A vibrant energy buzzed in the kitchen as Sharon Ann De Souza moved swiftly between her stove and preparation area, keeping a close eye on the two-day marinated duck drumsticks gently cooking in a deep oil bath while she pounded another batch of spices in her mortar and pestle for her next dish.
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This intricate dance lasted several hours, requiring her to frequently switch between the quiet focus needed to achieve the perfect balance of flavours and the physical exertion required to crush ingredients sufficiently to release their latent aromas – all while dressed in a finely embroidered Malacca Nyonya kebaya – a traditional Southeast Asian garment.
“Prior to this, I had no interest in cooking at all,” said De Souza, a former banker who is now considered by many in Malaysia’s burgeoning culinary scene as the standard-bearer for Malacca Peranakan cuisine.
As the eldest granddaughter and the closest living to her maternal grandmother, growing up in southern Malacca state, De Souza was given the unenviable responsibility of being the “scullery girl”. This role involved kitchen and household tasks on weekends when her grandmother prepared family feasts.
The extensive chopping and pounding of aromatics and spices, along with the days-long preparation required for many Peranakan dishes, as well as the considerable clean-up after cooking, were not activities she envisioned continuing as an adult.
“It was really coolie work. You are the dishwasher, mortar and pestle specialist … I wouldn’t know what she was cooking. She would just prepare the ingredients and say tumbuk,” De Souza said, using the Malay word for pound.