Melaka's Rare Nyonya Acar Home Made
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| Acar Nyonya in my fridge |
Pickled green chillies stuffed with shredded papaya taste so good, and it is an appetizer available in my fridge from year end to year end.
The other alternate acar is the Acar Sayur and most of the people got mixed up between Acar Sayur and Acar Nyonya.
Acar Sayur or Pickled Mix-Vegetables are more common and is more easily available than Acar Nyonya in certain shop and certain home.
Acar Nyonya was a common sight in my home when bullock cart was still a mode of transport carrying goods and passenger along the then Templer Avenue Road in Melaka.
I can still remember my mum's sister was good in pickling green chillies and shredded papaya in Bean Paste bottle. The opportunity of enjoying my aunt's Acar Nyonya was more than 30 years ago and if she had not pickled this Chinese-Javanese appetizer substantially tempting, I would have forgotten about it.
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| Bean Paste Bottle |
But then, for a period of a few years, there was no Acar Nyonya on my dining table and often I would think of them (my mum and her sister) during lunch or dinner.
Not long after they passed away, I got married to a girl who was living in northern Melaka and has six elder sisters. Her second, fifth and sixth sisters are good cook. While the fifth sister is good in pickling Acar Sayur, the second is good in pickling Acar Nyonya. That was when I was first introduced to the wonder of Acar Sayur and like many, I also got mixed up between Acar Sayur and Acar Nyonya until the second day of Syawal 1440H.
Me and my wife went to her second sister's home in Cheng, Melaka on Thursday 6 June to collect some Rice Dumplings to perform Melaka's heritage tradition of the Dragon Boat Festival on Friday 7 June. And for the first time in my life, I got to see how shredded papaya looks like in dried-form in the kitchen of my sister-in-law.
My sister-in-law, Siew Kun cleared my incorrect assumption and she said, " One is Acar Sayur and one is Acar Nyonya, both is not the same "
I had wanted to learn how to pickle Acar Nyonya from my aunt, and wanting to learn from my sister-in-law. When I am successful in pickling green chillies and shredded papaya, I would post this heritage appetizer on this Blog, on Facebook and on YouTube.
I believed processed Acar Nyonya and home-made non-added monosodium glutamate Acar Nyonya can be easily identified by the umami flavours and fragrances of unprocessed ingredients used.
The home-made Acar Nyonya is hard to come by on the streets and please tell me on the Comment Section below this post if you discover one.
Beside Acar Nyonya, the range of home-recipe food is very wide considering the facts that Melaka was a Trade Center for the east and the west since the 14th century.
This coming dates, don't miss the Food Festival. Get satisfied yourself in discovering the heritage cuisines from the kitchens of many intermarriages at the Festival Masakan Warisan Melaka on Jalan Kota, Melaka. Melaka is one and perhaps the only one, of the thirteen States in Malaysia with documented records of intermarriages since the 14th century.
The word 'Pickle' is said to be adopted from the Dutch word 'Pekel' [ Melaka was once government by the Dutch ]
How Nyonya Acar come about?
In the early days of Melaka, the relationship of China and Melaka was determined by trade, a trade policy embraced by the then Imperial China. Today, China's imperial trade policy still hold water as reflected by The One Belt One Road to prosper nations once again.
Intermarriages between the Chinese and the Malay took place and descendants of the mixed-blood Melayu-Cina wear their hair in a knot, the local Melaka folks called it the Tocang. They shared their cooking methods. Nyonya Acar is one of their brainchild.
Me and my wife went to her second sister's home in Cheng, Melaka on Thursday 6 June to collect some Rice Dumplings to perform Melaka's heritage tradition of the Dragon Boat Festival on Friday 7 June. And for the first time in my life, I got to see how shredded papaya looks like in dried-form in the kitchen of my sister-in-law.
 |
| Shredded Papaya |
My sister-in-law, Siew Kun cleared my incorrect assumption and she said, " One is Acar Sayur and one is Acar Nyonya, both is not the same "
I had wanted to learn how to pickle Acar Nyonya from my aunt, and wanting to learn from my sister-in-law. When I am successful in pickling green chillies and shredded papaya, I would post this heritage appetizer on this Blog, on Facebook and on YouTube.
I believed processed Acar Nyonya and home-made non-added monosodium glutamate Acar Nyonya can be easily identified by the umami flavours and fragrances of unprocessed ingredients used.
The home-made Acar Nyonya is hard to come by on the streets and please tell me on the Comment Section below this post if you discover one.
Beside Acar Nyonya, the range of home-recipe food is very wide considering the facts that Melaka was a Trade Center for the east and the west since the 14th century.
This coming dates, don't miss the Food Festival. Get satisfied yourself in discovering the heritage cuisines from the kitchens of many intermarriages at the Festival Masakan Warisan Melaka on Jalan Kota, Melaka. Melaka is one and perhaps the only one, of the thirteen States in Malaysia with documented records of intermarriages since the 14th century.
The word 'Pickle' is said to be adopted from the Dutch word 'Pekel' [ Melaka was once government by the Dutch ]
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| Image Source : Datuk Hj Khamis Abas Former Museum General Manager |
How Nyonya Acar come about?
In the early days of Melaka, the relationship of China and Melaka was determined by trade, a trade policy embraced by the then Imperial China. Today, China's imperial trade policy still hold water as reflected by The One Belt One Road to prosper nations once again.
Intermarriages between the Chinese and the Malay took place and descendants of the mixed-blood Melayu-Cina wear their hair in a knot, the local Melaka folks called it the Tocang. They shared their cooking methods. Nyonya Acar is one of their brainchild.
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