Peranakan cuisine or Nyonya cuisine comes from the Peranakans, descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia, inter-marrying with local Malays. In Baba Malay, a female Peranakan is known as a nonya (also spelled nyonya), and a male Peranakan is known as a baba. The cuisine combines Chinese, Malay, Javanese, South Indian, and other influences.
There are many different types of food that the Nonya cuisine utilizes. This results in a variety of dishes from sweet to savoury.
My favourite foods are the dessert that we Malaysian's call "kuih-muih".
Here are a few examples:
Apam balik – a turnover pancake with a texture similar to a crumpet with crisp edges, made from a flour based batter with raising agent. It is typically cooked on a griddle and topped with caster sugar, ground peanut, creamed corn, and grated coconut in the middle, and then turned over. Many different takes on this dish exist as part of the culinary repertoire of the Malay, Chinese, Peranakan, Indonesian, and ethnic Bornean communities; all under different names.
Kuih seri muka, sri muka or putri salat (lit. pretty face cake) - a Banjarese and Malay two-layered dessert with steamed glutinous rice forming the bottom half and a green custard layer made with pandan juice (hence the green colour). Coconut milk is a key ingredient in making this kue. It is used to impart creamy taste when cooking the glutinous rice and making the custard layer. This kue found in Indonesia (especially in South Kalimantan), Malaysia and Singapore.
Kuih lapis – a sweet steamed cake made from rice flour, coconut milk, sugar and various shades of edible food colouring done with many individual layers.
Kue dadar gulung - a grated coconut with coconut sugar wrapped inside a thin crepe made of rice flour. The dadar (crepe) is usually colored green.
Kue bahulu - a tiny crusty sponge cakes which come in distinctive shapes like button and goldfish, acquired from being baked in moulded pans. Bahulu is usually baked and served for festive occasions.
Kue karipap - small pie consisting of curry with chicken and potatoes in a deep-fried or baked pastry shell. It can be also filled with meat mixed with vegetables (chopped carrot and beans), rice vermicelli, and sometimes egg, then deep fried in vegetable oil.
Kue keria, fried doughnuts made with a sweet potato batter and rolled in caster sugar.
