Back in Malacca to witness the Wangkang Taoist festival, which was listed by UNESCO in 2020 in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This time, we decided to taste the hybrid cuisine of the Chetti Melakans - 500-year-old community of Hindu-Indians from Tamil Nadu which emigrated to Malacca in the 16th-century and has assimilated Malay cultural characteristics. The Chetti-Melakans spoke both Tamil and a pidgin-Malay language similar to the Peranakan/Baba-Nyonya Chinese.
Foodwise, Chetti-Melakan cuisine has its own distinct dishes - all served at Wen’s Kitchen, Malacca (and Malaysia)'s first and only restaurant specialising in this unique food culture.
Co-owners, Bert Tan and Wenila Nadarajan, who’s also the chef:
Our lunch spread:
𝙆𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙠 𝙠𝙪𝙡𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙪𝙣 - cucumber skin salad, with grated coconut, chilis, pounded dried shrimps, and belimbing buluh, a sourish, local fruit used for cooking.
𝙎𝙖𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙣𝙜 - wolf herring roe, belimbing buluh and dried shrimps.
𝘼𝙮𝙖𝙢 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙞 𝙜𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙢 - batter-fried chicken coated with chili paste.
𝙇𝙖𝙤𝙠 𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙢 𝙟𝙖𝙙𝙖 - coconut milk-rice curried vegetables, with aubergines, bitter gourd, long beans and radish, with chili-sambal belacan.
Dessert: 𝘾𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙡 - shaved ice dessert with green, pandan-flavored rice noodles, red beans, coconut milk and palm sugar.
My first time tasting Chetti Melaka food, and it certainly won’t be the last - everything tasted surprisingly light, and not as spicy as South Indian/Tamil cuisine, from which it evolved from. Very nice balance of flavors, too.
Address
Wen’s Kitchen
169, Jalan Tengkera, 75200 Malacca, Malaysia
Tel: +6 10-359 6767
Opening hours: 12 noon to 4pm daily, except Tuesday.
