The mega melodrama 'Little Nonya' was indeed channel 8's biggest accomplishment as its their first period drama featuring the Peranakan life and it has influenced the majority's interest in the Peranankan culture. Sadly, to Peranankans themselves, this drama is deemed too overdramatic and it sort of sterotypically misrepresented Baba family as 'the rich and powerful' and old bibiks to be 'evil'. Well, we cant please everyone with the same frequency isnt it?
My interest in Peranankan culture started during my sec sch days. On our annual racial harmony day, we were free to dress up in traditional ethic wear and some of my classmates wore cheongsams (boring!), ukatas aka summer cotton kimonos(poor looking designs) and kebayas! Yep, their kebayas were passed down from their grandmothers and its embroidery is soo pretty! Few years later, i attended the Peranankan Festival held at the Asian Civilisation Museum, featuring Peranakan food, music and culture. Of cos, more ladies in kebayas to admire! haha. that was when i'm determined to own a set and now i've got 5 ranging from 'sulam bertabur' to 'kebaya rendah'! *grinz*
I managed to dig these old piccys taken by a camera phone.
Peranankan delicacies in buffet style so just grab as much as u can!
chit chatting and dancing happily away with the music in the bkgrd..
Having stayed at Katong district for nearly 10 years, Peranankans culture aint foreign to me as its sth i get close with everyday. In the next few wks, i'll be shifting permanently to another district, which is damn foreign. I'll miss katong like crap but i certainly wont miss e place i'm putting up at nw. tat place is cursed/spooked. big tme.
Since i prolly wont be back to Katong any soon, i decided to pop by at Kim Choo for dinner while i'm still a Katong-rean.lolz.If you can still remem the restaurant by Yueniang(Jeanette Aw) in the last episode of 'Little Nonya', its right here!
Was feeling rather full that day, so we ordered sth homecooked tat is light/digestable and when i'm free someday maybe i'll pop down again to try other spicy dishes.Generally, thumbs up for all those i've ordered. The asam tastes really great btw, i'm a big fan of asam sauce! The omelette is puffy and airy but a tad too oily, anyway i like!
Right up to second floor, its Kim Choo's museum which sells collectables and antiques ranging from glassware, ornaments and clothes. Yep, to me the most interesting part of Baba culture is abt their fashion. I got my antique kebayas from Kim Choo and they are passed down by baba families from Malacca.
I was taught how to differentiate between Antique/Modern kebayas. During the early
40s ,antique kebayas used rubiah and/or voile as their base material, either plain pastel or with ready made embroidery. All kebayas are made-to-measure, so i am fortunate to get those pieces tt fits me perfectly. In kebaya making, only european imported threads are used for embroidery because as compared to today's, european threads do not fade with time and their fibres are more intact. All these materials i've mentioned ceased to exist today, tt's y a piece of kebaya can be so costly. An antique kebaya normally have 'ketok lobang' done at the seams using a SINGER sewing machine which of cos u dun see it in a modern piece. The biku biku are all hand/machine embroidered those days and of a better standard. Modern kebayas are a total replica and uses only cotton material with more stiff looking embroidery and it costs a bomb. So no point.
Peranakans believe that passing down their belongings is as gd as giving their good fortune in this lifetime to their decendents (no shoes definitely!).Unfortunately, bibi Belinda is not ard cos she's the one who shared with me alot on the Peranankan culture else we can share a pic. =)
These are the spices which are added into rice dumplings, the Peranankans termed it as 'Kueh Chang' instead of 'Bak Chang'. Kim Choo is famous for their kueh chang especially the Nyonya Chang (my fav). Sidetrack alittle...i still have no idea if Nonya or Nyonya is correct term. =x okay..nvm abt tt.
We bought a few mini size nyonya, dried shrimps, some XO flavoured meat dumplings which i forgotten and Rembah Udang! I'm sure you heard of this pretty often in that melodrama. No pics on them lah..too lazy to snap.
Okay..i still have loads to share but my fingers are getting tired and i shall end here. Come talk to me if u wish to noe more! haha.cheerios!
posted by chii~ @ 11:43 AM
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