Food as Civilisation - Marshall Cavendish International

Food as Civilisation

Elok:The Aesthetics of Malay Cuisine

Lyric Flavours:Food in Verse, Tale and Song

Symbolism and Mythology:When Tradition Beckons

Scenes from Malay Feasts:Rituals and Observances

Food and the Politics of Identity

Where Monsoons Meet:An Arena of Cultural Exchanges

Mother Culture:Shifting Borders of Malay Cuisine

EpilogueThe Future of Malay Food

Afterword: On the Power of Remembering

Appendix

ch. 10 | xxx ch. 14 | xxx


xxx

xxx


ch. 13 | xxx

Foreword

Notes On spelling

My Journey To This Book

Indigenous Ingenuity

Rustic Trails: The Way of the Forager

Rich Harvest, Ocean Bounty:Malay Crops, Livestock and Fishing

A Repertoire of Techniques:Preservation and Preparation

Culinary Curiosity Cabinet:Tools and Implements

Food As Medicine:The Healing Earth

Dainties and Delights:More Than A Palate Cleanser

People, Space and Place

Setting Sail:Malays and their World

Singapore, A Nusantara Kitchen:The Kampung Gelam Hearth

In Gardens and Lakes of Plenty:Ecologies of Taste

ch. 4 | 98ch. 1 | 22

ch. 6 | 156

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ch. 3 | 76

ch. 8 | xxx

ch. 5 | 122ch. 2 | 46

ch. 7 | xxx

ch. 9 | xxx

In February 2002, the Sunday Times Singapore interviewed me for a feature story while I was in town for the World Gourmet Summit. The article’s title, ‘Mad About Malay Food’, perfectly captured my appreciation for the cuisine.

My first encounter with Malay food had taken place many years before that, when my friend Violet Oon invited me to lunch at her home. Her chef prepared a wonderful meal, which I have never forgotten. I am most grateful to her for the experience.

Malay food reflects the unique geographic advantages of the Malay Archipelago. The tropical clime and rich volcanic soil provide an abundance of f lora and fauna for local chefs to experiment on. Not least among its advantages are the spices that motivated Europeans to travel the world. Whereas others had to use these precious spices sparingly in their cooking, the Malays have always had it in relative abundance. These factors have given Malay food the multiple textures and daring flavours I love.

Added to this is the advantage that the Nusantara has on the vital sea routes between China to the northeast, and India, the Middle East and Europe to the west. This has allowed Malay chefs to add the icing of multiple foreign influences to their already flavourful creations. When tasting a Malay dish, you are tasting a region, and you are tasting the world.

While much has been written about the history and culture of the Malays, there has been a gap in the literature about Malay food in its cultural, historical and anthropological context. This book by Khir Johari addresses that gap, and is arguably one of the most comprehensive studies of Malay food.

Khir aptly describes Singapore as a Nusantara kitchen, given its position as a key hub of the Archipelago. We see a whole range of Malay food here, from the elaborate and laborious, to the lightly cooked ones, not dissimilar to my cuisine naturelle, with an emphasis on flavour and freshness. Khir shows that Singapore has never just been a recipient of this cuisine. It was – and continues to be – a cosmopolitan innovator, blending ingredients from near and far in new experiments, creating dishes such as the now-familiar favourites, Mee Rebus and Mee Siam.

Khir’s book provides us a deeper understanding of Malays themselves. It is a story of how an ingenious people have been able to tap into the advantages of their location between mountain and sea, and their maritime connections, to create a cuisine that is typical of who they are as a people – warm and engaging; willing to experiment and eager to please. Khir has written a most interesting book that bridges between the world of cookbooks on the one hand, and the world of scholarship on the other.

Foreword

— Anton Mosimann obe, dl

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The Malay ArchipelagoM A P O F

A N D V I C I N I T Y

Caption Pide odignisquas volorempore explicti.

These competing definitions of Malayness suggested that a sure answer remained elusive, and even led to absurd descriptions by the colonial officials like Frank Swettenham, a Resident-General of the Malay States. A ‘real Malay’, to him, had a “kindly” disposition, was “polite” and “courageous and trustworthy”, though also “extravagant” and “very superstitious”.17 It didn’t seem to occur to Swettenham that each Malay was a unique individual with different dispositions.

But the Malay world was not just a mere figment of the Europeans’ imagination. It was and remains a cultural region based on some shared elements: a common language, a shared literature, similar customs, dress and beliefs, and, as we shall see, a shared cuisine.

Raffles’ perception of it as a ‘nation’ with a common language did ref lect some historical reality. Through conquest and diplomacy, the 15th-century Sultanate of Melaka absorbed outlying courts into its orbit as part of a unified “Malay trading system”.18 From the period of the Sultanate’s pre-eminence, the spread of bazaar Malay as a trade language, and the adoption of a more sophisticated register of Malay by the royal courts, began. This was a role Malay continued to play centuries after Melaka’s fall in 1511, as other maritime sultanates emerged, like Johor and Aceh.

The eminent sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas argued that the role of Malay as a common language across the region can be attributed to the dominance of Malays in shipping and the power of the coastal Malay trading states.19 Francois Valentijn, a Dutch historian of the East Indies, recorded that the Malay language acted as a lingua franca, comparable to French and Latin in Europe. In those days, unless one could speak Malay, one was “not considered a very broadly educated man in the East”.20

Despite the variety of regional languages spoken in the different corners of the Archipelago, diplomatic letters were mostly composed in Malay. William Marsden, in his Grammar of the Malayan Language, described a “striking consistency in the style of writing, not only of books in prose and verse, but also of epistolary correspondence”.21 So accustomed were these rulers to using the Malay language in diplomatic exchange that they adopted it in their correspondence with European rulers. In 1609, the Sultan of Johor – Alauddin Riayat Shah III – sent a letter written in Malay to Prince Maurice, leader of the Dutch

Republic.22 In 1615, a year before William Shakespeare died, the Sultan of Aceh – Iskandar Muda – wrote a sumptuous letter to King James I of England in Malay. 23

By the 17th century, even the historically non-Malay-speaking courts – like Ternate in the Maluku, and the Sultanate of Banten in Java – were using the Malay language to communicate with Europeans. In this way, even historically hostile enemies of the Malay courts, such as the Javanese, came to participate in the Archipelago’s Malay-language-based political network.

In this language, the Malays shared a common literature. They were acquainted with the same heroes, like Iskandar Zulkarnain (Alexander the Great) from the Sulalatus Salatin and the Hikayat Raja Iskandar Zulkarnain. Tales of Seri Rama, which were Malay iterations of the Indian Ramayana epic, were widely popular across the Malay world up until the 19th century.24 The romances of Panji, which originated in Java but became a staple of oral traditions across Southeast Asia, were widely performed as opera pieces known as bangsawan, well into the 20th century in the cities of Malaya, including Singapore. W.E. Maxwell, a scholar-administrator of British Malaya, once observed how “a small reward, a hearty welcome, and a good meal await the Malay rhapsodist wherever he goes, and he wanders among the Malay villages as Homer did among the Greek cities”. 25

The people of the Malay Archipelago also seemed to have a similar set of customs and traditions, including dress. In the 19th century, male aristocrats in the Malay-speaking courts were recorded donning a loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirt called the baju, long trousers and a sarong wrapped around their waist.26 Malay women were recorded wearing a buttonless open-front blouse that was long and loose, called the kebaya.27 When the embassy of the Johor-Riau Sultanate arrived in Dutch Batavia in 1822, the Bugis envoys “dressed in the Malay way, with golden waist-belts, golden sheaths and trousers and shirts of mail, with ornaments of gold, each of them having attendants carrying their betel-boxes and long kerises”.28 Association with a Malay court and culture endowed the Bugis with prestige. This indicates that although Malays were one ethnic group out of many in the region, theirs was the cultural standard which other groups adopted to varying degrees.

Still, Malay fashions always changed with the times, and by the late 19th century, Malay men had incorporated

Setting Sail: The Malays and Their World


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SINGAPORE, A NUSANTARA KITCHEN THE KAMPUNG GELAM Hearth

History points to the urban epicentre of Kampong Gelam as the incubator of this Nusantara kitchen.

Today, Kampong Gelam is known to most of Singapore’s residents as the small gazetted ‘Conservation District’ bounded by Arab Street and Jalan Sultan, its outlying neighbourhoods now lost to urban renewal. But it would be a grave mistake indeed to consider Kampong Gelam as merely an exotic, commercialised stop on Singapore’s well-worn tourist trail. Beyond the artificial Middle Eastern veneer, gentrified hipster lanes and gaudy baubles, Kampong Gelam was once the capital of Malay intellectual, political and religious life in Singapore. And as the birthplace of many enduring classics in the Singaporean Malays’ culinary repertoire, it enjoys unparalleled status as the most important site in the history of their cuisine.

A Royal PrecinctSingapore was a territory of the declining Johor-Riau Sultanate when Raffles sailed into its harbour in 1819. He knew well the political context he was up against: the territories of Johor-Riau were under Dutch influence by proxy, so setting up a trading settlement on behalf of the British East India Company would inevitably precipitate a diplomatic crisis. But Raffles found a loophole, for the

Sultanate was locked in a crisis of succession. The death of Sultan Mahmud III threw up two contenders for the throne – his sons Abdul Rahman and Tengku Long. While the latter was abroad in Pahang, the former was installed as his father’s successor. The aristocracy was divided. The Temenggung, an official in charge of policing trade in the maritime Sultanate’s waterways and sea lanes, opposed Abdul Rahman’s ascension. He left for Singapore in 1818.1 Upon receiving Raffles, he helped negotiate the treaty that marked the beginning of British colonialism in Singapore. Raffles secured his hold by exploiting the succession dispute; in return for granting him permission to set up his trading post, Raffles promised Tengku Long recognition as ‘Sultan of Singapore and Johor’, along with an allowance and other privileges. As the years wore on, however, the Sultan would learn that having his purse strings in the grip of the British meant being at their whim and disposal.

Tengku Long, now Sultan Hussein Shah, established his court east of the Singapore River, near the estuary of the Rochor, Geylang and Kallang Rivers. This was Kampong Gelam, so named for the gelam (Melaleuca leucodendron), a species of tree that grows along the seashore. It belongs in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), which includes the gelam’s more well-known cousin – the eucalyptus. The gelam’s

paper-like bark was once widely used for caulking boats. The Orang Biduanda Kallang as well as the Orang Gelam once dwelled in houses in the Kallang basin and by the rivers that f lowed into it.2

To house the Sultan and his followers, a palace was built, and next to it, a mosque. Streets and residential compounds radiated from this centre, and gradually a port town took shape. It contained, until 1825, a walled compound3, which was referred to as Kota Raja, the royal citadel. Before extensive land reclamation, the town stood right on the edges of the sea. There were thus twin centres of seaborne commerce in early modern Singapore, with the harbour of the Singapore River – handling international trade – being

the more well-known. But where trade within the Malay Archipelago was concerned, Kampong Gelam was the point of exchange.

A Malay Commercial CentreA great impetus for the inf lux of people from the wider Nusantara to Singapore was the growth of commerce, and naturally, among the first to arrive were the Bugis. Like the Phoenicians in the Mediterranean of classical antiquity, the Bugis had built an extensive commercial empire based on their network of trading routes connecting the dozens of bustling ports across the Archipelago. Sailing into the western Malay Archipelago from their ancestral

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come from any and all corners of Minangkabau country. However, this is a shorthand owing to the significance of their foremost city.

The business of Nasi Padang finds its most widespread form in family-owned enterprises specialising in home-style cooking. At least four families of Minangkabau descent have established themselves as the undisputed masters in the painstaking, gentle art of preparing Nasi Padang. One of them helmed the kitchen at the Rendezvous, a restaurant first located next to the Cathay movie theatre. Another of these families operated from a mobile cart at an Arab Street alley. A third family is that of Haji Israin and Hajjah Rosnah, the founders of Warung Pariaman, which

now regularly hosts its loyal patrons from its premises at the corner of Kandahar Street and North Bridge Road. They started their business cooking at home on 10 Pahang Street, where the freshly prepared dishes would be loaded onto a tricycle and faithfully conveyed to their premises.

The last is headed by Haji Marlian, the patriarch of what can be considered Kampong Gelam’s very own Nasi Padang empire. Starting out, his enterprise was located on a corner between Kandahar Street and Baghdad Street, out of a makeshift stall. In time, Haji Marlian’s daughters each established their own Nasi Padang businesses. His eldest daughter, Puan Rosmah Nidar, runs her Nasi Padang eating house on Lorong One, Toa Payoh. Puan Ratnasari operated

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from a coffee shop on the corner of Pahang Street and Aliwal Street. Puan Maryulis, his third daughter, founded Sabar Menanti, which still stands today on North Bridge Road. Puan Zubaidah, the youngest of the four sisters, owned a restaurant on the corner of Muscat Street and Kandahar Street – known today as Rumah Minang.

Moving away from savoury Nasi Padang to sweet dainties, one also notices Nusantara-wide elements. Among the Nusantaran sweetmeats brought to Singapore was Kueh Lompang, so named due to its resemblance to lompang, a palm-sized granite mortar used to pound condiments and betel quid. The resemblance was achieved through the use of Chinese porcelain teacups. This snack is composed chief ly of a sweetened rice-f lour batter savoured with coconut gratings.

Of course, many traditional Malay favourites underwent adaptation as well. Amongst these was Puteri Salat, a popular double-layered Malay pe nganan, which can be understood as a ‘dessert’. Yet at the same time, one must be cautious before drawing equivalents across cuisines, especially given how different food cultures arise from social conditions and conventions that vary significantly from place to place. A ‘dessert’ in the Western sense, which is usually eaten after a main course, cannot be used to convey the social and cultural connotations of the Malay penganan, which unlike desserts can be enjoyed as a snack or even as a breakfast item. Anthropologist Jeanne Cuisinier said it best, in her lecture on Malay cuisine broadcast from Radio Paris in 1936:

There are hardly any desserts, not because the Malays do not make any – on the contrary, they know a great number of recipes for cakes, pastries, fruit gums and jellies, but all these sweets are normally eaten out of meal times.12

This will be explored in further detail later. Puteri Salat is known widely in the Archipelago by different names, such as Serimuka on most parts of the Malay Peninsula, Pulut Serikaya in Palembang and Gading Galoh in Melaka. It is made up of two components: a base of pulut (glutinous rice) and a top layer of serikaya, a Malay custard f lavoured with pandanus leaves. In Kampong Gelam, experimentation resulted in a bold new creation: Talam Jagong. Talam Jagong retains the

top layer of the serikaya custard found in Puteri Salat, but the bottom layer of glutinous rice is replaced with a mixture based on Bird’s custard, an egg-free brand of custard formulated by Englishman Alfred Bird in 1837 to accommodate his wife’s egg allergy. This custard is then cooked with an equal proportion of cream-of-corn and corn kernels.

Wholly new dishes were created in Kampong Gelam, too, that have now become the standard repertoire of Malay street food. These include Mee Maidin, which was named after its creator. Food in Kampong Gelam was often identified by its chief architect; that is, whoever had the honour of inventing or popularising it. This dish consists of yellow noodles served in a thick gravy made with krill (known to Malays as udang geragau).

Another dish bearing its inventor’s name is Roti Mariam, still on the menu of the iconic biryani house, the Islamic Restaurant, on North Bridge Road. It began with a lady named Puan Mariam who prepared her original f latbread

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These culinary guides were tastefully produced, and targeted for Malay housewives. Many contained not just recipes but also instructions on how to properly manage one’s kitchen

and maintain standards of cleanliness.

They also provided guidance on how to start a cottage industry, making what one would typically

purchase from a grocer, from scratch at home.

400 g rice vermicelli soak in water till soft and strain 250 g fresh prawn cleaned and with shells on 200 ml cooking oil200 g fermented soybean (taucheo)2 tbsp tomato puree200 g beansprout (tauge)150 g Chinese chives¾ cup waterSalt to taste

1 First we make the vermicelli base. In a wok, heat up the cooking oil. When ready, fry the grounded ingredients till fragrant over a medium fire.

2 Add in the fermented soybean and tomato puree and mix well. Dilute it with water, add salt to taste and stir well. Put in the fresh prawns and continue to mix well till the prawns are cooked.

3 Place the vermicelli into the wok and with the help of two spatulas, dig in from the sides and lift up the mixture in the middle, coating the vermicelli with the base along the way. Repeat this action but ensure noodles breakage is minimal.

4 Finally, add in the bean sprout and chives. Mix gently into the tender vermicelli.

1 First we make the vermicelli base. In a wok, heat up the cooking oil. When ready, fry the grounded ingredients till fragrant over a medium fire.

2 Add in the fermented soybean and tomato puree and mix well. Dilute it with water, add salt to taste and stir well. Put in the fresh prawns and continue to mix well till the prawns are cooked.

3 Place the vermicelli into the wok and with the help of two spatulas, dig in from the sides and lift up the mixture in the middle, coating the vermicelli with the base along the way. Repeat this action but ensure noodles breakage is minimal.

4 Finally, add in the bean sprout and chives. Mix gently into the tender vermicelli.

mee siam

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omnit alibus dem expliti nvelit pe ipsaperspiet eoss.

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Noodle Gravy

To grind:100 g pre-soaked dried prawn 100 g pre-soaked dried chilli2 large red onions4 cloves garlic

For garnishing: 200 g firm tofu (tauhu) small cubed and friedHard boiled eggs halved50 g Chinese chives sliced50 g limau kasturi (calamansi) halved

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Due to the small extent of the

island’s territorial waters, however,

the supply for local consumption

was low. Its fish markets –

then and now – rely heavily on

the catch from regional waters.

In one sense, food is as much a complex science as it is a delicate art. The technical aspects of Malay cooking,

like those of all other food cultures, have their origins in the pragmatic need for preservation, such that one’s food supply can be sustained over a longer period of time. Gradual refinement and adaptation, over centuries of changing economic circumstances and technological advancements, have given birth to the arsenal of preparation techniques that avails itself to the Malay gastronome today.

At the most basic level, there are Malay dishes involving no cooking whatsoever. As a ‘non-process’, raw consumption of food involves no handling that alters the physical or chemical composition of its ingredients. This is largely the case with ulam: shoots, fruits, herbs and foliage plucked from their plant and eaten raw. In some cases, the ulam can consist entirely of puchok (shoots), giving rise to the saying, ‘puchok dichita ulam mendatang’ (one wishes for shoots and receives a salad), which implies a scenario in which one fortuitously obtains more than what was initially bargained for. Ulam that has been transformed

through seasoning and mixing is known variously as kerabu, anyang, urap or terencham. Nasi Ulam is often rendered as a ‘rice salad’, but in reality it is more correctly considered a kind of herbal rice; the ulam, after all, serves as a secondary addition to the main rice meal, to which the herbal slivers are added.

In many cases, it is better for food to be served and eaten raw. Flavours and nutritional value may be compromised as a result of processes that take place during cooking. For example, exposure to heat can result in denaturation or impede the efficacy of some ingredients. For this reason, usually a dish may be the result of combining raw ingredients. Sambal Jenganan is one such instance: an ensemble of uncooked ingredients with the exception of its pre-roasted peanuts.

Sambals (Javanese: sambel) can be either raw or cooked. They are most often taken as a kind of condiment or relish, but depending on the preparation method, a sambal can constitute a dish in and of itself. The common factor in all sambals is chilli, in various shapes and forms. A ubiquitous

A REPERTOIRE OF TECHNIQUESPreservation and Preparation

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pushing the dough out through the perforations, forming noodles that are cooked in hot water. While still warm, the noodles are formed into shapes such as coils or figures-of-eight. This is known as laksa chap (pressed laksa); each pressing is equivalent to a single serving, as opposed to thinner, mass-produced laksa, sold by weight. Laksa chap was widely produced in Siglap, a locality in Singapore’s southeastern coast that was historically home to Malay fishing communities. Siglap’s residents had ready access to the fresh catch needed to make laksa’s fishy broth. It is just a short bus ride from Katong.

Corong roti kirai is used to make Roti Kirai, a lacy Malay crepe created by dripping batter through a handheld

showerhead-like canister made of zinc, brass or plastic. The action of this implement inspired the name of the dish: ‘kirai’ means to shake out in a spreading action. The original name of the dish, however, is Roti Renjis (renjis: to sprinkle; scatter), an allusion to the old method of dipping one’s fingers in the batter and then drizzling it over the frying griddle surface from the tips of one’s fingers, creating a Pollock-like effect. As in all tools, Malays are never too far from the coconut. When holes are punctured in a coconut shell and batter is poured through them, the same effect as roti kirai is attained. When the holes are finer, and the thinner batter drips directly into hot oil, we get the sweet known as Karas-karas.

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My late grandmother once said, in her usual tender way, “Kenapa makan obat? Kenapa tak makan

makanan yang jadi obat?” – why take medicine when you can eat food that serves as a remedy? Not that she shunned the uses of Western pharmacopeia; this conviction that our cuisine is itself an apothecary goes back to the wisdom of the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates, the renowned physician, once declared, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Malays not only developed their own system of traditional medicine for healing the sick; one’s daily diet was also seen to quietly but surely maintain health. Food – its ingredients, how it is prepared and consumed – is itself a preventive measure against potential illness.

The Nusantara PharmacopeiaWithin the category of explicitly medicinal foods, there is the jamu tradition: an ancient system of herbal healing in the Nusantara that has its roots in Java. Jamu collectively refers to herbal tonics that ref lect native understandings about which combinations of ingredients produce the

most potent formulae to combat illnesses. According to anthropologist Penny van Esterik, jamu tonics “coexist with allopathic pharmaceuticals as a parallel system, rather than as replacements”. In other words, individuals who imbibe jamu for its health benefits or as remedies also subscribe to scientifically informed modern medicine.

Ingredients used to concoct jamu are the same ones found in the kitchen cabinet, such as ginger, turmeric, tamarind (kunyit asam), chillies, along with specifically medicinal herbs. It is no wonder that the line between the health benefits of herbal tonics and cooked dishes can seem indistinguishable. The turmeric-based Jamu Kunyit Asam, for instance, has anti-inflammatory, anti-infection and detoxification potencies. Jamu Beras Kenchor (rice f lour with Kaempferia galanga) is known for bolstering the immune system and soothing fatigue, while the ginger-based Wedang Jahe is capable of aiding digestion and keeping the f lu at bay.

In Java and other localities in the Archipelago, it is sold by jamu ladies (mbok-mbok jamu). In Singapore the ingredients

FOOD AS MEDICINEThe Healing Earth

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Malays not only developed

their own system of traditional

medicine for healing the sick;

one’s daily diet was also seen

to quietly but surely maintain

health. Food – its ingredients,

how it is prepared and consumed

– is itself a preventive measure

against potential illness.

for concocting jamu can be found at the Malay market at Geylang Serai. The jamu purveyors there run Malay health stores that carry jamu in loose powder form and vegecaps, as well as loose dried ingredients for making medicinal brews (ubat periok). These apothecaries relocated from earlier shops on Arab Street in old Kampong Gelam. But at

home, grandmothers in Singapore’s Javanese households used to prepare jamu in small quantities for their family members to occasionally imbibe in shots. Medicinal herbs and other organic ingredients were also used on their own as natural remedies for particular symptoms. Malay Name Eng. Common Name Scientific Name Uses Method

Asam Jawa Tamarind Tamarindus indica Relieves asthmaTree bark boiled into a decoction and drunk

Ati-ati Coleus atropurpureaEliminates sea-sickness, diarrhoea and heartburn

Leaves boiled into a decoction and drunk

Bawang Merah Onion Allium cepa Relieves swelling and nauseaPounded with rice and applied to swollen areas; pounded and added to water and drunk

Bawang Putih Garlic Allium sativumRelieves asthma, coughs and stomach ulcers; improves immunity when eaten raw

Crushed bulbs mixed with honey and sugar, then swallowed

Bĕlimbing Buloh Averrhoa bilimbi Lowers hypertension Fruit eaten directly

Bĕtek Papaya Carica papayaRelieves stomach discomfort and high fever


Chĕkor (Java: Kĕnchor) Kaempferia galanga Post-natal tonicRhizome boiled with other roots

Chĕngkeh Clove Eugenia aromatica Post-natal tonic

Daun Kari Curry leaf Murraya koenigii Regulates menstrual cycleBoiled with other leaves and shoots to make ubat periok

Dĕlima Pomegranate Punica granatumPost-natal tonic; relieves stomach aches


Dokong Anak Gale of the Wind Phyllanthus niruriAntidote to poisons; eliminates kidney stones

All parts of plants boiled into a brew and drunk

Durian Bĕlanda Soursop Annona muricata Relieves headachesLeaves boiled into a decoction and drunk

Ekor Anjing Plantago majorRelieves cough and symptoms of diabetes; ensures normal urination

Roots and leaves boiled into a decoction and drunk

Halia Ginger Zingiber officinaleRelieves stomach aches and burping

Rhizome and leaves pounded, boiled into a decoction and drunk

Hĕmpĕdu BumiAndrographis paniculata

Lowers hypertension; treats tonsillitis, flu and chest pains

Boiled into a decoction, strained and drunk

The following is a small sample of such ingredients that have efficacious properties when consumed.1

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origin, ‘serikaya’ is not one of them. One also does not find a spreadable ‘coconut jam’ quite like the Malay serikaya in Portugal. Egg-based custards abound in Europe, and the Portuguese pasteis de nata are world-renowned. But similar egg-custard tarts are ubiquitous in England and the Netherlands too, undermining further suggestions that the egg-based custard is a distinctly Portuguese invention.

Then there is the telling case of the Malay name for the fruit Annona reticulata. Malay philologists would proclaim that when the people of the Nusantara first encountered this New World fruit, it reminded them of something that was long familiar to them: their custard. And hence they named this fruit ‘buah serikaya’ – the custard that grows on trees. And not ‘buah nona’, the name ascribed by the Spanish and Portuguese. This suggests that the term pre-dates the Columbian exchange. Meanwhile, its English name is ‘custard apple’ – hardly a coincidence!

With intense contact between Portugal and the Malay world beginning in the 16th century, one must question why food writers have been so resistant to the notion that perhaps the Portuguese sericaia took the Malay serikaya as inspiration for its name after all. By the time of Portuguese contact, serikaya was likely already a staple of Malay royal households. It is first attested in a manuscript of Cerita Kutai (The Chronicles of Kutai, 1620), but could very well have been around much earlier.

In the four centuries since, serikaya has never ceased to be the object of gastronomic desire, as amply attested in court annals, folktales and poetry. The Hikayat Hang Tuah (from the 1700s), for instance, records a comparison of an exceptionally sweet coconut’s f lesh to ambrosial serikaya:

Puluh depa tingginya dan pada sama tengah nyiur itu dimakan oleh anai-anai. Syahadan buahnya pun setandan dan airnya terlalu manis seperti serbat rasanya dan isinya seperti serikaya. Maka nyiur itulah yang hendak disantap oleh tuan putri. Maka seorang pun tiada berani naik nyiur itu. Maka tuan putri pun menangis hendak makan nyiur itu juga.

It was ten fathoms high and termites ate right into its core. And its fruits grew in a cluster, and its juice was so exceedingly sweet; it tasted like sherbet, and its filling was like serikaya. That was the coconut so desired by the princess. Now no one dared to climb up that palm. And so the princess wept, for she so yearned to eat that coconut.

Malays do not quite use ‘kaya’ to describe f lavours the same way English speakers talk of a particular food’s ‘richness’.

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Indigenous IngenuityAgnatatempero blacerum net ante quam fugitem ilibus onsequatur taquid quia orestii scilit.

A. Kueh BasahThese are so named for their high moisture content. For this reason they do not keep well; before the advent of refrigeration they would spoil easily and were typically consumed within a day of being made.

Talam 001 - 017

One type of kueh basah is the talam, which is not a specific kueh (as commonly mistaken), but a category. ‘Talam’ refers to the shallow tray moulds in which batter is steamed.

Non-Talam 018 - 058

Kueh made without the use of a talam mould are prepared in other types of moulds or receptacles, or wrapped in leaves to give them form.

Sweet018 Apam Kampong019 Apam Telor020 Awel-awel021 Kueh Bakar

(Bolu Kemboja)022 Bingka Ambon

(Bolu Suri)023 Kueh Choro [manis]024 Cucur025 Kueh Dadar026 Kueh Dangai027 Deram-deram028 Kueh Gandus029 Rendang Kasturi030 Getas-getas031 Janekek032 Jemput-jemput

(Cekodok)

One layer with toppings001 Dang Anum002 Koleh-koleh003 Talam Berlauk.

One layer without toppings004 Bingka Ubi005 Lambang Sari006 Serimuka Tapai

Two layers without fillings007 Jiwa Melayang008 Puteri Salat009 Talam Banjar010 Talam Beras011 Talam Sari012 Talam Suji013 Taman Ubi

Two layers with fillings014 Talam Jagong015 Talam Keladi

Three layers with fillings016 Talam Asmarani

Multiple layers017 Kueh Lapis Beras

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Food as Civilisation - Marshall Cavendish International

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