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‘CHEWING THE FAT WITH MAMA (PORK FAT THAT IS)’

I have been faithful to Mama.  Five lunches and dinners in a row there. (I’m beginning to feel a little like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day).  And it isn’t cheap by Penang standards.  A meal at Mama’s costs anywhere between 15 and 20+ bucks.  To put this in perspective, with $20 in your pocket you could eat like a king every night for a week at hawker stalls and have a little money left over.  I go to Mama’s tonight for meal number six.

Yesterday I ate Tau Yu Bak, chunks of pork belly slow cooked in a dark soy sauce mixture.  It is interesting that Mario Batalli several years ago came back from one of his cooking stints in Italy and announced that a discovery –pork bellies would be a staple be on his Babbo menu.  It was immensely popular.  I wonder if he really thought it was a ‘new dish’? 

It is interesting to note that the pork belly is an international dish.  We in America of course slice it up and fry it as bacon.  It has been around for a century, probably much longer, in China and Korea, and likely here too as a Nonya classic.  It also shows up in Alsation, Swiss and German dishes.  The pork belly sure gets around.

When I was seated at Mama’s at lunch today one of the sisters asked me if I would like to try something that was not on the menu.  Hey, she was asking the guy who ate Fish Head Curry and pickled fish stomach soup.   What do you think my answer was?

Out came what she called a traditional Malay breakfast.  There were three rectangular plates.  One contained chicken in a thick sauce.  Another held a small barbecued fish covered in a red sauce (I’ll come back to the sauce later).  The third held two large shrimp that had been cooked in a heavy soy sauce, and two small sardine sized barbecued fish.  When she set the plate of rice before me she said it had been bathed in coconut milk and was high in cholesterol.  I said good, I needed more cholesterol.  Another chuckle earned.

Now for the sauce on the barbecued fish.  It is complex and absolutely delicious. The complexity comes from the mix of red chilis, shallots, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, lemongrass, shrimp paste, sugar, and tamarind paste.  Spooned thickly on top of the roast fish, this was the definite star of the whole meal.

I think my Chez Greenbrier Nyonya dinner will be chopped meat in spring roll wrappers deep fried and otak-otak (that steamed fish custard) for appetizers.   Soup will be roasted pork and salted mustard greens.   I’ll choose an entrée from a number of favorites.  For dessert it will be the Sago and yam mixture with fresh coconut milk poured over it.  You’ve got experience how that coconut milk brings the dish alive.

I have experienced a number classic Nyonya dishes at Mama’s – Fish Head Stew, Otak-Otak, Kiam Chai Buey, Perut Ikan, Loh Bak, and on and on.  After this sampling I have come to the conclusion the cooking style is unique in many ways.  One simple example is that the sauce in which the meat or chicken is cooked is reduced down to thick quasi paste-like consistency.

In some ways I think of it as a classical style of a bygone era.  The flavors are lovely and well balanced.  They are truly well prepared and very tasty.  Another thing to say for Nyonya cuisine is that no matter how spicy or sour the food, (it is never overpoweringly spicy)  it is very satisfying and ‘sits well on your stomach.’  Some dishes are surprisingly sour, which I like.  For example the Kiam Chai Buey which is a soup made with roasted pork and salted mustard greens sour flavor comes from sour plum.  

That having been said, after dinner tonight it will be time to move on to other Penang culinary experiences.  However, before I depart the topic of Nyonya Cuisine, I am confident that I can make many of the dishes back at Chez Greenbrier. Recipes are already tucked away in a folder on my netbook.

Now, perhaps one of the reasons I'm setting my sights on exploring other foods here in Penang is due to the website Malaysianfood.net.  I highly recommend taking a look at it.  In a few short pages it sums up the influence other cultures have had on the region’s cuisine.  

There is not only the Chinese (Peranakan) influence resulting in Nyonya (the origin of the word - Chinese immigrants in Melaka Malaysia referred to the woman as nyonya and the man baba) , but also Indian, Eurasian, Malay, and even indigenous people of Borneo.  I suspect the sum total of foods in the hawkers’ carts and those prepared in the open air restaurants represent an amalgam of these other cultures’ influences on what is eaten here.

I’ll take just a moment to say that Malaysians in Penang love to eat.  It is a festive occasion, be it at a hawker stall or in an open air restaurant.  The air is filled with the mingling sound of happy voices just as much as it is with the mingling aroma of the food being prepared.

Aside from the ubiquitous hawker stalls, there are countless restaurants that are open to the sidewalk (what I referred to above as ‘open air restaurants’).  They serve an impressive number of varied dishes.  When you walk by, you see not only individual dishes being cooked but an array of fresh ingredients lined up, be they meat, seafood, duck or vegetable, etc. 

You experience the cooking aromas wafting in the air as you walk by and are enticed by the eye appeal of fresh fish or vegetables resting over crushed ice.  It is the lure of these places that has proved to be irresistible during all my trips to and from Mama’s.   

Add to that, each day when I walk to Mama’s for lunch I pass the Prosperus Dim Sum Restaurant with fifty or so patrons sitting at outdoor tables under a large marquee.  I can’t help but notice the small delightful morsels being consumed.  Tomorrow I’ll start sampling foods influenced by some of the other cultures I mentioned above.  Maybe a dim sum lunch would be a good way to start.