A gift of luck or a gift of time? (The significance of certain foods in the Peranakan culture)

You will, if you have known me over the years, likely have received a "wok hamper" - that is a wok, with noodles, oranges, and then a few other nibbles that you might enjoy if I know you like Chinese food (eg. prawn crackers, sesame biscuits, Kopi o (Malaysian coffee) or Teh Tarik (Malaysian tea) sometimes mooncake*)

With dad celebrating the Mooncake festival last year 

*The mooncake festival falls on October 1st 2020 this year - the cakes are like pies, they have a "century egg" inside - which is a Chinese delicacy preserving a duck or quail egg in clay, ash, quicklime and rice husks.  They have writing on the top as legend has it that - like the first escape room puzzle, the Ming revolutionaries to overthrow the Mongolian rulers at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, would write messages (4 characters) on the top of the mooncake - so the cake then had to be cut and the message assembled....and the cake filled also with either lotus paste, or sweet bean paste was also delicious to eat). As mooncakes are expensive around the festival time, my tip is to buy them before or after the date - the way they are made, they will often last.  ...and before I leave this subject, the egg is also of significance in China - signifying a "fresh start".  My dad - who I think uses this as an excuse forgetting my birthday every year - always says "I don't remember dates, I just knew it was someone's birthday when my mother gave us an egg at breakfast."

Back to the hamper.

I promise you, like giving you a bag of oranges instead of a plant for a housewarming, it's not my "cheap" way of giving a gift - but food has a great deal of significance in Chinese culture.

Noodles signify "long life" and it is traditional on birthdays to eat them.  Therefore, even if I've gone out for a birthday tea (as is my usual option), at some point Dave and I will eat noodles - this is true on my dad's birthday too - you can eat them in celebration of the long life of others.  

Oranges represent gold and wealth - and therefore in giving you oranges as a housewarming, it is symbolically bringing wealth into your home.  We give them on Chinese New Year as well. 

There are a few other practices - perhaps you call them supersititons, perhaps they are traditions, but I will leave those - probably along with Feng Shui - for another blog entry (as I know some of you have also received things like chinese coins, or even Jade from me - they too are simply a wish for your propsperity (coins) and health).

Other "lucky" foods include peaches - meaning longevity, chinese dumplings (wealth), and fish (prosperity) - but don't flip the fish - once you've taken the meat off one side, remove the bones by lifting them off, and then eat the meat underneath...flip the fish and the story is - a sailing boat goes down.

So, maybe it was the establishment of belief surrounding Chinese food that found its way into the Nyonya food of the Straits Chinese.

In my recent research I've been watching a lot of YouTube on the Peranakans - and the topic which has far exceeded all others is the food.  As such, one day, after running 5k on the treadmill watching video after video of delicacies I was so hungry I decided to look for some Malaysian Kuih (pronounced Kway).  Kuih Lapis is a Nyonya dessert which my grandpa used to make with layers (lapis means layers) of coloured tapioca and coconut milk - set a bit like a jelly.  

Really sadly, "Baba Nyonya" along Wellingbororough Road in Northampton (a long time favourite haunt of mine - we went as soon as it opened, raved about it to the point where we went a month later and couldn't get a table!) closed down - but they made excellent Kuih.  Malaysian food (especially good Malaysian food) is incredibly hard to come by in the UK but I found Sueperlicious bakery in Cardiff which delivered treat boxes.  

Treat box, Sueperlicious Malaysian Bakery

They included curry puffs, a pandan (banana leaf) roll,  kuih lapis and Kuih Seri Muka (steamed sweet potato custard layered with sticky rice)...and they delivered all around the UK!!  (The only other place that delieved in Lockdown was Old Change Kee (a Singapore chain with the best Nyonya curry puffs this side of the meridian...but they only delivered within the M25...so as soon as we could bubble I ordered double for my dad and went to collect!!...and visit my dad...) 

The curry puffs were good - not as good as Old Change Kee for my taste (Dave - my husband - liked them as they were smaller - this is the man who ate the whole breakfast buffet plate of curry puffs when we were in Melaka...and then came back when they'd refilled to take them to my book launch - just in case he got hungry.)  The Kuih was OK (a little too floury), but it satisfied my craving. I guess delivery will never be "fresh".  I had some "Kopi o" (Malaysian coffee**) left over, so my last few days of breakfasts have satiated my desire to go across - at least for now.

** Malaysian coffee (kopi) and tea (teh tarik) is sweet - this is because right up until even the early 2000s, many places used condensed milk rather than dairy because it was easier to keep.  For a "cuppa" you'd need to visit the top hotels.  Of course, it's very different now.

Kuih lapis

But back to traditions...although it is tempting - especially when you've not had it for ages - to bite the whole kuih, many will instead peel and eat it layer by layer - this is to savour each year.  If you bite it through, then you "might miss a year"...perhaps that's what happened in 2019!?  (That's also how you can tell it's a good Kuih, though - if the layers peel apart nicely.)

Eating layer by layer - it's quite mindful!!

I think while the Chinese traditions were largely to generate luck - an actively positive approach, the Nyonya ones are more mindful.  They are about savouring, and in many ways about "exacting" standards.  The WI had nothing on the Nyonya mother in law.  

This is one of the biggest reasons why, perhaps, the Baba Nyonya culture is fading - in a fast moving world, who has time for making kuih lapis, let alone eating it strip by strip?  When I talk about the crafts such as beading and jewellery - they same is true - everything in Nyonya culture took time.  But back at the turn of the 19th century, time is exactly what the Nyonya had.

So, while my husband often teases me with "What are you going to give our friends that has some sort of meaning..."  I will be sticking with my wok hampers and baskets of oranges for now...but maybe, instead of learning to bake, I might try to cook you a Nyonya gift!  I guess the question is - and maybe it's something we can think about today - do you want the fast "dopamine hit" of luck or do you want to savour the "oxytocin hug" of time?