CHATZ BRASSERIE,
Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur,
Jalan Sultan Ismail,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2782 8301
Business hours: 6.30am to midnight daily.
WHAT sets Nyonya cuisine apart from the rest is its labour-intensive preparation.
Nyonya food expert Debbie Teoh said a lot of work goes into the preparation and cooking of the dishes.
“For example, the yam bean(sengkuang) for the Pie Tee has to be hand-cut. You can use a slicer but the texture will not be the same,” said Teoh, who is the guest chef at Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur’s “A Touch of Nyonya Influence” food promotion from now until July 3.
She said that even the ingredients and spices for grinding needed to be cut into smaller pieces before they go into the blender to get a finer product.
“The sauteing process is also vital. In Nyonya food, we would saute the ingredients until it becomes fragrant,” said Teoh, a true-bred Nyonya, whose father is a Baba from Malacca and mother a Nyonya from Penang.
She said the Nyonya food was slightly different, depending on where it was from: the northern style is influenced by Thai cuisine so the dishes have a more tangy taste while the southern ones have Malay influence and was slightly sweeter because of the use of gula melaka.
One of the dishes that Teoh would be featuring is the Ayam Buah Keluak, another dish that requires a lot of work to prepare.
“The buah keluak (black nut) has to be soaked for two days. After that, you have to break open a hole on the nut, dig out the disk-like content and mash it up before putting it back into the shell to be cooked,” she said.
For sweet toot h:The Seri Muka(front) and Banana Gem (back) are typical delicious.Because of the tedious work, Teoh said not many places offer the dish anymore.
After being cooked with the curry-like gravy, the creamy content of the nut is scraped out of the shell and with the savoury gravy, makes for a good match with plain white rice.
While many would expect the Sambal Goreng to be a red and spicy concoction, the Nyonya dish turned out to be a mild dish with a light-coloured coconut gravy.
Bowls of goodness:The Udang Sambal Goreng(front) has a creamy gravy while the Hu Pio(fish maw)soup is cooked with prawn.Cooked with prawns and roasted cashew nuts, the dish was another appetising pairing with rice.
Teoh said there were also soups in Nyonya cuisine even though the selection was not as wide as Cantonese soups.
The Hu Pio Soup she prepared had a savoury clear broth with fish maw and prawn balls.
Freshly ground chillies also feature in Nyonya cuisine, like the ones served with the Pie Tee or the flavourful Sambal Kiam Hoo (salted fish) that is served with the Curry Chicken and Kunyit Rice.
The Nyonya food promotion is available as buffet on weekdays, priced at RM58++ per person for lunch and RM78++ per person for dinner. There is a hi-tea on weekends, priced at RM52++ per person. Selected dishes can also be ordered individually.
This is the writer’s observation and not an endorsement by StarMetro.
