Nyonya

Mellifluous Nyonya specializes in the food of the Peranakan people, the descendants of Chinese immigrants to the Straits Settlements in the Malay Archipelago. (Feel free to consult a map; we did.)


Our recent lunch there began with roti canai, a thin and crumpled pancake accompanied by curry chicken sauce (and demonstrating an overarching Indian influence on the cuisine). Everyone in the restaurant seemed to order this: it's addictively tasty but so light that you don't feel bad tearing off yet another piece.


We ordered one fiery dish --- the mee siam noodles with shrimp and chilis --- and one sweet dish, chicken with mangoes and peppers. Taking a bite of each was like getting a snapshot of Malyasian food as a whole, with its emphasis on sugar and spice. Plus, the two dishes gave us a really fun "a little from column A, a little from column B" taste sensation.