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 Wenโs Kitchen, Malacca (and Malaysia)'s first and only restaurant specialising in this unique food culture.
Co-owners, Bert Tan and Wenila Nadarajan, whoโs also the chef:
Our lunch spread:
๐๐๐ง๐๐จ๐๐ ๐ ๐ช๐ก๐๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ข๐ช๐ฃ - cucumber skin salad, with grated coconut, chilis, pounded dried shrimps, and belimbing buluh, a sourish, local fruit used for cooking.
๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ก ๐ฉ๐๐ก๐ช๐ง ๐๐๐ก๐๐ข๐๐๐ฃ๐ - wolf herring roe, belimbing buluh and dried shrimps.
๐ผ๐ฎ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ง๐๐ข - batter-fried chicken coated with chili paste.
๐๐๐ค๐ ๐๐ง๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ - coconut milk-rice curried vegetables, with aubergines, bitter gourd, long beans and radish, with chili-sambal belacan.
Dessert: ๐พ๐๐ฃ๐๐ค๐ก - 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 wonโt 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
Wenโs Kitchen
169, Jalan Tengkera, 75200 Malacca, Malaysia
Tel: +6 10-359 6767
Opening hours: 12 noon to 4pm daily, except Tuesday.
