Airing of "Little Nyonya" has ended but the craze over "Little Nyonya" has not died down. I hardly catch any episode and I am catching it online now. There are many cooking scenes introducing Nyonya cuisine and they look mouth-watering. Hence, when a colleague told me about this Peranakan restaurant, I suggested lunch there with a friend, as I'm very tempted to taste nyonya cuisine.
We had beef rendang, ayam buah keluak & mixed vegetables. Among the three dishes, the chicken dish was the most unique one. It's a distinctive dish combining chicken pieces with nuts from the Pangium edule or kepayang tree to produce a rich sauce. But I cannot really appreciate it. The black sauce was filled with the nut flavour. We did not over-stuffed ourselves as we wanted to sample nyonya dessert too. We had 3 different tpyes of desserts, namely the durian pengant, bo bo cha cha & gula melaka sago. The durian pengant's our favourite as it tasted just like durian!
Peranakan or Nonya cuisine combines Chinese, Malay and other influences into a unique blend.
Peranakans are descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca and Singapore, inter-marrying with local Malays. The old Malay word nonya (also spelled nyonya), a term of respect and affection for women of prominent social standing (part “madame” and part “auntie”), has come to refer to the cuisine of the Perakanans.
Nonya cooking is the result of blending Chinese ingredients and wok cooking techniques with spices used by the Malay community. The food is tangy, aromatic, spicy and herbal. Key ingredients include coconut milk, galangal (a subtle, mustard-scented rhizome similar to ginger), candlenuts as both a flavoring and thickening agent, laksa leaf, pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius), belachan, tamarind juice, lemongrass, torch ginger bud, jicama, fragrant kaffir lime leaf, rice or egg noodles and cincaluk - a powerfully flavored, sour and salty shrimp-based condiment that is typically mixed with lime juice, chillies and shallots and eaten with rice, fried fish and other side dishes.
