso soy chicken’ although miso is actually only a substitute if preserved soy beans or ‘tau cheo’ is not available.
It is this preserved or aged soy beans that give pongteh its distinct flavour. This stew usually has mushrooms and potatoes and usually eaten with rice. It sounds simple but actually is not that easy to make; to get it right, one needs proper guidance, patience, skill and an inherent understanding of Peranakan cuisine that is not so easy to teach.
The pongteh comes in both chicken or pork, and sometimes both. For those Peranakans, they usually prefer the ones with pork, as it sweetens the dish.
Chap Chai/ Chap Chye
Another popular Peranakan dish is the chap chai, a mix of vegetables in clear broth. If you’re saying, “It’s just vegetable soup. How great could it be?” you could not be more wrong. Th Nyonyas have a knack for making dishes that have simple names but actually take a lot of effort to make. Some say way too much, but that’s just how much pride these ladies take in their cooking.
Some recipes for this require an hour or more of simmering the broth, sometimes extracted from pork shoulder and ginger, some other recipes get their broth from frying prawn shells with ‘tao cheo’ and there are numerous ‘secret’ recipes out there.
The variety of vegetables that go into this include dried mushrooms, black fungus, dried lily buds, white cabbage, carrots, along with prawns, dried bean curd skin, and glass noodles (tang hoon). It is best served with home-made ‘sambal belacan’ if there’s meat in it.
Gula Melaka
Gula Melaka or palm sugar probably originated, logically, from the state of Malacca. It is commonly used in a lot of Peranakan desserts, which also lends credibility to the fact that it probably originated from Malacca, one of the Strait Settlements.
This form of sugar is extracted from the sap of the flower bud of a coconut tree, then boiled until it thickens and left to solidify in bamboo tubes. You can buy them in little round blocks or even in its liquid form. Naturally, it is more expensive than the normal processed sugar but some claim it is healthier.
In its liquid form, it becomes a really sticky, thick brown syrup that’s really yummy. It goes well with almost anything coconut and used a lot in cendol, especially Nyonya cendol.
Apom Balik
The apom balik is actually a pancake that is folded in half, and probably accounts for the word ‘balik’ which actually means ‘return’ in the literal sense. Its batter is made of ingredients like flour, yeast, castor sugar, coconut milk and ‘pandan’ juice. Just before the batter begins to cook completely, crushed groundnuts, sugar, and creamed corn is added before the pancake is folded.
This Nyonya kuih (Nyonya kueh) has a lovely texture and is really pleasant to the mouth. One can choose many varieties including those with durian filling.
Onde Onde
This is another delightful Nyonya kuih and are like little green bombs covered in freshly grated coconut, because when you bite into them, a sweet ‘explosion’ of gula melaka filling dribbles into your mouth.
The batter is made primarily of glutinous rice flour and ‘pandan’ paste which gives it its green hue. A piece of solidified gula melaka is pressed into these little green balls then steamed, where it melts into a sweet liquid, concealed within the chewy green exterior.
The freshly grated coconut gives it another level of texture and an added aroma. Simply do not miss this if ever the opportunity arises to try some.
Pineapple Tart
The Nyonya make pineapple tarts really well and many run a business purely selling just these tarts. Among the many biscuits and treats one will find during Chinese New Year are pineapple tarts and is almost a must have during this time.
The tart is basically pineapple jam on a buttery pastry that, if done really well, feels like it melts in your mouth. Another variety is where the pastry is wrapped around the jam filling. Either way, they’re both really good.
Some kids like to eat only the jam, and it is understandable. The jam is made from grated pineapple cooked in sugar in spices like star anise and cinnamon, which results in a textured fibrous jam of sweetness.
Nyonya Cendol
Cendol usually refers to a popular icy desert but cendol is actually the short strips of noodle-like green jelly made from pea-flour and ‘pandan’. When we want the icy dessert, we usually just say cendol for short.
The Nyonya’s version of it is quite popular, because it is obviously very yummy, and consists of cendol jelly, red beans, in coconut milk, shaved ice and topped with lots of heavenly gula melaka syrup. Always ask for extra gula melaka, it just makes ‘cendol’ and everything else taste better.
Bubur Cha Cha
Bubur actually means porridge or congee but this is really a popular Nyonya dessert. It is a soupy sweet dessert with fruits like yam, sweet potato, sometimes with black eye beans, and sago pearls in rich coconut milk infused with the aroma of daun pandan (pandan leaf).
As always, nothing is ever simple with the Nyonya and each fruit has to be steamed individually and anything hot then has to cooled in iced water because this dessert is best served cold. Even Peranakan families don’t have this everyday due the effort required to make it and therefore when they do, they make sure to savour every last drop.
Nyonya Kuih
Some of the more popular Nyonya kuih:
Lepat Kacang
Kuih Dadar
Kuih Bingka Ubi
Apam Balik Kelapa
Rempah Udang
Kuih Kochi Putih
Kuih Kochi Hitam
Nyonya Kuih Chang
Pulut Inti
Ondeh-Ondeh
Kuih Abu Sagu
Kuih Portugal Ubi
Kuih Talam
Kuih Ko Swee
Pulut Seri Kaya (Pandan)
Pulut Seri Kaya (Kuning)
Kuih Lapis
Kuih Koo Merah
Kuih Koo Hitam
Curry Puff
Pineapple Tart
Roll Tart
Pulut Tekan (Kaya)
Apam Beku (Kuah Pisang)