Nonya Buah Keluak Cuisine

Having watched Wild Rice's play "Emily of Emerald Hill", I've always been curious about buah keluak dishes, which are quintessentially Peranakan~ 🌸 The raw seeds contain deadly poisonous cyanide ☠️ and the complex process of curing the seeds is becoming a dying art. It's not common to see eateries serving this Peranakan specialty (I think the other veg eateries I know of are Botanict and Whole Earth), so I finally decided to give it a try! We were given teaspoons to scoop out the contents from the 4 buah keluak seed shells. The dense, oily, and creamy paste was earthy and umami, somewhat reminiscent of black olives or fermented black beans. 🖤 Definitely an acquired taste (my non-veg family members were completely divided over whether they liked it 😂), but I could see why it's called the truffle of the East! The other ingredients swimming in the gravy were shiitake mushrooms and puffed gluten mock meat; would have liked a slightly more generous serving of these ingredients given the price tag. 🍄 (Allium-free, $26 Regular) #sgvegan #chinesefood #peranakan #nyonya #buahkeluak

love buah keluak because such nonya cuisine is so hard to find in veg restaurant! Use a tiny spoon or the backing of teaspoon to scoop the ingredients out of the nut shell. It’s of salty sort of taste (咸). Goes very well with rice. Go try it if you have not try before!