Asian Online Recipes (Food Articles)
Asian Online Recipes - Articles

Nyonya Cuisine

Nyonya Cuisine

While many ancestral customs and traditions of their Chinese forefathers are still practiced, Babas and Nyonyas assimilated the local Malay way of life. This unique marriage of cultures resulted in a novel marriage of cuisines, both Chinese and Malay, and is popularly known in Malaysia as Nyonya food.

While Nyonya food contains many of the ingredients of Chinese food and Malay spices and herbs, Nyonya cuisine is eclectically seasoned and different than either Chinese or Malay food. As in Malay cooking, a key ingredient in Nyonya cuisine is 'belacan', pronounced blah-chan, a dried shrimp paste. A tiny amount of this paste adds sweetness to meats, intensity to fish and seafood and a 'kick' to vegetables like Kangkung Belacan.

It makes a flavorful base for sauces and gravies, adding depth and an intriguing taste that can't be deciphered. Best described as a natural flavor enhancer, belacan gives the authentic zest and flavor underlying the dense fabric of spice and herbs.

Nyonya food from the North of Malaysia-Penang has a preference for tangy or sour food such as the famous Penang Assam Laksa. Tamarind paste is normally used as a souring agent. A famous black color molasses-like paste, locally called 'haeko' pronounced hey-ko or Otak Udang in Malay, normally accompanies Nyonya gastronomic creations.

Nyonya cooking from the South of Malaysia is generally sweeter, richer in liberal use of coconut milk and more traditional Malay spices. In Malacca, Nyonya cooking is heavily influenced by Portuguese-Eurasian style of cooking. One can easily spot authentic Nyonya food in Malaysia by its cooking style and the word, "Nyonya", as a prefix, such as Nyonya Chicken Curry, Nyonya Shrimp Sambal and Nyonya Fried Rice. Nyonya food is in a unique gastronomic realm of its own, with specific and subtle nuances of tastes and flavors, quite undiscovered still in the international culinary world.

Nyonya cuisine is also famous for its Kuih (cake or dessert), with strong Malay influences - made from local ingredients such as sweet potatoes, yams, agar-agar, gula Melaka, coconut milk, glutinous rice and Chinese ingredietns such as red beans, green beans or mung beans.

Other popular Nyonya dishes are Inche Kabin (Chicken Bites), Chicken Kapitan (Chicken Curry), Kangkung Belacan (Belacan Water Spinach), Bubur Cha-Cha (Dessert Porridge), and Cendol (Coconut Ice Frosty).

More Articles

Copyright © 2003-2024 Asian Online Recipes. All rights Reserved.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy