Life Lessons in A

BIBLIOASIA JAN - MAR 2019 VOL. 14 ISSUE 04 FEATURE (Facing page) The writer’s mother Madam Devaki Nair (left) and grandaunt Madam Salachi Retnam in LIFE 1991, with some of the Indian Peranakan dishes they had prepared using recipes that were passed down through oral tradition. Pegang tangan, or touch of LESSONS hand, ensured that the right quantities of ingredients were used and nothing was wasted. Image source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. IN A Reprinted with permission. (Right) Group photo of Indian Peranakan girls, some wearing the baju panjang, 1910–1925. Lee Brothers Studio Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore. (Below right) A typical Indian Peranakan house in Kampung Chetti, or Chetty Village, at Jalan Gajah Berang in Malacca. The front porch of the house is called thinnai, where strangers are allowed to rest or spend the night. This tradition is not practised by other South Indians in Singapore and Malaysia. Image reproduced from Dhoraisingam, S.S. (2006). Peranakan Indians of Singapore and Melaka: Indian Melaka Babas and Nonyas – Chitty Melaka (p. 23). Singapore. (Call no.: RSING 305.8950595 SAM). greatly reducing wastage – from the food preparation stage right through to the quantity served. KitchenThrift, hard work and resilience It was anathema in our family to are qualities that can be nurtured write down recipes. Everything was through food. Chantal Sajan passed down through the generations recalls the legacy of her grandaunt. by agak-agak (guesswork). If you got it wrong, you had to finish your mess yourself – and God forbid any chucking Chantal Sajan is a sub-editor with Singapore of food down the rubbish chute. Press Holdings. She currently works in the Food wastage is such a cardinal sin newsroom of The Business Times. in Chetty Melaka kitchens that – even to this day – the matriarchs would consume the leftover food themselves rather guru in everything fragrant, aromatic and According to her granddaughter (and than invoke the wrath of Annapurni, the downright mouth-watering relating to my cousin) Madam Susheela, Achi Atha There was a time – before the invention of resident kitchen deity of Chetty Melaka food after my grandmother had passed would wake up at the crack of dawn to modern kitchen miracles such as electric families, who although dress and speak on in the 1980s. make sure breakfast, lunch and dinner blenders and KitchenAid – when Chetty like Malays, are staunch Hindus. The In 1991, she was the subject of were taken care of, and then she would Melaka1 families in Singapore plated up a goddess, we were all taught even before a cover story by food writer Violet Oon prepare the “kueh menu” for the day. tveritable cornucopia of Indian Peranakan we grew our front teeth, presides over for her culinary magazine, The Food “Atha would gather bunga telang dishes on a very tight budget, using the the making of food, so every precious Paper. Ms Oon interviewed my grand- (butterfly pea flowers) to extract its blue simplest of kitchen utensils. morsel wasted is an insult to her. aunt and my mother on the fading art of dye for popular desserts like pulut inti and There were the lesung (granite mor- Because of this, we grew up valuing Indian Peranakan cuisine, together with kueh dadah, and then she would prepare tar, usually sold with a matching granite money even more – that by cleaning our photographer-turned-food writer K.F. inti (grated coconut cooked with gula pestle) – the “eclectic blenders” of the plates, we were building up our store of Seetoh, who also shot a few photos for melaka and pandan leaves) to be used era – which could pulverise, mash up and merit by honouring the work of those our family album. as fillings for these desserts, all of which liquefy almost any ingredient known to who had slaved in the kitchen all day to Achi Atha, as we called our grand- were usually made “a la minute” when an man. With such simple but sturdy early- put food on the table and also to those aunt (atha is the Tamil word for “grand- unexpected guest dropped by,” she said. day “appliances”, one hardly needed who worked all day to make it possible mother”, making no distinction between Even in such frugal times as between the KitchenAid either. And there was no to buy the produce and the ingredients grandmother and grandaunt), was born the two world wars, Achi Atha always had need to go to the gym too: the arduous in the first place. at the turn of the century in 1903, a something homemade and sweet on hand pounding made sure one had quite a This deeply ingrained value would, British subject who lived with her uncle for guests. “No one was allowed to leave workout – to say nothing of toned arms. in our later lives, hold us in good stead in Katong after her parents passed on without a drink or a dessert,” said Madam Through skilful time management, when we procured ingredients from the early in her life. Susheela. “That was the custom in our the freshest produce and a system of supermarket, mentally calculating how Achi Atha came under the care of her ancestors’ homes, which has continued cooking that entailed pegang tangan much we needed to prepare our dishes unmarried uncle and his sisters, and was in our lives until this present day.” (touch of hand), the matriarchs of without buying in excess – so that food taught the intricacies of Chetty Melaka For Hindus, the mantra “the guest Chetty Melaka kitchens prepared food did not sit in the fridge and spoil. traditions. She lived through World War I is God” – from the Sanskrit Atithi devo that hardly needed refrigeration, with I can still remember my grandaunt as well as the Japanese Occupation of Bhavah – has manifested in the age-old their uncanny sense of pegang tangan Salachi Retnam, who became my mother’s Singapore during World War II. Chetty Melaka practice of honouring any 32 33 BIBLIOASIA JAN - MAR 2019 afternoon. Their shoes, which matched kitchen Zen, on a level beyond the abilities their kebaya outfits, were embellished of lesser neophytes, who can only pore with indigenous beaded designs in a over recipe books, trying to cook by rote. recurring leitmotif. For the interview with Violet Oon, in Even when she was well into her just one morning, my mother had whipped mid-90s, when she turned up early in the up a chicken curry, a dry-fry mutton morning to advise my mother on the finer Mysore dish, a fish stew, ikan panggang points of cooking ayam buah keluak,3 my (grilled fish), stir-fried vegetables, Indian grandaunt parlayed raw produce, fowl Peranakan chap chye (braised mixed veg- and grains into scented rice, rich, curries etables), fragrant basmati rice, a range of and melt-in-the-mouth desserts without yogurt accompaniments made with mint breaking a sweat. and pomegranates, and desserts – rich, The perfume du jour since the early chocolate cake and Malay-style coconut 1900s among Chetty Melaka women was candy. My grandaunt’s disciple had truly none other than that must-have curio of come into her own. scents, the 4711 Eau de Cologne – and Nothing goes to waste, true to the my grandaunt literally bathed in it. She teachings of my grandaunt – as after Good books and great coffee share something in common: they keep you wide also swore that it fended off almost every the photo shoot, there were takeaway awake at night. Flow: The Psychology of malady known to man– from cooling the boxes on hand for everyone as well Optimal Experience Artist Kwan Boon Choon pairs his love for reading and caffeine by creating art by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi body down to curing insomnia and even as another round of guests in the eve- out of coffee and inspired by books. An advertisement for the 4711 Eau de Cologne. the common cold. Now, how many of us ning that my mother had scheduled The Happiness Project Chetty Melaka women swore by this cologne which can boast that our French perfume can earlier that day – to finish up every last The National Reading Movement unveils eight of Kwan’s unique coffee by Gretchen Rubin they used to treat almost every malady. Image multitask like that in the sweltering Asian grain of pandan-infused and cardamom- artworks – based on books available for loan using the NLB Mobile App. The Intelligent Investor reproduced from The Straits Times Annual, 1936, heat? That tiny bottle of Eau de Cologne, and cinnamon-enhanced basmati rice p. 11. by Benjamin Graham conceived in 1792 in Germany, certainly and curries. Kwan’s coffee artworks are on display at selected Kith outlets punched way above its weight. Achi Atha passed on two years Kiss That Frog!: 12 Great Ways to guest with warm hospitality and food By the early 1980s, my mother had after that great repast, followed by my (kith.com.sg) from now until 12 February 2019. Turn Negatives into Positives in and drink, even if they visit our homes already become quite the exponent of mother six years later. But their teach- Your Life and Work 2 by Brian Tracy & Christina Stein unannounced. Chetty Melaka women this Indian sub-culture’s cuisine. She had ings and their culinary values have gone Visit any Kith outlet during this period, download are known not only for their Malay-Indian learnt how to prepare curry powder – not on to inspire every other aspect of their an ebook on the NLB Mobile app and receive a The Little Book of Skin Care dishes but also for their Straits-influenced from store-bought packets – by manually children’s, grandchildren’s and great- by Charlotte Cho grooming and attire.

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