Home Comfort

i just came back from a reunion dinner with my mom’s side, and it was filled with such comfort, like free-falling into your own bed at the end of every day.

the conversations were a mangling of English and Malay, or English interspersed with malay lingo or even idiosyncrasies. words like “kurang ajar” (not sure if i spelt it correctly) will never be used by any of my friends, hence our speech served to remind us how different we were from others, and yet the same as everyone else at home; it reinforced my identity as a half-peranakan time and time again. (maybe this is the main reason why i dislike being cheena, because it tends to sweep my peranakan heritage under the carpet, which is much, much closer to home.)

and i have not even gotten down to the food - nyonya curry, beef rendang, ayam assam, ponteh, etc. it was such comfort food: home cooked goodness, and the spicy, sweet and sour were such a delight to my senses.

i cannot wait for (a not so) chinese new year to arrive, where my feasting on peranakan food ensues.