Sorry for the lack of responses and new posts…I haven’t forgotten about Nyonya Food and my fans and readers here.
I am currently busy working on the redesign of this site, which I plan to launch as early as next week. Basically, Nyonya Food is going to become a part of Rasa Malaysia, as a sub-domain at http://nyonyafood.rasamalaysia.com instead of this stand-alone site. Don’t worry as the NyonyaFood.com domain will stay but it will be redirected to the sub-domain above. The transition will be transparent to you as I will update the RSS feeds and redirect the site.
You will also get a fresher and new design. I have decided to combine Nyonya Food to Rasa Malaysia because it makes a lot of sense for me operation-wise, plus I wanted to further promote Nyonya Food to my Rasa Malaysia readers, and being a part of the big site will certainly help me evangelize and promote our unique culture and traditions even more. Plus, all my readers will be in one place instead of scattered around the two sites…
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Chai Buey pictures (1 of 4)
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I hope everyone has had a wonderful Chinese New Year reunion dinner and a festive and fun celebration for the first few days of Chinese New Year. I looooove Chinese New Year, it’s the occasion that brings family and friends together, and it’s a tradition that reminds all Chinese of our root, culture, and civilization. Never mind the obnoxiously loud and cheesy Chinese New Year songs, the bright red and gold Chinese New Year decor, and the endless foods and offerings for the many prayers and rituals. They are what make us Chinese, and we should embrace all these unique practices for generations to come.
While I am always excited about the reunion dinner and the many courses of traditional Chinese New Year dishes, I have to confess that it’s the leftover that really tickles my taste buds. Yes, I am talking about chai buey, or 菜尾, literally meas “leftover.” In Penang, especially in my Nyonya family, the day after the first day of New Year is when we make a huge pot of chai buey—a soup or stew concocted with all the leftover ingredients from the reunion dinner. It’s generally consisted of meat (chicken, roast pork, duck), vegetables (preferably fresh “mustard green/gai choy/ 芥菜” or kiam cai/picked salted mustard green), and all the other leftover from the reunion dinner, including steamboat (hot pot). The chai buey is infused with tamarind juice, bean paste (taucheo), some dried red chilies, with some peeled assam keping (optional). You then stew the chai buey over low heat to bring out all the flavors of the leftover ingredients, and the end result is a pot of mouthwatering, appetizing, and utterly delicious stew that I can eat for days…
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Kuih Bangkit pictures (1 of 3)
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My contributor Siew Loon is baking up a storm for Chinese New Year and today she is sharing a traditional Chinese New Year cookie recipe: kuih bangkit. I remember many childhood days when I helped my family making this goodies. For other Chinese New Year recipes, don’t forget to check out my posts at Rasa Malaysia: soy sauce chicken, ginger and scallion fish, crab noodles, and more.
Contributor: Ho Siew Loon
I am back again with my new year goodies. I have always enjoyed making the new year goodies as this is the time all family members will get together and help. This time around it is the traditional nyonya Kuih Bangkit. This little figurine goodies has lost its popularity among the younger generation and has been taken over by western cookies such as chocolate chips cookies, butter cookies, etc. I remember that Kuih Bangkit is a must for Chinese New Year and every house that you visit, you will sure to find it…(get kuih bangkit rcipe after the jump)
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Many readers emailed and asked about candlenuts or buah keras when I posted the Udang Masak Lemak Nenas recipe by Nyonya Pendek Melaka.
An important ingredient in Nyonya (and Indonesian) cooking, this post serves as a brief introduction of candlenuts, or buah keras in Malay, or kemiri in Indonesian. On the packaging of candlenuts, you will mostly see the above three names: candlenuts, and kimiri, as most candlenuts found here in the United States are made in Indonesia…
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