: : Nonya Flavours : :
I didn’t get any reply back from the Star regarding the picture usage but that’s probably because I sent it to the wrong email addy and it’s now in circulation until someone realises that ‘Hey! It should have gone here’. Even a ‘no’ answer is better than none at all. Ah well. Let’s see how long it goes through the ‘system’ before someone says something. Call it a trial, if you like.
But, the review is still going up lah since it was an amusing conversation between me and Granny.
Sambal Kang Hu Kia (Anchovy Sambal)
Granny : In old old days ah, Penang people don’t eat this sambal because considered poor fare mah. So funny now ah because ikan bilis (dried anchovies) are so expensive today lah!
Apparently, the sambal ikan billis (anchovy sambal) is considered food for poor families back in olden days when Granny was still living in Penang. She left Penang back in the 50s to raise her family all over Peninsula Malaysia and finally, Sarawak. This sambal is now a popular sauce to be eaten with rice. Sambal is a sauce that is eaten with other dishes and it adds a spicy-ness to the dish when chilli is not added to the main dish and the diner wants a little bit of heat to the meal. Chilli cannot always be added to all dishes else it spoils the taste of the meal. Hence, people would eat sambal as a spicy sauce to be added into the meal as a small side dish. Or, what some people would do is have some cut chillis on the side since it’s not easy to make sambal and it’s very time-consuming. There’s a lot of pounding involved in making sambal. Some people would make sambal using blenders but blenders do not blend the small chilli seeds.
Kari Kapitan (Kapitan Chicken Curry)
Granny : Wei! Got Kari Kapitan there or not? I wanna learn how to make it lah! Melaka dish, that one!
Wena : Errr… sure from Melaka or not?
Granny : Ya, from the nonya in Melaka. Not the nonya in Penang.
Wena : Hmm….got. Here!
Granny : Aik! I wanna learn how to make the black black Kapitan Curry lah!
Now, some explaination here. Granny has been away from Penang since the 50s so there is a period where she hasn’t been back in a long while. Whether to say that Kari Kapitan really did originate from Penang, this I cannot verify. But, the picture looks great and very tempting. It’s different from the normal curry because of the mix of spices. Nonya food tends to have a certain sour taste that blends in very well with the sweet and herb taste. Granny and I are going to try to make this one day.
Hu Chee Rumpah (Sambal-stuffed Fried Fish)
Wena : Wei! They got this recipe inside! Same like yours!
Granny : Ya!
Wena : My favourite wor!
Granny : Haha!
And believe me, it is extremely delicious. The sambal paste (different recipe) is stuffed into the stomach of mackerel (ikan cincaru) and into a slit made at the top portion of the fish. The slit is cut on one side of the fish and on the top portion. Or rather, that’s how we do it at home. In the book, it calls for two slits, one on each side of the fish. By stuffing the sambal here, it makes the fish taste a lot better as one can literally taste the sambal throughout the entire fish. Note that the fish is deep fried so it can get pretty oily. Still, we don’t have it very often, thank goodness. Oh yeah, one thing about the fish : do not remove the skin when deep frying else it would flake off.
This is seriously an amazing cookbook and worth the RM38 that one would pay for it. There is a picture of the delicious meal for EVERY recipe in the book. So, you have a reference point to start off with. There is also a small section on confinement food i.e. what a mother would eat after having given birth.
Another section of the book that I truly like is the list of spices and ingredients that is accompanied by pictures galore. You will find a small commentary for each spice used in Nonya cooking. In the book, a total of 46 different herbs, spices and ingredients are explained in a concise manner. I luv it! Now, no more worries about buying the wrong stuff but I’m sure that I’d get a lot of laugher if I brought the book to the wet market! Haha!
I’m still browsing through the cookbook as it is extremely fascinating and I find many familiar dishes that I’m still eating to this very day. The recipes are divided into many sections for ease of reference and boy, there are a lot of them. So, loads of drooling and inspiration to cook is found in this book.
I like what is written in the Foreword section by Dao’ Khoo Keat Siew, the President of the State Chinese (Penang) Association regarding Nonya Cooking :
WIth its Chinese, Malay, Indian, Thai, and to a lesser extent, colonial, influences, the cuisine of the Penang Peranakan is unique and exotic. It is rightly acknowledged as one of the precursors of modern Fusion Food in the region.
Note that the cookbook is based on the cooking of the Penang Nonyas and not those from Malacca and Singapore. Because of this, don’t be surprised to find variations in the cooking style.
I found the book at Popular Bookstore but you can also purchase it online at the following sites :
Malaysia
MPH
Kinokuniya
Singapore
MarketAsia Distributors
Popular
Select Books Online
I couldn’t find a copy of the book for sale at Amazon.com. Oh well. There are more than enough online bookstores to purchase the book.
Here is another article written about the book.
So, have I persuaded you to buy the book yet? 
