Mortar & Pestle: Aromas from a Peranakan Kitchen

Peranakan cuisine is perhaps one of the best things to have emerged from the melting port that is Malaysia. The aromas and flavours from a typical Straits Chinese kitchen are a combination of Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques, Malay or Indonesian spices and aromatics, and centuries of experimentation. But it's not just kitchenware; it is said that a nyonya can gauge a potential daughter-in-law's culinary skill just by listening to how she uses the mortar and pestle.