Peranakan Chinese

I am the third-generation business owner of Kim Choo Kueh Chang.

In this episode, I talk with Edmund about Joo Chiat's Peranakan heritage.

I'm Ken Delbridge, and this is the Hear Here Singapore podcast series on Joo Chiat.

[gentle music] In 2025, Time Out named Joo Chiat as one of the coolest streets in the world.

Now, when Singapore first gained independence, that's when our first political leaders, Dr. Fong Kim Heng, reached out to the community, the kampong dwellers in this neighborhood, and aided them to get a proper bank loan, especially my grandma, to service a shophouse along 60 Joo Chiat Place, and we've been based there ever since.

To clarify, the shophouse on East Coast Road is their main outlet, and the shophouse on Joo Chiat Place, which is just a few blocks away, is what Edmund calls their main factory.

And so up to my generation, we're third generation, we pride ourselves not so much as a food establishment, but very much about how we want to promote ourselves as a heritage brand promoting the Peranakan heritage.

Anyone who's watched Kim Choo's kueh lapis being made knows how labor-intensive it is.

Octoberfest coming in now.

Yeah, is it on that track where it's a, it's an overseas cultural event? It's not an Asian Singaporean, Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian, Peranakan.

It's, it's, it's, it's a food event that's not native to this part of the world.

You get a big ah.

Malaysian.

There's this, um, race in Malaysia called Peranakan.

Mm-hmm.

So I spoke to my grandparents growing up from my Malaysian side in Malay-

Yeah.

And what, what did you say it was called?

Peranakan.

Peranakan?

Now, when we think of high tea, right, we usually think of, you know, delicate finger sandwiches and scones with some clotted cream that probably come to mind.

But what happens when this classic afternoon tradition is reimagined through bold, comforting flavours of Peranakan cuisine? Well, for more information, Then 29 years, Chilli Padi has been serving and preserving and sharing Nonya cuisine and culinary heritage.

And now it's bringing all these beloved flavours to the high tea table with 14 handcrafted sweet and savoury creations.

And joining me now on Eat Drink Singapore to tell us more about this is Bing Cheng, who is Group Vice President of Chilli Padi.

Vice President at Chilli Padi.

Yeah.

For those who don't know us, we are a homegrown Peranakan dining group and we've been cooking Nonia food in Singapore for 29 years now.

Yeah.

But my destination is the old capital, thirty kilometers further north.

I need to see the Baba Nyonya houses before the rain forces me inside.

I park near Jonker Street, where the shophouses lean together like tired friends.

The architecture here is a layer cake of cultures: Portuguese red brick, Dutch gables, British columns, and Chinese woodwork.

I read the plaques, learning about the intricate embroidery, the complex cuisine, the rigid social codes.

The Peranakan culture is a fusion, a blend of Malay and Chinese traditions that created something entirely new.

It is visible in the food, in the clothing, in the very layout of these houses.

I spend an hour wandering the rooms, touching the cold wood of the railings.