More Daily Nonya Dishes : Heritage Recipes for Everyday Meals

More Daily Nonya Dishes adds to the collection of everyday dishes of the Babas and Nonyas documented in the author’s seminal book, Daily Nonya Dishes. The dishes featured in these two volumes are the simple, yet delicious, staples offered on the dining tables of Baba households from day to day in the years gone by.

They are distinct from the festive foods such as Bakwan Kepiting and Ayam Buah Keluak published in most other Peranakan cookbooks. Reacquaint your tastebuds with old favourites like Ikan Terubok Panggang (Grillled Toli Shad), Sambair Lengkong (Fish Floss) and homemade Chinchalok (Fermented Salted Krill), now sadly rare. Try a very different vintage Mee Siam and a distinctive Singapore version of Roti Babi. Discover the hitherto undocumented Mee Lor. Reintroduce dishes like Ikan Pari Masak Kuah Lada (Stingray in a Peppery Gravy), Udang Masak Lemak (Prawns in a Spicy Coconut Gravy) and piquant fruit sambals to your regular rotating family menu. 

More Daily Nonya Dishes contributes to the preservation of Peranakan culture, making the distinctive everyday fare of the Babas and Nonyas once again available to the community and beyond. May this laok hari hari – food for each and every day – be the heart and soul, purut rumah, of Peranakan households, just as it was in the days of the author’s parents and grandparents. 

Lloyd Matthew Tan, a true-blue Baba who believes in the cultural impact of home- cooked food, has been recording the daily dishes of his community to revive Peranakan food in home kitchens. He is in the forefront of Peranakan culture on social media, unstinting in his sharing of the knowledge he inherited from his parents, grandmothers and other elders. He looks forward to a new heyday of Peranakan life.