[Penang] Lunch at Nyonya Breeze, Straits Quay

Phoenikia · January 16, 2024, 2:32am

klyeoh:

Pork rendang - this dish is a Nyonya Breeze novelty. Usually, Malaysians used beef to cook rendang. The chicken version gained traction perhaps a decade or so back among the commercial establishments as many Chinese-Malaysians (who’re devout Buddhists) and Indian-Malaysians (who’re Hindus) abstain from consuming beef.
But the pork version of the rendang that’s served here is pretty rare, anywhere in Malaysia or Singapore. Really looking forward to it, but was pretty disappointed by their version. It did not have the requisite aroma of rendang. Instead, the spicing was not much different from those for its Kari Kapitan or other spicy Nyonya curries. Whilst rendang spice paste share some similarities with Nyonya spice paste, i.e. lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, galangal, the former also incorporates dry spices like cardamom, cloves, star anise and cinnamon stick, which Nyonya rempah does not use. But Nyonya Breeze Desire failed to use any of those dry spices in their version of the rendang. End result, the pork rendang was nothing like what I’d expected and tasted all “wrong”.

I looked up Pork Rendang to see what you had to say about it. I made one tonight, with what I had on hand. I will have to look at some more recipes.

I’ve made Beef Rendang 3 or 4 times, and Lamb Rendang once.