peranakan day

22Mar10

Malacca really is Malaysia’s heart of Peranakan culture, and today was a very Peranakan day.

We’re staying at the beautiful Majestic Hotel, which also happens to be home to Spa Village, a health spa offering a unique range of traditional Peranakan treatments. Perhaps the most interesting was the egg-rolling massage, which utilises the “healing powers” of hard-boiled eggs.

As much as we enjoyed the morning of pampering, the best part of the day was our private cooking lesson with Peranakan celebrity chef, Kenny Chan.

Chef Kenny is a delightful man, and demonstrates a real devotion to preserving Peranakan culture. While we ate lunch, he regaled us with stories about his grandmothers, great-aunts, mother and aunts and his own life in the kitchen. As well as being an amazing chef, Kenny is clearly a consummate story-teller.

In our short lesson, Chef Kenny taught us to make 3 traditional Peranakan dishes:

Sambal Bendi (Okra Salad)

Telur Cincalok (Cincalok Omelette)

Ayam Pongteh (Pongteh Chicken)

Peranakan cuisine is quite heavily spiced but not as spicy as much Malaysian food; the flavours are subtle and you can really taste the marriage of Chinese and indigenous Malay flavours. As Chef Kenny continued to remind us, you won’t find any other food like this in world!