Feature

As a child, I spent a lot of time in this aunt’s house, and most of that time, in her kitchen. While my other aunts and cousins played mahjong in the background, I would sit at the kitchen table, annoying her with requests to help her cook.

In the space Rongen has curated over two decades, ceramic shards from the Wan Li shipwreck are arranged like relics. Some have been made into jewellery and others set onto small sculptural pieces. The rest remain untouched, displayed just as they were when they were lifted off the seabed.

Penang murtabak is very elaborately prepared when compared to that from other parts of Southeast Asia. My findings are based on its traditional preparation at Hameediyah and the now-defunct Merah restaurants.

Kebebe is a culinary heritage of the Malay-Pattani communities of Lenggong, Hulu Perak, and is believed to have existed for over a century. To trace its roots, I spoke with a local historian, Mohd Razali Ahmad, fondly known as Pak Su.

I am a Malay from Balik Pulau. We are sometimes assumed to be the same as the Malays of Tanjong (George Town), the Jawi Peranakans or the Indian Muslims. In truth, our identities differ; this is no more evident than in what we eat.