Ambient is Gorgeous

In this Kebaya Dining Room review, we will first check the ambiance here. This place is truly Peranakan! and you can tell that first second you step in. Colorful tiles, rich wooden ornaments and massive furniture with a lot of details. In the open area between the hotel and restaurant, there is a centerpiece that stands in the spotlight. For observers, it is crucial to have enough space to freely admire the metal art piece.

Nice Garden

The giraffe’s outline changes its form into an elephant from a different angle. In order to admire, we circled around the piece without even noticing that we were doing that. To explain, the French sculptor Matthieu Robert-Ortis captured the transformative influence of perspective in this inspiring artwork. That is not the only art exhibit at this property, there are actually numerous Peranakan exhibits ranging from table wear to handcrafted furniture.

Modern Approach to Nyonya Cuisine

With a modern approach, Peranakan cuisine keeps evolving in the Kebaya Dining Room. The Nyonya food is prepared with modern appliances such as sous-vide and with ingredients of the highest quality. For the four-course menu, we got to choose between organically raised pork, New Zealand lamb, Australian beef and seasonal vegetables. Keeping an eye on every detail made us hungry and we couldn’t wait to start eating.

Great Start

For the starter, we decided to go for the Pai Tee, which had impressed us in the past. The crispy base holds the julienne vegetables and sweet chili in place and it gives the dish its signature look. This tasty yet difficult to eat appetizer might have a hidden purpose. To start with Pai Tee is a nice way to share laughter before you head off to wash your hands.

The traditional Joo Hoo Char Roll was the second appetizer. It was in pair with an unbelievably delicious smoky sauce, which was also a little sour and spicy. However, the fried roll was filled with carrot, shiitake, pork and dried squid, all wrapped in rice paper. It was perfectly seasoned and we loved having it wrapped in lettuce and then dipping it in that sauce.

After such a tasty start, we were ready for the main course, where we had a few different sides along with the perfectly cooked rice. Lor Ark is a duck confit with plums and oranges. However, it is spiced with cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and nutmeg. To point out, the duck was perfectly cooked and its taste was very present in the gravy, even with all the seasonings. With this in mind the gravy was rich and not even close to the all times classic, duck with orange – and I mean this in a positive way.

Main Course With Compliments

Even though the duck was perfect, I liked the Prawn Geng even more. The perfectly salty coconut-based gravy, with lemongrass that became a meeting point for the prawns and the curry. To be honest, I don’t know what I liked more, the luscious gravy or the succulent wild prawns.

We mixed the protein with deep-fried vegetables and greens. The fried Nyonya Belachan Tempura vegetable wasn’t that oily, it was actually rather crispy. In addition the sweet potato, young corn and courgette were juicy on the inside and the delicate batter was dusted with homemade belachan chili seasoning. On the other hand, the greens were full of umami taste with soy, oyster and fish sauce and they still kept their crunchy texture and gentle taste.

Sweet Life

Life is always better when you know the best is yet to come, and, luckily here at Kabaya Dining Room, they clearly know how important a photo finish is. When we saw the Gula Melaka Mousse, we knew we made the right call for dessert. A generous amount of homemade Gula Melaka in the mousse brought back memories we had at Wild Coriander.

However, the mousse that was layered on top of a sponge cake and sprinkled with candied nuts was ambrosial. The candied nuts provided the creamy mousse with a crunchy texture and the tastes of nuts and palm sugar really complimented each other.

In order to keep things local, our second dessert was a deconstructed Nyonya Classic, the Pengat: homemade coconut ice cream paired with jackfruit puree, Pandan gelee, sweet potato dumpling and banana chips. After all, the fruity puree surprised me, as for a minute I thought that it was made of mango. It was a perfect synergy of gentle coconut and intense jackfruit, with the mix of chewy potato dumplings and crunchy banana chips.

Conclusion

The more we get to know Peranakan cuisine, the more we like it. But there is more to it than just a tasty meal. It’s about the ingredients that make the dish, the beautiful plate on which the meal is served and the surroundings where the meal is enjoyed – this all matters greatly. The experience is different when you eat from a plate that is a work of art in itself. And when such a tasty meal covers the beautiful plate, I was tempted to lick all the sauces dry. This kebaya dining room review made us happy for sure and fell in love with Nyonya food even more.

Kebaya Dining Room Review Card

• 9/10
  ATMOSPHERE – 9/10
• 8.8/10
  SERVICE – 8.8/10
• 9/10
  PRESENTATION – 9/10
• 9.4/10
  FOOD – 9.4/10
• 9/10
  DRINKS – 9/10
• 9.2/10
  VALUE – 9.2/10

Price and Location

Diner, as we had will cost you about 35 USD per person. Here is a location to Kebaya Dining Room in case you would like to give them a try.

The post Kebaya Dining Room Review : Nyonya Food With a Modern Approach appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

The time machine started working the minute we entered the old building where this “restaurant” is. At the same time, we had the pleasure to meet Baba, who runs this family restaurant and makes sure his grandmother’s recipes stay alive. Not only do they cook as their grandmother used to, but the ingredients are either from local suppliers or made in-house.

Nutmeg Drink

The homemade nutmeg drink they spoil us with, gave us a hunch as to what we were going to experience. It was made from scratch from the grandmother’s recipes and we were happy for every refill we got. That drink was so delicious that we couldn’t wait for the 8 courses meal to start. Their desire to make their guests happy is the reason why all the dishes are brought to the table at the same time. This way everyone can take whatever they want at any moment.

A Real Feast

The table was full of dishes and every single thing we tried was simply amazing. Almost every dish looked very simple, but there was always a lot of complex flavors, working in great harmony.

Acar Awak was a very tasty mix of pickled vegetables in a spicy sauce. The pickles weren’t that sour as we thought they may have been. These pickled vegetables were just gently blanched but well marinated in the intense spice sauce. Giving the vegetable time to soak in a spice paste overnight lets the Asian favors infiltrate it. Just before they brought it to the table they sprinkled some peanuts and sesame seeds on top.

Rice Salad

Nasi Uslam, or Herbed Rice, is the house’s pride. At first, it might appear easy, but when you look closer and notice very thin slices of herbs you know that a lot of thought and effort was put in the preparation of this rice dish. To cook the rice to the right consistency, you have to be very precise. You must make sure that the rice doesn’t stick together, a few more steps are needed.

The key is that the rice and herbs mix together perfectly in order to make an aesthetic and tasteful appetizer. The herbs used in this dish were all freshly picked from the house garden and later were rolled together for easier cutting. I was glad to have the opportunity to smell the abundant herbs and finish one plate by myself. Here you can check how good I was in this precise cutting. The herb roll contained ten different herbs and the combination of laksa and kaffir lime leaves with rice was absolutely delicious.

Capitan Chicken

Another surprisingly tasty dish was the Capitan Chicken, which was enriched with 15 spices. Despite the dried and fresh chilies, it is a balanced dish where coconut milk and other spices ease the heat. The fresh herbs gave very intense flavors to the gravy and still, you knew the chicken was there. An interesting thing to know is that this dish was designed for western taste and to us it was sort of comfort food.

Fish

Jiu Hu Char, or fried shredded cuttlefish and vegetables, was another where the Nyonyas made an effort for the guests. Back in the day, Noynyas didn’t have machines in the kitchen to help them with shredding. The ideal texture of shredded bites had to be done in peace, and clever Nyonyas made it the day before to allow the flavors of the cuttlefish to develop. Maybe there are fewer ingredients in this recipe to ensure that the taste varies from one household to the other?

On the table, we had Fish Pickle, or Acar Hu, as is it originally called. The fried fish and seasonings made for a lovely combination. It was delicious especially in the company of Asam Hem or Tamarind Fried Prawns, marinated in tamarind pulp and dark soy sauce. We had the pleasure to taste the Pai Tee for the second time, only to discover that we like them even more than we thought.

Sweets

To finish the feast, we were served three traditional desserts. The first one was Ang Ku Kueh, known also by the name  Red Tortoise Cake. This dish is pretty chewy, as it is made of soft sticky rice wrapped around a bean and peanut filling. We also had the Black glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and it was different than Vivi first expected. Before she tried the sauce, she was convinced that it would be sweet; as it turns out, it was salty but it went beautifully with the black rice. The last dessert was the pandan yellow. Desserts aren’t exactly for our spoiled taste, hungry for some real French stuff. But these weren’t bad at all. It is traditional and we respect that!

Conclusion

It is difficult for us to pinpoint what made our lasting impression about this place because everything was a little different from what we had imagined. Maybe starting with Baba, who was very kind to us and offered us all these mouthwatering dishes. The former glory of golden Peranakan times was most visible in the kitchen, where the big pots and other kitchen equipment were resting. On our way to the family garden, we had the opportunity to greet the Nyonya. JJ’s grandmother who inspired her grandson for bringing the original Peranakan cuisine into the modern era.

All the dishes that we had the pleasure to taste surpassed our expectations and we would wholeheartedly recommend anyone to experience what we did. The boutique and intimate type of restaurant ensure that you’ll have the custom-made experience, where you can discuss every single dish before you even taste it.

Little Kitchen Review Card

• 9/10
  ATMOSPHERE – 9/10
• 8.5/10
  SERVICE – 8.5/10
• 9.3/10
  PRESENTATION – 9.3/10
• 9.5/10
  FOOD – 9.5/10
• 6.5/10
  DRINKS – 6.5/10
• 9.4/10
  VALUE – 9.4/10

Price and Location

For an eight-course meal, you will pay about 30 USD per pax. For easy navigation, here is a link to the location of Little Kitchen Penang.

The post Little Kitchen Review, Dining in a museum PART 2/2 appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

Good Nyonya Food Here in Penang

I did some research looking for where in Penang can we could eat good Nyonya food and found this gem – Little Kitchen. It is open only for dinners and for small groups, that is why I recommend making a reservation as there are just four or five tables. We showed up at the door around lunchtime, and boy, we were lucky. JJ, the owner of that place was there, and he had some free time to talk to us. We talked for a few hours while he shared a bit of Peranakan history, the story of his ancestors, and explained the Nyonya cuisine to us.

When we entered his home/restaurant, we stepped into the dining room. My first thought was that the house looks like a museum. It’s in Peranakan style and most of the furniture is originally from his grandparents. The house itself is about 100 years old and was built by his grandfather, who was a contractor and businessman. He was rich and like all Babas, he wanted to show off his success. There were a few well-known ways to show your wealth.

Little Kitchen Has a Great Story Behind

First, they had tiles on the wall. Then there were the ornaments around windows and doors and the quality materials used in the construction. After that was all done, but still, not enough, the writing on the wall came in handy to make a statement that they are rich and educated. We saw all these wealth indications and more. He didn’t stop at luxurious building materials, he also made his house bigger than neighboring ones. His father was an interesting man with an interesting way of looking at the world.

He married three times and every time under a different religion. Because the Buddist religion allows only one wife, he married his second wife under Taoist principals. The third wife was JJ’s grandmother, and he married her under a Christian oath. A life with three wives was a prolific one resulting in a big family.

Grandmother as a Kitchen Boss

JJ’s grandmother was the kitchen queen and she is the reason for today’s restaurant. As we said before, between Nyonas there were always some schemes and competitions going on. Cooking was important for the reputation of the house, which wasn’t all up to the furniture and decor. Can you imagine cooking for Chinese, Thai, English, and Malay guests in the same meal?

And don’t forget that all the other wives are waiting for something to go wrong so they can report how incompetent you are! Trying to accommodate all tastes and preferences in one meal and only one kitchen was just part of the pressure. As if it were still the old days where shops weren’t that common, we headed to the family garden. He guided us from one herb to the other and all of us enjoyed the herb smelling, feeling and of course picking.

He was even a little surprised that we knew some plants, but there was no way we could know about all of the flavors for the cuisine. And if you want to know about some flavors and cuisine, it’s crucial to start with its origin, history, and the ingredients which are used in that kitchen.

Secret Recipe

His grandmother was the best cook in the house and she had a secret weapon, which brought her fame – rice salad. With this salad, she impressed JJ grandfather’s guests and also us. Vivi had the honor to make the salad by herself and it wasn’t an easy job. Pre-cooked rice is the main ingredient in the salad, but in Nyonya cuisine nothing is simple and there is a trick to make sure that the rice grains don’t stick together.

The seasoning of this salad is very well thought out as it is supposed to bring out the color and enrich the taste. The thin cuts have to be executed with precision so the texture of the herbs doesn’t get in the way of the rice. She sliced the seasonings 100 times to make a statement that she made that dish with all of her heart and put 100% effort into making it. It sure is difficult to thinly slice the kaffir lime leaf roll 100 times!

Tradition

What I liked the most at this genuine restaurant was that it is based on real traditional recipes and local ingredients without any substitutes. They are preparing the food just like his grandmother did. This way her legacy is secure. We found that there is something in old-school cooking that the modern approach can’t replace.

Mr. JJ and his family are extremely nice and warm. Spending a few hours with them made it clear that the profit is not their priority, the natural spices and quality ingredients have that spot. The idea is to keep the Peranakan culture alive and to show what the Nyonyas were actually cooking. This is not a restaurant where you go for a quick meal.

Here you leave with a view of the bigger picture and a full tummy. That educational and delicious meal is worth spending some time off the streets because when you leave, you feel more connected to the place and its history. I heartily recommend visiting if you want to taste authentic Nyonya cuisine and to chat with a kind Baba. Here is our second part of this Little Kitchen review.

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They were blending Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques with the spices and native ingredients used by indigenous Malays. That is why the Peranakan food is typically aromatic, rich and spicy.

There were regional variations in Peranakan cuisine throughout the Strait Settlements, more about the Peranakan history you can read here. Dishes in the northern part of Malaysia had notable Thai influences. Therefore reflected in the use of spice and liberal use of tamarind and sour ingredients. Dishes from the south were sweeter and milder with generous uses of coconut milk.

Hard Life of Nyonyas

Why was there such a great fusion of all these styles and influences? Mostly because Babas conducted business from their homes. They hosted business partners from various cultures and they needed to please each of their potential business partners. At the same dinner table, there could be sitting western, Thai, Chinese, and Malay businessmen.

So, Nyonyas, the wives of the businessmen, were tasked with satisfying all these pallets in one meal. These women were forced to become skilled in cuisines of all kinds. While this has resulted in so many different styles of Nyonya dishes, there are still some similarities. Signature Peranakan dishes are accessible in different places under the same name, but the seasonings used in the preparation of the dish differ from place to place.

It was common for Babas to marry more than one woman, and sometimes from different cultures to ensure that their skills in the kitchen were able to satisfy the different tastes. However, it did not create a harmonious living environment as many of the wives were forced to compete for the best-made dinners and the title of the favorite wife.

Many of the Nyonyas closely guarded their secret recipes and passed them down from mother to daughter. As a consequence, the recipes improved with each generation. As the Babas became more wealthy it made it possible for the Nyonya wives to hire servants that helped her in the kitchen, so she could focus on mastering the dishes.

Nyonya Cuisine is Full of Techniques

While many dishes were invented to satisfy business partners, certain foods were kept only for special occasions. Food had a religious significance, and many dishes were originally served only on holidays.  In contrast, rice was colored yellow in a belief that this enhanced its life-giving qualities and rice dumplings were sometimes colored red to encourage good fortune. Kueh Lapis, a confection made up of multiple layers, symbolized the ladder or prosperity.

In preparation of Nyonya food patience is the key. Some recipes start with preparation a day in advance, due to the marinating, spice mixing, or pickling processes. Certain precautions were also time-consuming, like making sure all food was in bite-size morsels when served, as there were no knives in Peranakan place settings. Most of the meat, fish, and seafood had to be boneless and ready to eat.

Cakes, fruit, and vegetables had to be sliced diagonally. For example, in a recipe for rice salad, you need to cut 2-inch-long leaf roll of herbs into 100 hundred stripes, symbolizing 100 percent of heart giving into this dish.

Ingredients in Nyonya Cooking

Peranakan cuisine is rich when it comes to its ingredients. An interesting fact is that the food component most associated with Peranakans is actually poisonous if unprocessed. This is the buah keluak, the nut of the kepayang tree. They use it to produce rich sauce as an accompaniment to a range of meats.

Other common ingredients are coconut milk, galangal, turmeric, candlenuts, laksa leaves, pandan leaves, tamarind pulp, lemongrass, chillies, shallots, basil, coriander, mangoes, agar, black prawn paste, blimbing (smaller sour cousin of the yellow star fruit or carambola), curry leaves, dried prawns, kaffir lime leaves, dried sour fruit, Gula Melaka, five-spice powder (star anise, fennel seeds, cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns), nutmeg and some others.

Traditional Nyonya cooking was difficult to master because standard measurements were seldom used in the kitchen. Everything was done through the agak-agak (estimation) method, where a pinch of this or a toss of that, a handful of this and a thumbful of that were the only cooking measurements at hand. Most importantly, thanks to some individuals, we have today amazing recipe books, where you can make your own Peranakan dish. I recommend these three books: Tan, Cecilia: The Penang Nyonya cookbook; Chia, Philip: Peranakan Heritage Cooking and Tan, Florence: Recipes from the Nyonya kitchen.

Nyonya Restaurants We Have Reviewed

Sources: Tan, Cecilia: The Penang Nyonya cookbook; Chia, Philip: Peranakan Heritage Cooking and Tan, Florence: Recipes from the Nyonya kitchen.

The post Peranakan cuisine: One of the first known fusion cuisines appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

History

These are Southeast Asian communities that established themselves in the colonial settlements of the 16th and 17th centuries. In general, these were Chinese male immigrants who settled here. Women were restricted from leaving the mainland until the 19th century, so as a consequence, these immigrants married native women or took them as concubines.

They evolved a new culture, which was mostly a mixture of influent native cultures. The Peranakans later came to be known as the Straits Chinese. The main locations where you could find this community were trading towns like Singapore, Melaka, Penang and Indonesian island Java.

Peranakans have a great feeling for trading business and because of their connections to mainland China, it is not surprising they were appreciated by colonialists. English colonial authorities left them some freedom and did great business with them. Yes, there were high taxes, but business still did very well. Many of them had interests in commercial agriculture: pepper, gambier, nutmeg, sago, pineapple, sugar and tapioca.

Business with Westerners had a big influence on the Peranakans as they liked the lifestyle and items that showed off wealth: aVictorian furniture, Victorian tiles, styles of houses, clothing, accessories, perfumes and of course, dinner service.

Traditions

The Peranakans retained most of their original ethnic and religious origins; they even celebrated Chinese lunar calendar festivals from the Taoist tradition. Certain traditional festivals were modified based on their local circumstances, as they now combine two festivals into one. Food was also sometimes different than it was in their homeland. The Peranakans in general were considered as Buddhists.

At the beginning of 20th century, many of them converted to Christianity as a trend of “being Western”. Those who didn’t convert to Christianity were a mix of Taoist and Buddhist. Regardless of their old or new faith, they continued to observe the traditions of their ancestors while at the same time adopting customs of their native land and colonialists.

The wedding ceremony of the Peranakan people is largely based on Chinese tradition and it is known as the most colorful wedding ceremony in Malaysia and Singapore and it was stretched over 12 days The highlight of the wedding party was a form of extempore rhyming song (dondang sayang), which was sung and danced by guests.

The wedding feast was commonly referred to as long table (tok panjang). As late as the 20th century, the Peranakans were known to give away or exchange their children for astrological reasons. They also believed in spirits, geomancy, horoscopes and put a great value on colors. Despite that, most of wealthy Peranakans were polygamist and their families were extensive.

Arts and Culture

The Peranakan language, sometimes referred to as Baba Malay, was a fusion of the indigenous Malay language and Hokkien, the dialect of the Fujian province in China where most of the immigrants came from. Later, the English language became important and children learned it as their second language. Baba Malay is a dying language and it is mainly spoken between the members of the older generation.

The word Peranakan is derived from Malay and Indonesian and means local-born. The menfolk were referred to as Babas and the women as Nyonyas. Those two phrases were terms of respect and are still used today.

Peranakans originally received all the education in the temples, but later they sent their children to colonial schools. By the 20th century, affluent Peranakan families sent their children for further education to England rather than China. This knowledge of the language of their colonial masters gave them a huge advantage. Babas were placed in a position to act as agents or intermediaries between colonial bureaucracy and the local population in commercial matters.

Nyonyas’ style of dressing was adapted from their native style, with Malay, Javanese and Portuguese influences. Ladies had a batik sarong or skirt with a traditional blouse, usually made from cotton gingham, silk or organdie. Long blouses known as baju panjang were paired with the sarong and held together by a set of three brooches known as kerosang.

The outfit was completed with beaded slippers called kasot manek. Making those slippers was an elaborate craft, requiring hours of effort. In the early 20th century, they adopted shorter blouses, often trimmed with lace. Peranakan women continued to dress in this style right through to the 20th century. Today, we can see these dresses on festive or special occasions.

Men wore Western-style clothes: shirt, trousers with pairing jacket and also a tie or bowtie. For informal occasions, they wore sarongs with lighter shirts.

Architecture

The architectural style of the Peranakan house is formally described as Straits Eclectic. At first, houses were simple, 1-2 storeys, mostly made of wood in Chinese style. Between 1890 and 1910, the houses became 2-3 storeys high with a mixture of Chinese and European style, known as “Early Straits”. From the Chinese influence, you can see carved timber door, air vents, gable end, air-well and more.

From the European influence, you notice the full-length shuttered windows and geometric-patterned colored clay floor tiles. Between the 1910s and the 1930s, houses were made more colorful, decorated with ornaments and details. The style is not just Chinese and English, as every colonialist left some architectural influence. The Portuguese introduced the arch, the Dutch brought their sense of size and space and the British introduced the grandeur of Anglo-Indian buildings with their ornaments.

Cuisine

It is delicious! More about it will be written in our next blog post, dedicated only to this outstanding Heritage that is still very much alive today.

Sources: Peranakan Heritage Cooking By Philip Chia; https://joshuaproject.net/; Peranakan Chinese Porcelain: Vibrant Festive Ware of the Straits Chinese By Kee Ming-Yuet

The post What is Peranakan Culture appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

The broth has such explosive flavors of spices, fish and of course some heat from chilies, which you’ll like if you are a lover of spicy food. Understandably, the complex flavors come from more than just these few ingredients. Some varieties of Laksa have a coconut base, which cools you down and brings a creamy sweetness to the soup. Others are more sour with fish and tamarind broth as a base.

Since Laksa can be found over such a vast territory, it’s to be expected that different versions of it exist.  So far, we have tried Laksa in Singapore, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, and Georgetown. From all of those, the Penang Asam Laksa is our favorite. The unique flavoring agent in this Penang street food is a sweet and pungent black shrimp paste called Hae ko. This ingredient is the one which gives Penang Asam Laksa that legendary taste. Actually, if a cook leaves out pineapple, mint leaves or torch ginger flower, the Laksa isn’t as it should be. To be an authentic one, it has to have it all and truth to be told, if any ingredient is not in the dish, you’ll know it and miss it.

In Penang, we became huge fans of Laksa and so we couldn’t stop at just at one, we had to try more. Here is a short description of the ones we tested, some were recommended to us by locals.

Laksa is not one of the most photogenic food at all. But the taste…

The first one is in the core of the tourist zone, at the Cookoobird restaurant. The 40-year-old recipe was the reason we were drawn here, and we made the right decision. We liked the big chunks of pineapple and fish. It is rare to get the whole file of mackerel in your laksa, so that was a pleasant surprise here. The strings of fresh zucchini and the perfectly cooked noodles added a nice texture component to the dish. We like it when the noodles are more firm instead of being overcooked and therefore soft. The amount of chili was too generous for us, but in return, our noses certainly got a thorough cleansing!

Another delicious Laksa we found was on the street food market, located at the intersection of Jalan Magazine and Jalan Penang. There is the first stall of this “Auntie” with Laksa. “Auntie” had the most delicious soup, which was a bit sour with a great amount of fresh mint. The soup was sourer than the others we tried and we liked that a lot. This one was our favorite, despite the noodles being overcooked. And if “auntie” had added some pineapple to it, we would never want to stop eating!

Laksa Map

The next location was Joo Hooi Café, where we weren’t too impressed. Here they serve the famous Penang Road Assam Laksa. It was nice that it wasn’t too spicy and the broth had a perfect thickness and consistency. However, it was too fishy for our taste and the dish had too little mint. Noodles were a bit overcooked, but nothing serious. This place is super busy, so you should be prepared for cramped feeling.

If you are in a rush and dying to try Penang Laksa, you will not regret having one in the E&O Hotel. The chef at that historical place definitely knows the taste of Penang. Even without torch ginger flower, it tasted good, and it was the nicest on the eyes and the camera. After all, you are eating decent street food in a heritage hotel. We were quite impressed to see traditional street food in on the menu of a hotel like this.

Laksa in E&O Hotel was more than decent

Our last Laksa was Pasar Air Itam Laksa at the food stall close to the giant Buddha. This place is famous and it is supposed to have the best Laksa here in Penang. The soup was great, rich, nicely balanced, it had nice flakes of fish and the noodles were cooked just right. There we were able to see for the first time how they pour the hot soup over the noodles several times to cook them up. Just by the moves, you can tell that this practice goes long way back. The only downside is that this place was one of the dirtiest we saw to date, so eating here won’t be a pleasant culinary event. Just pray you won’t get food poisoning and enjoy that great bowl of laksa.

Air Pasar Laksa

Laksa is that kind of soup that we just can’t get enough of. Now I understand why the CNN Travel ranked Penang Laksa the 7th out of the 50 most delicious foods in the world in 2011 (source Wikipedia). If you are eager to find out how it tastes and you aren’t afraid of cooking, here is a recipe for you.

It is from the book: Famous street food of Penang and is the one we will use when we are back home and craving Laksa.

Asam Laksa (8 servings)

Spice Paste

20 peeled shallots

1 peeled garlic clove

3 stalks of lemongrass

2 cm galangal

5 fresh red chilies

5 soaked dried red chilies

10g toasted dried shrimp paste

4 cm turmeric

Fish stock

700g wolf herring or mackerel

2,5 liters water

2 stalks bruised lemongrass

100 g tamarind pulp

3-4 pieces tamarind peel

2 laksa leaves

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

800g fresh laksa noodles, scalded

Topping

1 cored and grated cucumber

½ cut pineapple into thin strips

2 thinly sliced onions

1 split and finely sliced torch ginger flower

2 finely sliced fresh chilies

150g fresh mint leaves

Prawn paste sauce

8 Tbsp hae ko – prawn paste

80-10 ml hot water

To prepare laksa gravy

Roughly cut up the spice paste ingredients and blend them into a smooth paste. Gut and clean the fish. Bring water to boil and add the lemongrass and fish. Boil for 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked. Remove fish, cool and flake it and set the fish slakes aside. Strain fish stock into a clean pot and add the rest of the fish stock ingredients and the spice paste to it. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or until gravy gets aromatic. Blanch the laksa noodles in boiling water, drain and set aside.

To serve: Put some noodles and fish flakes in a bowl and ladle the soup over it. Put a pinch of each garnishing ingredient over the top. Serve with a spoonful of prawn paste sauce.

Enjoy!

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The post The Best Laksa in Georgetown, Penang + Recipe For Laksa appeared first on Wild 'n' Free Diary.

Ambiance

Wild Coriander restaurant has a high ceiling right next to the bar. From the tables below, we were able to see green plants that were hanging from the upper floor. Actually, the plants, paintings, and some decorations make a nice addition to any restaurant. I like how the light comes through the roof and makes this place even more charming.

Our Wild Coriander Melaka Review

We were starving when we got to that restaurant. Our order may have looked big, but, hey, we are here to review some food, not just the place and plants. However, Wild Coriander has a nice short list menu with all great Peranakan or so-called Nyonya dishes. If you don’t know what is Nyonya cuisine, make sure to read our article about it. I bet you heard for Asam Laksa. Well, this is one famous Nyonya dish as well.

We had a Pai Tee as an appetizer. These finger food bites were a perfect introduction to their kitchen, which lines on Nyonya tradition. Pai Tee is a crunchy flour cup filled with julienned vegetables, omelet and sprinkled with fried shallots.

These little bits were refreshing and a perfect match for the sour chili gravy they served along. I must say that they were a little difficult to eat because the crispy dough breaks and I couldn’t fit the whole Pai Tee in my mouth. However, as tasty as they were, there was no problem getting my fingers dirty.

Main Course

After the appetizer, we continued our feast with the Nyonya Chap Chye. That was a dish of mixed vegetables in some light soup. The rice noodles, mushrooms and earthy taste of the tofu were nice additions to the vegetables. This dish was a perfect balance to heavier and rich Udang Masak Lemak Nenas or simplified Prawns with Pineapple.

Intense flavors of the sauce were on fire due to the chili’s heat. Ian was in love with this one, but to my taste, it was a little too spicy. What I really liked about this dish was the combination of gentle prawn meat with juicy sweet and sour pineapple and warmth of coriander. Or was it maybe wild coriander? 😉

Wild Coriander Signature Dish

For a side dish, we had Wild Coriander special dish. Rice cooked in four different ways. Sticky rice with turmeric, blue pea-flower rice, with rice and whole grain rice. Next to the rice was Sambal, the braised chili paste, delicious Nyonya pickles, very tasty Rendang (a spicy meat dish which originated from Indonesia), an egg, sliced cucumbers, and some pineapple.

This dish was delicious. The only problem is the presentation and portion. To point out, there is just too much rice and this plating is not the best. After all, we are eating with our eyes, as well.

Drinks

The whole meal was about trying something new and, in that spirit, we chose our drinks. Ian’s lemongrass, lime, and ginger crushed my sour Plum Calamansi. My first thought when I tried it was that this is a dessert. The salty but fruity taste of a plum was well present. Maybe the cream was responsible for something that felt to me like I had some cookies in my drink. Definitely interesting, but not so great with a meal. However, I was amused by peculiar tastes that made no sense to me.

Dessert

The dessert had to be light and the coconut ice cream with Gula Melaka was the perfect solution. The creamy ice cream made from young coconut had a gentle taste and when you add their house syrup Gula Melaka to the ice cream it rounds the tenderness with a smoky aroma and caramel flavor. A bit of salty flavor was just a glaze on the cake for this perfect dessert.

This was such a delicious ice cream that we decided to have another one. Talking about a light dessert, ha-ha-ha. This one had a local pancake – Kuih Ketayap next to it. This pandan pancake had a tender dough that was made with rice flour. It was filled with slightly crunchy roasted coconut.

Critique

Ok, Wild Coriander certainly is not a fine dining restaurant here in Melaka. However, it might work for a nice romantic candlelight dinner, though. Service here is not professional, but they are extremely nice and you can see this is a family restaurant. As you know this type of restaurants are always close to us. All things considered, if they would improve plating and general appearance, our score would be much higher. Don’t get me wrong, we still warmly recommend Wild Coriander. Food and people here are ten out of ten.

Conclusion

There is no need to say that we came back for some more ice cream in the days that followed. To clarify, we have a sweet tooth and a walk to reach the restaurant is my favorite one. Mainly because of the calmer area around the river without the crowd of nervous tourists competing for the best selfie spot. Ok, it was because of the ice-cream. Wild Coriander has the best coconut ice cream, period.

So, when you feel tired of the noise of the Jonker walk you can take a break next to the river. Wild Coriander is distant enough that you can have ice cream with no one coming across to witness that. And I am sure you will have the best dinner in Melaka right here at Wild Coriander.

Wild Coriander Melaka Review Card

• 7.8/10
  ATMOSPHERE – 7.8/10
• 7.9/10
  SERVICE – 7.9/10
• 7.6/10
  PRESENTATION – 7.6/10
• 9.1/10
  FOOD – 9.1/10
• 8.3/10
  DRINKS – 8.3/10
• 9.8/10
  VALUE – 9.8/10

Price and Location

Here is a link to Wild Coriander’s location in case you would like to try some great Nyonya food, while you are here in Melaka. However, a meal like this will cost you only about 25 USD. Bargain!

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