When in New York, it's Nyonya Time .....

After nearly 10 months of eating too much bland food in Colombia. We were in the need for some spice. As we were in New York, and staying in China Town. Why not have some good Asian food with some spice.

For some reason the restaurants in China Town did not tempt us at all. In fact they repelled us. Too many restaurants selling pre cooked buffet food. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Last time I was in a Chinese buffet eatery (Mr Wu), I was sick as a dog for several days afterwards. All that bacteria in all that food. My body never stood a chance.

After doing a bit of research on where to eat in NYC. I heard off a website about a website about someone who ate at Nyonya. So did some research and thought, well I love Malay food. Malay folk said it was good, so why not give it a try.

Quite a trendy joint, strangely enough in Little Italy (although that seems to have shrunk to one street nowadays) which baffled us, but hey ho. Nice lighting, nice colours, nice vibe.

I already knew what I wanted and Lina the same. Only took us enough time to read the menu and make sure they were on it. Voila. Beef Rendang, and Nasi Lemak were ordered. Two Tsing Tao beers were to accompany our curry delite.

A rushed off his feet waiter tried to give us a Hainan chicken, which I like but even in Singapore I found it kinda bland. Well it is only poached chicken after all. Now I’m on every Singaporeans hit list. Sorry, but it’s true.

First up was the Roti Canai. We love Roti. We have walked all around Penang sampling Roti’s to find the best. We are quite sad I know. The Roti here was a little dry and not as greasy as I love it. It was def pre made and left lying around till ordered. Shame. The portion of chicken curry however was heaven sent. God I had missed a good curry sauce. Nice taste, nice thickness. NICE.

The mains arrived. My Beef Rendang was nice in colour, texture and taste. The meat was succulent as it should be, the sauce as thick as I know it to be. It was great but lacked one essential thing. HEAT. Beef Rendang contains a bucket full of chilli’s. Obviously one thing the Malay’s think the American market can’t handle. Maybe true. As I know a lot of English folk brag they like heat, but they really don’t. I know it had no heat, as eating in the land of no-chilli Colombia. My body was craving that pain of the chilli. It did not come. 

Lina’s Nasi Lemak was nye on perfect, a few different twists on the norm, like the dried fish being in a sauce (good but different), and a veggie side containing bits of pineapple (different but not so good). Where did that come from, but Malaysia is a diverse country, so maybe the chef’s region uses pineapple. Only thing to bitch about was the non inclusion of peanuts. Where’s the texture man. We missed the peanuts.

All in all after nearly a year of no spice it was a good meal. But I wonder if we’d just come from England if it would’ve been good or just OK. We shall never know. But good on the night.

Nyonya Cusine

Malaysia is rich and diverse in its culture, with the population consisting of Malay, Indian, Chinese and the mixes these groups have become. The most famous being the Peranakan Baba-Nyonya. Peranakan means Descended from, whilst Baba means Man and Nyonya means lady. 

So the story goes, in the 15th century, the city states of the Malay Peninsula often paid tribute to various kingdoms such as the kingdoms of China and Siam. Close relations with China were established in the early 15th century, during the reign of Parameswara, when Admiral Zheng He, a Muslim Chinese, visited Malacca. According to traditional accounts in 1459, the Emperor of China sent a princess, to the Sultan of Malacca as a token of appreciation for his tribute. The royalty and servants who accompanied the princess initially settled in Bukit Cina and eventually grew into a class of straits-born Chinese known as the Peranakan. The Peranakan retained most of their ethnic and religious origins, but assimilated the language and culture of the Malays. They developed a unique culture and distinct foods. Numerous sources claim that the early Peranakan inter-married with the local Malay population, this may might derive from the fact that some of the servants who settled in Bukit Cina that travelled to Malacca with the Admiral from Yunnan were Muslim Chinese. In the early 1800s, new Chinese immigrants to the Straits Settlements bolstered the Peranakan population.

Nyonya cuisine is a thing of love. It's not something you can come home from work and throw together ..... It takes care, time and passion to create such delicious tasting food. It does remind me of traditional Mexican food, which you have to spend ages just working on one component, and a dish may contain several of these, before you add them gradually together to create a thing of wonder. Nyonya food is the same in that respect. Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine combines Chinese, Malay and other influences into a unique blend. Nyonya 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.

There are two different schools of Nyonya cuisine. The dishes from the Island of Penang and the North show major influences of Thai cooking, they are more sour from the use of tamarind, compared with the Nyonya of Malacca which shows more Indonesian influences and uses more coconut milk. A classic example is laksa (a spicy noodle soup), which comes in two variants: the sour asam laksa from Penang and the coconut milk-based laksa lemak from Singapore and the southern regions of Peninsular Malaysia. Both are equally delicious but totally different. 

In Georgetown there is a restaurant that still holds true to true Nyonya cooking. It is called Baba-Nyonya Cuisine. The cook Miss Khoo, who is a 4th Generation Nyonya is very proud of her heritage. She was delighted to show us around and show us some traditional Nyonya ornaments to her restaurant come home. The restaurant is on a street of old Nyonya houses, which most have been turned into restaurants. Hers is quite small, only 4 tables greet you as you enter. There is a screen which houses another two tables if she gets busy. Luckily on our visit, only 2 tables were occupied, but we were told the night before around 45 people showed up for dinner. As she seems obsessed with doing all the cooking herself she must have been really shattered afterwards. 

The unique flavour of Nyonya recipes is determined by the rempah, a combination of spices pounded into a paste with pestle and mortar, with a very specific texture and density. It is said that a Nyonya mother can determine the culinary skill of a new daughter-in-law simply by listening to her preparing rempah with a mortar. Nyonya recipes are handed down from one generation to the next, and because of the time-consuming preparation of these dishes, it is a cuisine that is often at its best when served at home or in this restaurant, bit like Moroccan food. 

After browsing the menu we opted a starter of Top Hats. Opened topped deep fried rice wafer filled with a filling similar to spring rolls. They were very delicate. For mains we ordered Chicken Curry Kapitan (so named, some hundred years ago or so, a Dutch sea Captain asked his cabin boy what was for dinner that night. "Curry Kapitan" was the reply. It is a dense curry cooked with chicken and flavoured with candlenuts which also add to the thickness of the sauce. We also ordered a plate of hong bak, pork cooked for an age, and comes finished on the plate in a thick gravy. We also had a plate of local greens cooked in a fish paste. Sorry can not remember the name, and can not find it anywhere, but it was delicious. 

The meal and experience of eating really traditional food was great. The curry was divine as all curries should be, but aren't. The beef was melt in the mouth stuff. It was kind of a privilege to eat here and have someone lovingly cook for you and be very proud of her food, culture and heritage. 

We are looking forward to Malaka