eG Foodblog : kew/Tepee

[SobaAddict70]

Could either of you talk a little bit more about penang nyonya food? Is it different from nyonya in Singapore, for example?

Fascinating Foodblog installment.

Soba

[JustKay]

Fascinating Foodblog installment. 

Soba

Thank you.

Could either of you talk a little bit more about penang nyonya food?  Is it different from nyonya in Singapore, for example?

One school of thought said that the Peranakan race began with the marriage of Princess Hang Li Po of China to the Malay Sultan Mansur Shah of Malacca. After which the Chinese traders followed suit. And then began all things uniquely Peranakan (somewhat akin to the Mamak - the inter-marriage betwen Malays and Indian, particularly from South India). This happened about 400 years ago and the Peranakans are now in their 8th and 9th generation. Not only this resulted in a rather unique cuisine, but also the Cakap Peranakan (Peranakan language - Malay peppered with Chinese words), culture (one of which is the groom moving in with the bride's family after marriage) and fashion (Baju Kebaya).

Nonya and Baba are the terms given to the ladies and men of Peranakan.

The Baba and Nyonya clothes are elaborately adorned and accessorized. The baju kebaya are decked with fine embroidery and sequins, worn with finely crafted kerongsang (a chain of brooches ) and sarong; their slippers too are colorfully embroidered and decorated with beads and sequins. They usually sport the sanggul (chignon); the married ladies a single chignon and the unmarried, the 'telephone chignon' which comprises 2 smaller chignons on either side and held in place with cucuk sanggul (a type of chopstick-like hair clip). The Babas wear high Mandarin colored suits with gold fasteners, baggy pants (sometimes sarong too) and a 'toupee' hat.

Thus, it follows that the Peranakan cuisine prepared by the fastidious and meticulous Nyonya cooks are elaborately prepared dishes and incorporates the blending of many spices and aromatic herbs.

Although the Peranakans in Penang and Singapore originates from Malacca, over the years, their cuisine have evolved with local influences.

The Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine in Malacca and Singapore are influenced by Indonesian cuisine and are generally spiced with coriander and cumin, richer in coconut milk, and a little sweeter.

The Peranakan cuisine in Penang has the Thai influence and is more sour/tangy, hotter, typically uses the kaffir lime leaf and pandan, and belacan (shrimp paste). Kerabu (salad) is also a prominent feature.

Some typical Nyonya dishes include Ayam Pongteh (chicken stewed in preserved soya bean paste), Devil Curry, Acar Hu (fish pickle), Inchi Kaybin, Itik Tim.

Their desserts are kuihs that are very rich in coconut milk. Some examples are kuih lapis (pic from my breakfast post), talam, and onde-onde.

I have to go deliver some cakes and stuff now but perhaps later I will post some Peranakan recipes to illustrate better the dishes I mentioned.

Edited March 13, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

Anyone want to take a stab at what some of those fruits below are? Do I recognize unripe papaya on the left second from the top? Are some of the greenish ones cucumber or some kind of melon or squash? But what I'm most curious about is, what's in the lower right-hand corner? I can't figure it out. I'm think rambutan, langsat, duku, but probably none of the above.

[...]

Some pickled fruits:

[...]

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From top left : papaya, mango, mango, nutmeg, mango.

Second row : mango, kedondong, mango, mango.

The quartet (clockwise from top left) : UPO, chestnut, UPO, cermai.

Lower right hand corner : UPO. But I'm thinking nutmeg halves.

I'll stop by Carrefour on my way back and will look closely and see if they have name tags.

** UPO = Unidentified Pickled Object.

Edited March 13, 2005 by kew (log)

[touaregsand]

SHIEWIE!!!!!! Come back! I need you to identify some veggies in english. (I haven't lived abroad before, so I'm afraid my food terms are pretty much confined to M'sian names).

Touaregsand was asking for pics of our open air markets the other day. We'll be going tomorrow morning, but, on Tuesday, after my dentist visit, I went to a nearby mall where the market is enclosed but the concept is the same as an open one. Please excuse the pics. I had to switch on the camera in my bag, take it out and snap quick shots, as, according to one of the proprietors, photographing is not allowed there.

Here's one of the fruit stalls - lots of bananas, pineapples, oranges, honeydew melon. The dark orange boxes in the backqround are leftover mandarin oranges from Chinese New Year. They're selling for half-price.

On the front row, you can see turnip (as I know. I think western turnip is not quite the same, no?),  yam, beetroot and old cucumber (great for soup). Back row: Pickled mustard greens, potatoes, red onions, shallots and garlic.

Going anticlockwise from the bottom front, there's brocolli, dau mieu (shoots), chinese and english parsley, lotus roots (ah, this can go into the soup with the old cucumber),  red and green capsicum.

Will try to get a wider look at a market tomorrow.

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Be still my heart! I'm moaning right now.

[Laksa]

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kew, while I await your confirmation, I could've sworn that the bottom right is a pic of halved buah salak or snakeskin fruit.

[touaregsand]

I drink that soup all the time! But I had no idea those herbs are especially beneficial to women. Let's hope what's good for women isn't harmful for a man, and doesn't make him any less of a man. dry.gif

I eat some stuff that is suppose to make men *ahem* virile. Funny when I order certain dishes at an Asian restaurant, sometimes the waiter says, "oh that's for a man." I think that i'm growing a ___ with every eel dish I order.

[Pan]

[...]

** UPO = Unidentified Pickled Object. 

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Yeah, I figured that out. Good one.

Between you and Tepee, the photos in this foodblog are among the best of any. Yet the proprietors are almost always sourpusses about taking photos? Why do you suppose that is?

[touaregsand]

[...]

** UPO = Unidentified Pickled Object. 

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Yeah, I figured that out. Good one.

Between you and Tepee, the photos in this foodblog are among the best of any. Yet the proprietors are almost always sourpusses about taking photos? Why do you suppose that is?

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'cause it's like capturing, stealing, dissipating...our souls/spririts....

[Pan]

Could be, but I've never heard Malaysians say that taking a photo captures their souls.

[mizducky]

I am heartily enjoying this blog also. Geez, I wish I could have one or both of you knowledgeable women along with me when I go into the local Asian markets here--I've done a lot of self-educating, but there's still so much wonderful-looking *stuff* there that I don't know a thing about.

[Tepee]

[...]

** UPO = Unidentified Pickled Object. 

←

Yeah, I figured that out. Good one.

Between you and Tepee, the photos in this foodblog are among the best of any. Yet the proprietors are almost always sourpusses about taking photos? Why do you suppose that is?

←

'cause it's like capturing, stealing, dissipating...our souls/spririts....

←

Frankly, I think proprietors who distrust cameras have a "kiasu" (scared to lose) attitude. They may be afraid you'll steal some of their business secrets.

Ummm, the 'capturing of soul part' is more a pantang/taboo for chinese (don't know about Malays) women who are pregnant. I didn't respect that, though.

[Pan]

I am heartily enjoying this blog also. Geez, I wish I could have one or both of you knowledgeable women along with me when I go into the local Asian markets here--I've done a lot of self-educating, but there's still so much wonderful-looking *stuff* there that I don't know a thing about.

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Mizducky, you could always take photos of stuff available at your local Asian markets and post them to an appropriate thread for advice on what they are and what to do with them.

[Tepee]

I am heartily enjoying this blog also. Geez, I wish I could have one or both of you knowledgeable women along with me when I go into the local Asian markets here--I've done a lot of self-educating, but there's still so much wonderful-looking *stuff* there that I don't know a thing about.

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Why, thank you, Mizducky. Ask away....you have 9 more hours to do so before the Msian segment ends.

Just kidding! Snap a pic any time you need to know something and start a thread or pm us. We'll be happy to help.

edit: Pan beat me to it.

Edited March 13, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[mizducky]

Cool. Guess I'll be finding out if the staff at the local 99 Ranch also get the heebie-jeebies when a customer starts snapping photos ...

[Tepee]

Could either of you talk a little bit more about penang nyonya food?  Is it different from nyonya in Singapore, for example?

Fascinating Foodblog installment. 

Soba

←

Just to add a little bit to Kew's, I had a chat with a Malaccan friend this morning, and he said that Penang Peranakan food has a wider repertoire. For example, a true blue Malaccan nyonya will not be familiar with ju hu char (jicama strips fried with cuttlefish) which is basically a Penang innovation.

[Tepee]

We never have breakfast at home on Sundays because mommy is not a morning person and we leave early for church. Our church has volunteers who provide refreshment (my turn is on Apr 10) after service. However, the term 'refreshment' is a misnomer...it's more like brunch! Today, the 'refreshment' table had

Radish cake/Lo Bak Go

Vegetable dumplings filled with jicama and kuchai/chives at the back. The skin is made from tang meen fun flour/ a non-gluten flour. In front is a roll made from rice noodle sheets. The filling is chilli, jicama, pickled veggie/choy po, and dried shrimp.

We also had cookies and this pandan cake roll filled with kaya. Eek, I never buy such rolls...too much coloring. I prefer to make them myself.

[Tepee]

I decided to fry rice for lunch...a quickie. I use Sarawak black rice, which after cooking looks more purplish brown.

Marinated some Aussie topside with teriyaki and worcestershire sauce before leaving the house. I seared the beef and then thinly sliced it. The insides are still pinkish.

My mother (an incredible chinese homecook) made some sweet pork meat for me, so I cut up a big slice.

Saute onions, add above 2 ingredients and carrots and fry in the wok for just a minute or two. Lastly add apples and cut-up wakame. This is my trusty 13-year old cast iron wok.

Voila! Lunch is served. The girls like to fill butterheads with rice and pop their packages into their mouths.

Drink: A very refreshing jug of coconut juice, with young flesh.

Gotta go....it's storming...don't want my computer to fry too!!!!

Edited March 13, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[JustKay]

..... Yet the proprietors are almost always sourpusses about taking photos? Why do you suppose that is?

'cause it's like capturing, stealing, dissipating...our souls/spririts....

Frankly, I think proprietors who distrust cameras have a "kiasu" (scared to lose) attitude. They may be afraid you'll steal some of their business secrets.

Ummm, the 'capturing of soul part' is more a pantang/taboo for chinese (don't know about Malays) women who are pregnant. I didn't respect that, though.

As Malays are Muslims, we don't subscribe to such beliefs.

I think like Tepee said they are wary of strangers intruding their personal space.

But if I were to like take the pics for a (popular) publication, I bet they'd be more than willing to 'open up'.

Edited March 13, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

kew, while I await your confirmation, I could've sworn that the bottom right is a pic of halved buah salak or snakeskin fruit.

Correcto mondo.

[helenjp]

Is the jicama that you refer to the same as this thing...yam beans?

I didn't know it was so popular in Malaysian food.

[JustKay]

Is the jicama that you refer to the same as this thing...yam beans?

I didn't know it was so popular in Malaysian food.

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Yes. Also called Mexican Turnip.

[JustKay]

Sleuthing concluded.

Preserved Buah Salak.

Buah salak = snakeskin fruit; salak palm = Palmae, Salacca zallaca (Gaertner) Voss , Salacca edulis.

Preserved mango

The common name for this mango escapes me but this specie do not grow big (about egg size) and is used primarily for making sambal, or preserved.

Rather tart.

From top left (clockwise):

Pickled Buah Melaka = Malacca Fruit; Phyllanthus emblica L.

This is the tree after which the state of Melaka/Malacca was named.

Preserved green seedless grapes. And I thot it was some exotic fruit. When the guy said grapes, I was like huh? grapes? like grape grapes?

Preserved Buah Kelubi (common name Asam Paya) = Salacca Conferta

Sister of the buah salak.

Pickled Garlic.

Edited March 13, 2005 by kew (log)

[Abra]

That fried rice looks fabulous - wakame with apples? Wowsers. And how does she get that pork into such a uniform, beautiful sheet? I have a mad craving for a dish of your rice right now and it's only 7:00 in the morning. Would you give us a few more recipe details?

[JustKay]

I took some shots of the various gourds :

top right : angle gourd (marrow), snakegourd, sharkfin melon, wax melon, UGO (unidentified gourdy object), bitter gourd, jicama, ** 'green' pumpkin , hairy cucumber.

** the label said "green pumpkin" but googling doesn't turn up green pumpkins that look like these, but the calabazza which doesn't even remotely look like these. These are shaped like the water apple, only way bigger. Anyone knows for sure?

Edited March 13, 2005 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

Snacks anyone?

Dry food section :

Part of the frozen food section :

Edited March 13, 2005 by kew (log)