THE annual Malacca Food Festival saw celebrity chefs and representatives from the state’s diverse community dishing out local delicacies for tourists and members of the public.
Organised by the Malacca Museums Corporation, the four-day event was a hit with people from all walks of life who were offered a free taste of specialities and traditional dishes from the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Chitty, Baba-Nyonya, Portuguese and orang asli community.
The theme chosen for this year’s festival was ‘baby’s full moon’ celebration where participants were required to prepare dishes for their respective communities for such an occasion.
Piping hot: Mother and daughter team Tan Geok Lian and Yong Yu Ting dishing out prawn fritters.
During the event, Vinlah Rajadory from the Malaccas Chitty community was seen preparing a traditional dish called ‘sambal belimbing’ using fish roe, prawns and star fruit.
“We used small prawns, star fruit, chilies, fish roe, herbs and spices to prepare this sambal dish,” said the 62-year-old retired nurse.
She also prepared labu masak pedas dengan ayam’ or spicy pumpkin chicken as her second dish that was served throughout the morning which she described was a combination of sweet, sour and spicy.
“These two dishes are a must to celebrate the baby’s full moon. However, we also prepare these dishes during festive season like Ponggal, New Year, birthdays and weddings,” she said.
Another participant, Velda Sv.velankanny, 46, who represented the Indian community, prepared traditional food like tosai, apom and kesary for visitors to savour.
Tasty: Helen Tan holding a box of pineapple tarts and traditional Nyonya ang ku kueh.
“People are familiar with the tosai and apom, but not the kesary. Kesary is an after meal dessert made using ghee, suji flour, condensed milk, raisin, cashew and cardamom,” the housewife said.
Meanwhile, orang asli participant Zuaney Sulaiman, 28, decided to go back to basics by preparing a complete meal including fish, chicken, white rice, vegetable and potatoes cooked in bamboo.
Cooks from the Baba-Nyonya community, on the other hand, prepared traditional delicacies like apam balik, layered steamed cakes, red eggs, ginger chicken, ang ku kueh and pineapple tarts.
“Red eggs and ang ku kueh are symbolic food for a baby’s full moon celebration. Both items symbolize prosperity and bring good luck to the baby,” 49-year-old homemaker Helen Tan Kek Lan said.
A booth serving nasi rembang from Selangor was also a hit among the visitors as everyone queued for a taste of it with the stall workers seen working non-stop.
Various ingredients: From top, clockwise, ayam masak ungkap, kerabu jawa, ikan masin bulu ayam, rempeyek, sambal goreng tempe, serunding kepala and steamed white rice in the middle are the ingredients for the traditional Selangor Nasi Rembang.
The rice dish was made of ingridients such as serunding kelapa, ayam masak ungkap, kerabu jawa, sambal goreng tempe, ikan masin bulu ayam and rempeyek.
Australian Peter Rowan gave two thumbs up to the organisers for organising the food festival where members of the public could sample the many traditional dishes prepared by various ethnic groups.
“I always worry that I would order something that I will never like whenever I patronize a local restaurant. The food festival solves my problem at one go,” said the 59-year-old property manager.
He added it was not his first visit to the historic city but it was the first time he was seeing such carnival being organised.
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