Baba
What the baba likes
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Baba
What the baba likes |
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William Gwee takes a brief look at what he eats. A. Baba Breakfast BREAKFAST in a Baba home as in most Singaporean Chinese home is a standard fare of two half-boiled eggs per person eaten with a dash of black sauce and pepper accompanied with two slices of plain or toasted bread with a spread of butter, jam or cheese and downed with a cup of coffee with or without milk. An occasional variation may be the Chinese-style cruller (yu char kway) with black coffee which is also the favourite with the non-Baba Singaporean Chinese. B. Baba Lunch and Dinner Setting The lunch and dinner setting in a Baba home consists of a plate of rice, a glass of water, a small plate of dip (eg dark black sauce) and a small plate of the ubiguitous toasted shrimp paste with chillies (sambal blachan), the appetiser that accompanies most Nyonya dishes. The different types of foods are served on communal plates or bowls with a spoon or fork in it. Meals are traditionally eaten with the fingers which is deemed more satisfying. A Nyonya is ever sensitive to the windy, heaty or cooling properties of foodstuffs and endeavours to prepare, as far as possible, a balanced menu for the healthy well being of her family. C. Nyonya Daily Menu The Nyonya's daily menu generally consists of rice, a soup or gravy, a meat, a fish and a vegetable dish. I. Rice Although rice is a staple in a Baba home, plain rice porridge is not served at lunch or dinner. Paradoxically, the foods that normally accompany porridge such as the |
| century egg, preserved vegetables,
pickled cucumber, salt fish and salted fish roe are sometimes included
in the day's menu with rice. 2. Soup When a soup is decided upon, vegetables such as the spinach, onion, carrot or potato will be the main ingredients of choice. 3. Gravy If a gravy is the option, the choice may fall upon either a pure vegetable gravy, eg convolvulus in rich coconut milk (kangkong masak lemak) or one that contains a fish or a meat as well. A popular vegetable and fish gravy dish is the stingray and vegetable gravy (ikan pari kuah lada). The vegetables in this dish are okra and aubergine. 4. Meat Pork is the meat of choice. Baba families practising the Chinese form of religious worship abstain from beef and turtle meat in their meals. Mutton, considered very heaty, is also not served in the Baba home. The two most regular pork dishes are pork in dark soya sauce (babi tauyu) and stewed pork with bean paste (babi pongteh). When pork liver is on the menu, it is usually the pork liver fried in ginger (ati babi char alia), Chicken is not served as often as pork. Most recipes for chicken are similar to those for pork, eg the pork in dark soya sauce or the stewed pork with bean paste are easily substituted with chicken in place of pork. Duck is not common at Nyonya daily meals but it is served at specific social events. 5. Fish Out of the wide variety of fish included in Nyonya cooking, the shad (ikan terubok) and the catfish (ikan semilang) are favourites. The shad is prepared either fried or steamed. When fried, the scales on the fish impart a rich taste (lemak). When steamed, the Nyonya wraps it with the fragrant screwpine (pandan) leaf together with the other ingredients (eg ginger and preserved vegetables) around it. This results in a fragrant final product. As for the catfish, the one and only recipe is catfish in hot gravy (ikan semilang masak pedair) and the all-important ingredient in preparing this dish is the local basil (kemangi) with its unique aroma. Prawn is the substitute when fish is not on the menu and it is prepared either as the prawn fried in tamarind (udang goreng asam) or prawn fried in chilli paste (udang goreng rempah). |
| 6. Vegetable A vegetable dish is a must at a Baba meal. Leafy greens are usually cooked as a plain soup, a gravy or fried. Apart from the leafy greens, peas and other pods, okra, aubergine, gourds and bean sprout are also included in Nyonya cooking. D. Weekend Lunch and Dinner Elaborate dishes are usually prepared during the weekend because of the presence of the whole family at meal time. Rice may even be excluded in its plain form. Instead, rice in coconut milk (nasik lemak) or rice with fish, prawn and raw leafy greens (nasik ulam) will be served in its place. Porridge may turn out to be the main dish. This will be the prawn porridge (bubor udang) supplemented with side dishes. Other weekend favourites include the famous Nyonya style fried wheat noodle (mee char), a meat or fish curry or a rich spicy vermicelli gravy (laksa). E. Specific Events 1. Birthday Celebration For either a young or an adult person celebrating a birthday (via lunar calendar reckoning), a bowl of thin wheat noodle and a hardboiled egg coloured with a red dot in soup sweetened with rock sugar is served at breakfast. The long strands of this noodle (mee sua") represents longevity to the celebrant. For an adult celebrant, another birthday food will be served as the main dish at lunch. The same noodle is again served but, this time, it is cooked with minced prawn ball, boiled sliced pork belly, sliced egg omellete, fried garlic and coriander leaves in a gravy (the mee snua thau). 2. Mourning When a Baba household is in mourning, all who come to pay their respect at the night wake will be served a light supper of stewed pork with bean paste (babi pongteh) with bread. Occasionally, chicken curry may be substituted. After the funeral, those who had attended the funeral are invited home for Lunch. At this meal, the Nyonya fried wheat noodle (mee char) is a compulsory dish accompanied with other dishes. This lunch is deemed an invitation by the deceased to thank the mourners and the fried noodle is the deceased's blessing of longevity to them. This same noodle dish is served to the family on the seventh day after the funeral following a prayer visit to the grave. Both the stewed pork with bean paste and the Nyonya fried noodle may be served as daily or weekend foods but never at joyous social events such as a birthday or wedding celebration. 3. Wedding In the traditional Baba wedding, ladies are invited to lunch on the eve of the wedding day but the menu, though decided upon by die Baba parents, are prepared by professional Hainanese caterers because bulk preparation and lack of time prevent the family members from cooking the dishes themselves. Generally, three categories of foods are served: First are those served in bowls and may include crab and pork balls with bamboo shoot (bakwan kepiting), fish maw soup (ee pio soup), pig's tripe soup (perot babi pek kway) and chicken in bird nest soup (ayam sarang burong). Next are foods served on large plates and may include Hainanese roast pork (babi panggang), fried scrambled egg with shark fin (hoo sit char telor) and bambooshoot in spicy gravy (rebong masak lemak). Lastly will be those served on medium-sized plates and may include fried prawn in tamarind (udang goreng asam), pickles(a char), spicy prawns(sambal udang), spicy barbegued pork (satay babi) and fried coconut in spices (sambal Serondeng). 4. Other Social / Religious Events a. Grandson's Birthday In celebrating the first or fourth month of a grandson's birth, Nyonya spring roll (popiah) is served to guests and it is eaten with plain dilute rice porridge. b. Offerings to Gods and Ancestors Babas believe there are two categories of gods or deities, Viz. those who did not undergo death and had ascended straight to heaven and those who had died before ascending to heaven and conferred deityship. To those in the first category, fruits or uncooked vegetarian ingredients for the preparation of mixed vegetable stew (chap chai) will be offered on the altar on specific days. Those in the Second category will be offered normal foods are offered to ancestors whose ashes are kept and honoured at home, and may include beancurd with meat and prawn balls soup (pong tauhu), Stewed Pork with bean paste (babi pongteh), pork liver balls (ati babi bungkus), mixed vegstable stew (chap chai) and Nyonya steamed duck (itek tim). c. Dragon Boat Festival In celebrating this festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the Nyonya prepares her celebrated glutinous rice meat dumpling (chang) for offering of prayers to ancestors and family consumption. Her dumplings are wrapped in the large variety of fragrant screwpine(pandan) leaves and the meat content is pork. She offers the meatless glutinous rice dumplings in prayer to household deities. d. Winter Solstice Festival This festival (tang chek) inevitably falls on 22nd December. The Nyonya prepares marble-sized glutinous rice flour orbs (kueh een) coloured natural white and red in screwpine leaf flavoured syrup for prayer offerings to household deities, ancestors and home consumption. It is mandatory to consume this item which symbolizes unbroken harmony and a full circle of trouble-free domestic life in the coming year. e. Chinese New Year Babas, like other Chinese the world over, observe the Chinese New Year faithfully on the first day of the first lunar month. Sons who are married will partake of the annual family reunion dinner at their parents' home first before proceeding to their in-laws' home for a second family reunion dinner. Daughters who are married will thus dine at their in-laws' home first before joining their parents for their second dinner. The foods served are mainly the dishes which have been cooked and offered in prayer to ancestors and deities in the morning, (see b.) The same dinner ritual is repeated on the last evening of the Chinese New Year celebrations.# (with permission) from A symposium on Chinese dietary cultureChinese Culinary Culture: The Singapore Baba-Nyonya Angle William T. H. GWEE is the author of A Nonya Mosaic: My Mother's Childhood (1985) and A Baba Malay Dictionary (2006). |
| 3. Wedding In the traditional Baba wedding, ladies are invited to lunch on the eve of the wedding day but the menu, though decided upon by die Baba parents, are prepared by professional Hainanese caterers because bulk preparation and lack of time prevent the family members from cooking the dishes themselves. Generally, three categories of foods are served: First are those served in bowls and may include crab and pork balls with bamboo shoot (bakwan kepiting), fish maw soup (ee pio soup), pig's tripe soup (perot babi pek kway) and chicken in bird nest soup (ayam sarang burong). Next are foods served on large plates and may include Hainanese roast pork (babi panggang), fried scrambled egg with shark fin (hoo sit char telor) and bambooshoot in spicy gravy (rebong masak lemak). Lastly will be those served on medium-sized plates and may include fried prawn in tamarind (udang goreng asam), pickles(a char), spicy prawns(sambal udang), spicy barbegued pork (satay babi) and fried coconut in spices (sambal Serondeng). 4. Other Social / Religious Events a. Grandson's Birthday In celebrating the first or fourth month of a grandson's birth, Nyonya spring roll (popiah) is served to guests and it is eaten with plain dilute rice porridge. b. Offerings to Gods and Ancestors Babas believe there are two categories of gods or deities, Viz. those who did not undergo death and had ascended straight to heaven and those who had died before ascending to heaven and conferred deityship. To those in the first category, fruits or uncooked vegetarian ingredients for the preparation of mixed vegetable stew (chap chai) will be offered on the altar on specific days. Those in the Second category will be offered normal foods are offered to ancestors whose ashes are kept and honoured at home, and may include beancurd with meat and prawn balls soup (pong tauhu), Stewed Pork with bean paste (babi pongteh), pork liver balls (ati babi bungkus), mixed vegstable stew (chap chai) and Nyonya steamed duck (itek tim). c. Dragon Boat Festival In celebrating this festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the Nyonya prepares her celebrated glutinous rice meat dumpling (chang) for offering of prayers to ancestors and family consumption. Her dumplings are wrapped in the . |
| large variety of fragrant
screwpine(pandan) leaves and the meat content is pork. She offers the
meatless glutinous rice dumplings in prayer to household
deities. d. Winter Solstice Festival This festival (tang chek) inevitably falls on 22nd December. The Nyonya prepares marble-sized glutinous rice flour orbs (kueh een) coloured natural white and red in screwpine leaf flavoured syrup for prayer offerings to household deities, ancestors and home consumption. It is mandatory to consume this item which symbolizes unbroken harmony and a full circle of trouble-free domestic life in the coming year. e. Chinese New Year Babas, like other Chinese the world over, observe the Chinese New Year faithfully on the first day of the first lunar month. Sons who are married will partake of the annual family reunion dinner at their parents' home first before proceeding to their in-laws' home for a second family reunion dinner. Daughters who are married will thus dine at their in-laws' home first before joining their parents for their second dinner. The foods served are mainly the dishes which have been cooked and offered in prayer to ancestors and deities in the morning, (see b.) The same dinner ritual is repeated on the last evening of the Chinese New Year celebrations.# (with permission) from A symposium on Chinese dietary cultureChinese Culinary Culture: The Singapore Baba-Nyonya Angle William T. H. Gwee is the author of A Nonya Mosaic: My Mother's Childhood (1985) and A Baba Malay Dictionary (2006) Go to the top |
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