Peranakan Recipe Illustrations

food illustration food illustrations ILLUSTRATION Peranakan Peranakan Food recipe recipe cards recipe illustration

Peranakan Recipe Illustration

for

Asian Civilisation Museum

I was commissioned by the Asian Civilisation Museum in Singapore to do a series of illustrated recipe cards for their social media pages.

These recipe cards were based on interviews with Peranakans in the local community, who talked about their family recipes. As a fellow Peranakan, I feel proud to have been able to work on this project.

These illustrations were also featured in the "Apa Khabair" pop-up exhibition celebrating local Peranakan heritage.

Aunty Kamala's tepung gomak recipe

Aunty Kamala and Purnima share a traditional dessert called tepung gomak. Their Chitty Melakan version evolved from a recipe that had passed down from various relatives and neighbours. This dessert is made with rice flour and filled with sweet coconut filling, then coated with mung bean flour.

Ingredients for Aunty Kamala's pulut inti recipe, a dessert made with glutinous rice and wrapped in banana leaves.

Recipe for Khadijah's kuah bamia.

It's a mutton stew with okra, and best eaten with fresh baguette slices! Khadijah uses her own special blend of spices

Baba LG Lye's hae bee hiam recipe

Hae bee hiam is a spicy shrimp condiment, made with dried shrimp and sambal. My own Peranakan grandmother used to manually pound the spices in a stone mortar - the sound would echo throughout the house.

Tanya's pindang recipe

The spices are ground by hand with a batu giling (a grinding stone) that comes with a rolling pin. Cooking the ground spices with coconut milk and tamarind turns it into rempah, a spicy paste.

There are variations of this spicy stew, depending on the seafood used. The more popular ones used are krill, prawns and salted fish. Pour the pindang over freshly cooked rice and roti jala (netted crepes) for a sumptuous Peranakan meal