Belanda Ayam

I first came to know of the word "belanda" from one of my YouTube subscribers. She asked if I have tried "belanda hu". "Hu" is a Penang Hokkien word meaning fish. "Belanda" is a Malay word for "Dutch". She explained to me that her mother used to make "belanda hu" in her family. According to her, it is a Penang nyonya dish. However, I have never heard of such a dish or seen it at a nyonya restaurant that I have eaten in Penang.

Intrigue by this newly found dish introduced by my YouTube subscriber, I spent more time researching the word "belanda" and the type of "nyonya" belanda dishes cooked by some nyonya families. The linguistic word "belanda" and its origin is not clear. Here is an article if you are interested to know more.

After some research, this type of nyonya dish is a sweet and sour dish with 2 key ingredients, tamarind for the sourness and sweet from sugar and caramlised onions or shallots.

I thought I will create this dish for the first time and see what it tastes like. I used chicken as my main protein. I used 3 shallots, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 chicken thigh fillets, 1 knob of tamarind pulp mixed with water to make tamarind paste, 1 tablespoon of brown bean paste, 1 tablespoon of light and dark soy sauce, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

My verdict. The flavour is mildly aromatic from the fried shallots and garlic, sweet and sour, with slight saltiness from the brown bean paste and soy sauce. Below is a short video on the first attempt. I will make a slight modification for a more robust flavour in my coming up YouTube video.