Photo Credit: Pinang Peranakan Mansion, Penang
Nyonya food, as the name suggested, is the food of the Baba-Nyonya in Malaysia and Singapore. Known also as the Peranakan or the Straits Chinese (Straits-born Chinese), these groups of people are descendants of the very early Chinese immigrants to the Nanyang or 南洋 in Chinese–which literally means the “south sea” region.
The origins of the Baba and Nyonya could be traced all the way back to the Chinese Admiral explorer Cheng Ho, who sailed across the Indian Ocean more than 400 years ago to Melaka, a busy and prosperous trading port back in the early 15th century. Nanyang or 南洋 refers to the the Malay peninsula and the islands of Java.
Nyonya cuisine is generally referred to as the result of inter-marriages between the Chinese immigrants and the local Malays, which produced a unique cuisine where local ingredients such as chilies, belacan (Malaysian shrimp paste) lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, etc. are used. To assimilate to the local culture, these early days Chinese immigrants also adopted local Malay traditions–the men were called Babas and the women were called Nyonyas…
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