Not long ago, the housemate and I were invited along to the taste preview of the new Nyonya Buffet that was recently unveiled and launched on the 23rd of October. But before I dive into the actual food, do you know what nyonya is?

Very quickly, the fusion of cultures in Tanah Melayu (now known as Malaysia) led to the birth of a unique group. Known as the Baba and Nyonya community to locals, they are also known as the Peranakan. This fusion comes from the marriage of Chinese and Malay cultures, where they assimilate the Malay way of life (speech, dress, and cooking) while still keeping the Chinese traditions alive. The culture is incredibly colourful and there are traces of Dutch, Portuguese, British, Indian and Indonesian influences that can be found within their customs and culture. So how does this translate to food?

I had my first taste of Nyonya cuisine when I visited Melaka (or Malacca). I remember explosions of flavours, of sweet, of sour and of a very colourful culture and rich tradition behind it all. I loved it. So when Li from Chilli Padi had the idea to bring a nyonya buffet to Melbourne, I was very happy. It brought back memories of childhood, it brought back nostalgia. Most importantly, it brought back joy. Now that’s what food should be about.

We arrived at Chilli Padi and my very first sight was of the Tok Panjang which means Long Table Feast. It refers to the long table that the Peranakans prefer to use over the round tables that the Chinese do. (I personally prefer round tables since that way there’s a higher chance of talking to everybody.. but that’s not really the point here!). Soon after everybody had arrived, we took our seats and the feast began.

I do mean it when I say feast. It started with a simple platter of different sauces (shown above) which includes Cincalok Acar, Lobak Chilli Sauce and Sambal Belachan.

Then the dishes started to rain on the table. I’m not going to try and list everything, but will point out some of the highlights. Some of my dining companions have done a very intensive and detailed report on the night, so I will be linking to their reports at the end of this. Meanwhile, here’s my highlights (or lowlights!)

We had rempah udang amongst the starters, and you need to stop and understand the complexity of this dish before you can fully comprehend the nature of it and appreciate it in its entirety. Each green packet you see on the plate is made from banana leaves, individually stuffed with glutinous rice and a spicy prawn sambal. It is then grilled over charcoal. Or at least the traditional ones are. I’m not sure if the ones at Chilli Padi had been. I had some issues with this dish, unfortunately. It looked right, it smelled right but unfortunately while it had all the right flavours, there wasn’t quite enough of it. A more heavy hand with the spicy prawn sambal would have help balance the dryness of the rice. On that note, it was also (unfortunately) a tad too dry.

This was a beautiful dish. The tumeric achat fish was definitely a highlight. The deep fried whiting with bones that I could easily crunch into brought me back to my childhood with startling pace. I remembered how dad used to fry them and watch over us while we (rather reluctantly) ate the lot. Why didn’t I like this as a kid? This was amazing! The salty, sweet, sour and spicy sauce hit every single joy note and by the end of it I was singing. Inside of course.

Another beauty was the Sambal Udang Petai. I remember petai from my childhood days. We call them smelly beans. This dish is made of beautiful prawns tossed in Sambal, or chilli paste along with these green beans and together they made an absolutely mouthwatering dish. Not to mention the generous amount of prawns. I went crazy on this!

We are slightly out of chronological order here – this is a starter dish, called kueh pie ti (top hats) – It consist of pastry cups which are deep fried to be crunchy and crisp. It is then stuffed with shredded vegetables. Unfortunately, this dish also turns soggy pretty quickly, so it is quite a hard dish to serve. Alongside the other dishes, this one paled in comparison. While pretty to look at, it wasn’t quite tasty enough and not quite crunchy enough. Not really sure how to prevent the shells from turning soggy quite so quickly, especially if it’s at a buffet – perhaps a rather risky dish to be trying out.

There were way more dishes like Ikan Assam Pedas and Ayam Pong Tay. Too many to list them all in the one blog post. The curries were incredibly tasty and I really liked them. But what stood out was the Kari Kapitan. Beautifully golden, incredibly tasty and wonderfully fragrant. Another winner in my books which unfortunately has no photo. If you want to know how it looks like, I suggest going down to Chilli Padi and booking yourself in for the Nyonya Buffet!

Pictured is the Kobis Lemak. Unfortunately slightly one dimensional and not very exciting. My housemate liked it, however. So always bear in mind that reviews such as these are subjective.

Thank god for palate cleansers! After awhile, all the coconut heavy curries tend to weigh heavy on the palate. So out came the Ju Hu Cha and I couldn’t help but marvel at how different nyonya cooking is , even with vegetables! The vegetables were tender and the dried cuttlefish throughout the dish added depth, texture and flavours to the dish. Another highlight.

Dessert was three different courses. It consisted of Bubur Cha cha, Cheng Tang and Kueh Bengka. Of the three, the most notable was the kueh bangka. The bubur chacha wasn’t rich enough for my liking, most notably, it lacked the sago pearls that I always add to mine. The Cheng Tang wasn’t sweet enough and even with the addition of the goji berries, the white fungus and other usual components of the cheng tang, was still quite bland. (I’ll make my version to show on the blog some time soon!). But the kueh was good. So good I had to steal another slice. Mmmm.

I’m hungry just writing this post up!

Thank you Robert and Li for your generosity and your invite. I will be back again to try the nyonya buffet once more!

Nyonya Buffet @ Chilli Padi

Location: Chillipadi Melbourne Central
Time: Sat and Sun 12 and 1.30 for lunch and 6 and 7.30 for dinner.
Cost per head: $45pp

Booking is essential
Email: booking@chillipadi.com.au

What my Dining Companions had to say:

The Chronicles of Ms Ihua
Pepper, Salt, Sugar, Spice
Jeroxie

Chillipadi

(03) 9663 5688
Shop Oe7 Menzies Aly Little Lonsdale St
Melbourne, 3000
Web: Chilli Padi