Food of the Peranakan Indians

Growing up as a Chetti Melaka (Peranakan Indian), Tanya realised her family was different when she was seven or eight years old. Her family spoke Malay at home, ate sambal belacan, and had huge parties with a lot of unusual food. In this episode, Tanya talks with pride about the rituals of the ancestor worship known parachu and the cookbook containing traditional recipes of the Chetti Melaka community. 

A Peranakan Indian, Tanya Pillay-Nair is the coordinator of the cookbook Heritage Food of the Peranakan Indians in a Chitty Melaka Kitchen (Peranakan Indian Association of Singapore, 2023). The book contains close to 100 Peranakan Indian recipes, from everyday dishes to festive fare.

What Tanya Talked About

• 01:58 – Who the Chetti Melaka are, and where they are from
• 04:32 – How the Chetti Melaka are different from and similar to other communities
• 05:19 – The importance of food culture especially in ancestor worship known as parachu
• 10:04 – The language spoken by Chetti Melaka
• 10:37 – The musicality of the community and a version of the song Di Tanjong Katong commissioned by the Chetti Melaka (Peranakan Indians) Association (used with permission)
• 12:10 – The local community in Singapore and origins of the Chetti Melaka Association
• 15:00 – How the book Heritage Food of the Peranakan Indians came about
• 19:59 – Tanya’s background as a Chetti Melaka
• 23:11 – Classic Chetti Melaka dishes
• 24:44 – How the Chetti Melaka otak blangah is different from the usual otak-otak
• 26:29 – Reception of the book
• 29:06 – A must-try and simple dish in the cookbook
• 29:30 – The importance of preserving heritage food
• 30:11 – Food is…

Transcript and Resources

Read the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/food-peranakan-indians/transcript

Watch Tanya make otak blangah: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/videos/otak-blangah/

Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore: https://form.gov.sg/616799db4d9b61001398f79b

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by One Dash. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Tanya for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.