The Nyonya kitchen goddess likes it fresh

Kee conducts cooking classes in Penang and often takes her students to the wet markets, where she says the produce is the freshest. Photos: Pearly’s Nyonya Pantry

Growing up in Penang, Pearly Kee has visceral memories of her grandparents’ home, which boasted a garden filled with a cornucopia of herbs and spices. Both her grandparents had green fingers and the robust garden bloomed with a fertile abundance of bunga telang, kaffir lime, kaduk, pandan, guavas and papayas.

Kee’s family also stressed the importance of eating well to live well, underlining the health and medicinal properties of each and every plant – useful knowledge which was passed down to the young Kee, and which she has retained to this day.