The picture is taken from I am Liu Xiaoshun

The turquoise house under the bright sun is dazzling, and writer Y from Taiwan and his group took a commemorative photo of their second trip to Penang under the bright colors. I once visited Penang, but I was new and unfamiliar with the eye-catching "Museum of Overseas Chinese". "What are 'Baba' and 'Nyonya'?" The tone of regret turned into joy: "It was right to find you this time." Those who listened were proud and told what they knew: "When the Chinese from the south came to Penang, they married the local aborigines and gave birth to a child. The boy was called 'Baba' and the woman was called 'Nyonya'."

The intermarriage of different nationalities and the integration of multiculturalism in daily life have produced another new culture. In terms of food culture that is most acceptable to ordinary people, Nyonya has added Nanyang spices to the original Chinese dishes to brew a unique "Nyonya cuisine". After hearing the introduction, Y decided to try.

When visitors from afar who are afraid of spicy food are waiting for their dishes, they have to confirm again and again that not every dish is spicy, right? Many people mistakenly think that Nyonya cuisine is all chili, but in fact it is more spice and sweet and sour.

There are three kinds of pre-dinner side dishes, one is ACAR (Nyonya pickles), which is a cold dish. Cucumber, pineapple, cabbage, carrot, etc. cut into strips or cubes, mixed with chili, vinegar, sugar, and salt, and eaten raw. If you want to eat overnight, dry the cut vegetables slightly, add the above-mentioned seasonings and turmeric to cook, turn off the heat when it boils, and then sprinkle chopped peanuts and fried sesame seeds before serving. Sesame is fragrant, guests forget to be polite and eat non-stop.

The other two are stewed pork and spring pancakes. Braised pork (also known as five-spice meat rolls) is made by cutting semi-fat and lean pork into thin pieces, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots, adding appropriate amount of salt, sugar, wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper and five other spices. The powder is called five-spice powder, add eggs, corn flour, stir well, roll it into strips with tofu skin, fry it until golden yellow before eating, then cut into pieces, and the dipping sauce is ground red pepper, add salt, sugar and orange juice. Spring cakes are called spring rolls, and in Taiwan they are called run cakes, which should be called by people in southern Fujian. Shred kale (or cabbage), shred carrots, add fish shreds, small fresh shrimps, fry with appropriate oil and salt, and finally add white pepper, remember not to add water to get the original taste The filling is dry when fried. When wrapped in spring roll wrappers, add fried thin dried tofu, shredded omelette, chopped coriander (or celery or green onions, depending on personal taste), and also add fried peanuts and sesame seeds, do not eat Those who are deep-fried, roll them up and cut them into pieces, and some people especially like deep-fried spring rolls. The sauce for eating spring rolls is ground red pepper, add a little sugar and belacan (a kind of sauce made of small shrimp, block, when you want to use it, knead it into powder with a spoon, mix it with ground pepper, taste Strong, those who love it especially love it, those who don't love it think the strong shrimp smell is very stinky).

The picture is taken from Xinhua Net

The special feature of Nyonya cuisine lies in the different dipping sauces. Vegetables, fish, pork, shrimp, etc., with different dipping sauces, make the taste of the already delicious dishes even better.

The first main dish, asam shrimp, first soak fresh prawns in tamarind juice (ASAM is the Malay name of tamarind), add oil, high heat, after the shrimp is cooked, remove the oil, and then put Pour the soaked tamarind juice into the pot, boil it dry, sprinkle some salt, and serve. The tamarind tastes sour, and the asam shrimp has an enticing sweet and sour umami. Another dish of duck with salted vegetables is duck, pig’s feet, pickled vegetables, Asian ginseng slices, ginger and scallions boiled in water to make a soup. In order to increase the deliciousness and sourness of the soup, tomatoes are added and cooked for a long time, so that the duck, pig’s feet and pickled vegetables The flavors are mixed together. The Nyonya flavor of this soup is added with peppercorns and cardamom seeds that are lacking in other places. Both spices can dispel the wind.

I will never miss the must-order Kapitan chicken in Nyonya restaurants. It is similar to dry curry chicken, but only slightly spicy. Dried chilies, turmeric, lemongrass, and shallots are used first, and when chopped, you can smell the fine and mixed flavors, and then add 2 special spices, blue ginger (lengkuas) and buah keras (buah keras). Blue ginger is ginger, but it is not blue. Grass increases the concentration of curry and tastes stronger. Saute all seasoning spices with oil until fragrant. The chicken is lightly fried, that is, add the fried curry ingredients and cook until it is fully cooked, then pour in coconut milk and a few slices of fresh lime leaves, stir a few times and then put them all on the plate, sprinkle with fried golden shallot rings. Spices, lime leaves, coconut milk and fried onion rings, different aromas, mixed together, exudes a variety of Nyonya flavors.

Nyonya likes to use very spicy to get rid of the fishy smell. Asam Pedas Fish (ASAM PEDAS FISH) is the most popular cooking method. The hot and sour fish soup must contain chili, lemongrass, turmeric, tomato, assam slices, and lime leaves. Before serving, it is sprinkled with chopped green onions, rasa flowers, curry leaves, and mint leaves. Put two slices of limes together in a small plate. Those who think it is not sour enough can increase the acidity by themselves. Usually, adding two slices of limes is not too sour, but adds a refreshing lime flavor. In the hot and sour fish soup, green and tender okra are floating, and cooked with sour asam sliced ​​tomato, etc., to remove the mucus of the okra.

When Taiwanese writers eat with relish and are full of praise, order another dessert. Freshly ground rice milk is mixed with green Bandan leaf juice. The Bandan leaf, nicknamed Hongye, not only makes the rice milk sticks emerald green, but also has a special aroma. When eating, add red beans, crushed ice, and top with white coconut Syrup And Red Coconut Sugar. The soft and delicate taste makes the dessert named CENDOL the eye-catching emerald in the crown of the champion of Nyonya cuisine.

It is exquisite and unique in its own way, and the person who eats it seems to have experienced a process of searching for secrets, and the taste is layered and layered continuously. The vast majority of housewives in Penang have two or three special Nyonya dishes. Someone once said that Nyonya dishes with local spices are deliberately added. I hope that after the Chinese husband from the south gets used to it, if he returns to China one day, he will miss the taste of spices and soon return to Nanyang. Nyonya's worry is like the broken shadow of time, faintly jumping, but it does not disappear with the passing of time, which shows the reason why they are willing to put their minds into blending dishes. The latest rumor is that after eating Nyonya food in Penang today, travelers and tourists will come back soon.

Image taken from Malaysia Writing 

Apart from cooking skills, Y and his group fell in love with Nyonya pretending at first sight. Tulle fabric, thin waist, V-shaped hem, embroidered lace, practical buttons and decorative functions, made of real gold or pure silver in the shape of flowers, the lower body is a narrow skirt that tightens the hips, made with the shape, and the skirt fits snugly The whole body shows a beautiful figure, and the lace of the skirt swayes as she walks, with elegant styles. Underneath the skirt are handmade beaded shoes. Beaded shoes refer to beaded uppers, which are stitched by human hands and made of beads one by one.

Y found that "Nyonya pays great attention to the taste of life." In that era, women had no status and did not need to go out to work. "The important thing is to marry well, not to worry about food and clothing, and not to worry about living expenses." A friend of Nyonya descendants mentioned that her grandmother "doesn't have to work and lives a leisurely life." Puts a lot of thought into looking good before going out.” Cooking and grooming hard to please her husband. The diverse Nyonya diet was created after repeated research in the kitchen back then. Clothes and body accessories took time and effort to be beautiful and meticulous. Nyonya products are colorful, dazzling and beautiful. Bright and rich things or non-living items are daily necessities, although they may not be deliberately preserved, and eventually turn into historical value for viewing.

Nyonya restaurants are hung with beautiful Nyonya costumes as wall decorations. Women in Nyonya clothes can occasionally be seen at the banquet. On normal days, modern women who go to work are in a hurry and feel anxious. The waitress at the Nyonya restaurant, wearing a thin-waisted lace green top and a close-fitting peach red lace skirt, spoke softly, delicately and elegantly. The real Nyonya is very precious today; only the unique Nyonya dishes are left, which can be found everywhere on the roadside and the street. If you walk on the street under the bright sunshine, if you have not tasted the exquisite Nyonya dishes, you have never been to Penang .