Credit: Evan https://goo.gl/usVe9F
Baba-Nyonya cuisine also known as Nyonya or Pernakan cuisine is a delicious fusion of Malaysian ingredients and Chinese cooking. This hybrid cuisine is among Southeast Asia’s finest and pride borne from intermarriages between the two cultures in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Kiki Deere delves into the historical background of this cuisine in the post Baba-Nyonya Cuisine: 6 Dishes You Need to try in Malaysia for Rough Guides. She said:
, “At this time Melaka was was an important Portuguese and Dutch trading route, and the quest for spices resulted in a European community with large plantations growing cloves, pepper and nutmeg. Eager to benefit from these riches, and hoping to escape famine and poverty during Manchu rule, Chinese merchants and entrepreneurs flocked to Melaka. The Chinese settlers, who were largely male, intermarried with Malay women, and so the Baba-Nyonya community was born.”
