Food As Civilisation Food and the Politics of Identity Indigenous
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11 Foreword 19 Notes On spelling 20 My Journey To This Book People, Space Indigenous Food as Food and the and Place Ingenuity Civilisation Politics of Identity ch. 1 | 22 Setting Sail: ch. 4 | 98 Rustic Trails: ch. 10 | xxx Elok: ch. 14 | xxx Where Monsoons Meet: Malays and their World The Way of the Forager The Aesthetics of Malay Cuisine An Arena of Cultural Exchanges ch. 2 | 46 Singapore, A Nusantara Kitchen: ch. 5 | 122 Rich Harvest, Ocean Bounty: ch. 11 | xxx Lyric Flavours: ch. 15 | xxx Mother Culture: The Kampung Gelam Hearth Malay Crops, Livestock and Fishing Food in Verse, Tale and Song Shifting Borders of Malay Cuisine ch. 3 | 76 In Gardens and Lakes of Plenty: ch. 6 | 156 A Repertoire of Techniques: ch. 12 | xxx Symbolism and Mythology: ch. 16 | xxx Epilogue Ecologies of Taste Preservation and Preparation When Tradition Beckons The Future of Malay Food ch. 7 | xxx Culinary Curiosity Cabinet: ch. 13 | xxx Scenes from Malay Feasts: Tools and Implements Rituals and Observances ch. 8 | xxx Food As Medicine: The Healing Earth ch. 9 | xxx Dainties and Delights: More Than A Palate Cleanser xxx Afterword: On the Power of Remembering xxx Appendix Foreword In February 2002, the Sunday Times Singapore interviewed me for a feature story while I was in town for the World Gourmet Summit. The article’s title, ‘Mad About Malay Food’, perfectly captured my appreciation for the cuisine. My first encounter with Malay food had taken place many years before that, when my friend Violet Oon invited me to lunch at her home. Her chef prepared a wonderful meal, which I have never forgotten. I am most grateful to her for the experience. Malay food reflects the unique geographic advantages of the Malay Archipelago. The tropical clime and rich volcanic soil provide an abundance of flora and fauna for local chefs to experiment on. Not least among its advantages are the spices that motivated Europeans to travel the world. Whereas others had to use these precious spices sparingly in their cooking, the Malays have always had it in relative abundance. These factors have given Malay food the multiple textures and daring flavours I love. Added to this is the advantage that the Nusantara has on the vital sea routes between China to the northeast, and India, the Middle East and Europe to the west. This has allowed Malay chefs to add the icing of multiple foreign influences to their already flavourful creations. When tasting a Malay dish, you are tasting a region, and you are tasting the world. While much has been written about the history and culture of the Malays, there has been a gap in the literature about Malay food in its cultural, historical and anthropological context. This book by Khir Johari addresses that gap, and is arguably one of the most comprehensive studies of Malay food. Khir aptly describes Singapore as a Nusantara kitchen, given its position as a key hub of the Archipelago. 11 We see a whole range of Malay food here, from the elaborate and laborious, to the lightly cooked ones, not dissimilar to my cuisine naturelle, with an emphasis on flavour and freshness. Khir shows that Singapore has never just been a recipient of this cuisine. It was – and continues to be – a cosmopolitan innovator, blending ingredients from near and far in new experiments, creating dishes such as the now-familiar favourites, Mee Rebus and Mee Siam. Khir’s book provides us a deeper understanding of Malays themselves. It is a story of how an ingenious people have been able to tap into the advantages of their location between mountain and sea, and their maritime connections, to create a cuisine that is typical of who they are as a people – warm and engaging; willing to experiment and eager to please. Khir has written a most interesting book that bridges between the world of cookbooks on the one hand, and the world of scholarship on the other. — Anton Mosimann obe, dl THAILAND BURMA SIAM VIETNAM Manila MAP O F Bangkok THE CAMBODIA PHILIPPINES KHMER The Malay Archipelago Phnom Penh A N D VICINITY Ho Chi Minh Palawan Cebu Ligor SOUTH SULU CHINA SEA Phuket Mindanao Pattani SEA S Kudat Zamboanga T R Kedah Kelantan A Sandakan I SABAH T Penang Terengganu O Kota F Perak M A L A Y BRUNEI Kinabalu Aceh M A Selangor L P E N I N S U L A A C Kuala Lumpur Pahang C Sibu Medan A Negeri Sembilan Malacca SARAWAK Batak Land Manado Halmahera Pulau Johor Kuching Minangkabau Bengkalis Ternate MAP Highlands SINGAPORE Equator Siak BORNEO R INSET RIAU A Pariaman Kutai S Pontianak S KALIMANTAN M Padang A Jambi K Pulau A Pulau Siberut M Bangka O SUMATRA F SULAWESI O Palembang T CELEBES I L A R Banjarmasin T Ambon INDIAN Bengkulu S U Makassar JAVA SEA C Jakarta O CEAN (Batavia) BANDA BAWEAN C Banten Cirebon Semarang SEA Madura A J A V Surabaya A Solo Larantuka S LEGEND Bali Sumbawa Labuhanbajo Yogyakarta Lombok Dili Tutuala Port Denpasar Sape Flores Christmas Island Taliwang EAST TIMOR Port City (Australia) Waingapu Timor Capital Sumba Kupang Setting Sail: The Malays and Their World These competing definitions of Malayness suggested Republic.22 In 1615, a year before William Shakespeare died, that a sure answer remained elusive, and even led to the Sultan of Aceh – Iskandar Muda – wrote a sumptuous absurd descriptions by the colonial officials like Frank letter to King James I of England in Malay. 23 Swettenham, a Resident-General of the Malay States. By the 17th century, even the historically non-Malay- A ‘real Malay’, to him, had a “kindly” disposition, was speaking courts – like Ternate in the Maluku, and the “polite” and “courageous and trustworthy”, though also Sultanate of Banten in Java – were using the Malay “extravagant” and “very superstitious”.17 It didn’t seem language to communicate with Europeans. In this way, to occur to Swettenham that each Malay was a unique even historically hostile enemies of the Malay courts, such individual with different dispositions. as the Javanese, came to participate in the Archipelago’s But the Malay world was not just a mere figment of the Malay-language-based political network. Europeans’ imagination. It was and remains a cultural In this language, the Malays shared a common literature. region based on some shared elements: a common language, They were acquainted with the same heroes, like Iskandar a shared literature, similar customs, dress and beliefs, and, Zulkarnain (Alexander the Great) from the Sulalatus Salatin as we shall see, a shared cuisine. and the Hikayat Raja Iskandar Zulkarnain. Tales of Seri Rama, Raffles’ perception of it as a ‘nation’ with a common which were Malay iterations of the Indian Ramayana epic, language did reflect some historical reality. Through were widely popular across the Malay world up until the conquest and diplomacy, the 15th-century Sultanate of 19th century.24 The romances of Panji, which originated in Melaka absorbed outlying courts into its orbit as part of Java but became a staple of oral traditions across Southeast a unified “Malay trading system”.18 From the period of the Asia, were widely performed as opera pieces known as Sultanate’s pre-eminence, the spread of bazaar Malay as a bangsawan, well into the 20th century in the cities of trade language, and the adoption of a more sophisticated Malaya, including Singapore. W.E. Maxwell, a scholar- register of Malay by the royal courts, began. This was a administrator of British Malaya, once observed how “a role Malay continued to play centuries after Melaka’s fall small reward, a hearty welcome, and a good meal await the in 1511, as other maritime sultanates emerged, like Johor Malay rhapsodist wherever he goes, and he wanders among and Aceh. the Malay villages as Homer did among the Greek cities”. 25 The eminent sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas argued The people of the Malay Archipelago also seemed to that the role of Malay as a common language across the have a similar set of customs and traditions, including region can be attributed to the dominance of Malays dress. In the 19th century, male aristocrats in the Malay- in shipping and the power of the coastal Malay trading speaking courts were recorded donning a loose-fitting, states.19 Francois Valentijn, a Dutch historian of the long-sleeved shirt called the baju, long trousers and a East Indies, recorded that the Malay language acted as a sarong wrapped around their waist.26 Malay women were lingua franca, comparable to French and Latin in Europe. recorded wearing a buttonless open-front blouse that was 35 In those days, unless one could speak Malay, one was “not long and loose, called the kebaya.27 When the embassy considered a very broadly educated man in the East”.20 of the Johor-Riau Sultanate arrived in Dutch Batavia in Despite the variety of regional languages spoken in the 1822, the Bugis envoys “dressed in the Malay way, with different corners of the Archipelago, diplomatic letters golden waist-belts, golden sheaths and trousers and shirts were mostly composed in Malay. William Marsden, in of mail, with ornaments of gold, each of them having his Grammar of the Malayan Language, described a “striking attendants carrying their betel-boxes and long kerises”.28 consistency in the style of writing, not only of books in Association with a Malay court and culture endowed the prose and verse, but also of epistolary correspondence”.21 Bugis with prestige. This indicates that although Malays So accustomed were these rulers to using the Malay were one ethnic group out of many in the region, theirs language in diplomatic exchange that they adopted it in was the cultural standard which other groups adopted to their correspondence with European rulers.