NYONYA COOKING

For starters, take a quick look at a map of southeast Asia, present-day Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia. Use Singapore as the center reference. North of Singapore, along the western coast of the land mass, just to the left (west) of Kuala Lumpur, you will find the island of Penang and below it the Straits of Malacca, once a pivot point and major focus  for trade, exploration and exploitation. Any country interested in this area has instantly recognized that the Straits were a strategically-priceless choke point, giving or denying access to the South China Sea and points east.
In the 15th C, the Ming Emperor of China sent one of his daughters to wed the Sultan of Malacca. The Princess brought 500 retainers with her, all of which were commanded to wed local Malays. The culture of the so-called Straits Chinese is an amalgam of Malay, Indonesian, and Chinese that began with the Princess and continued for centuries.
The cultural melding best shows in their vibrant cuisine, called Nonya, which is the affectionate word for woman, or mother, or even auntie, in Malay (baba is father). You'll hear more than a few references to this style of cuisine in the months to come, so I thought I'd give a little historic background. Why? Because history always affects food: how it's grown, prepared, and eaten.
I know this first hand (and so do you, just cast your memory back to those old days before the creation of the international theme restaurant consortiums). When I was a kid, Italian immigrants to New York made the best pizza in the world; Sbarro's high-sodium fake Italian would've gone bankrupt overnight. When you were a kid, any variation on your local food theme usually came from immigrants, whether they were displaced people of color bringing fried chicken to the north, the Portugese bringing linguica to Rhode Island, or Polish immigrants bringing pierogis to Pennsylvania. And for the ultimate American example, check out Brooklyn, New York, where the melting pot even now is bubbling merrily away.
But, as always, I digress, so...back to Asia. Nowhere is historic influences on food more true - and more visible - than in the area in and around Melacca, and north to Penang. Here, you can easily trace through ingredients the tides of various cultures and how they added their touch to a cuisine. Read on for more history, and a new way of preparing rice...