Chinese cuisine in Malaysia is punctuated by historical points. The earliest Chinese traders arrived in Malaysia around the 14th century, and those who stayed on ended up marrying local women, giving birth to the Peranakan communities that sprouted out of these unions.
Peranakan food borrows from Chinese ancestry but mainly takes its roots from the matriarchs of the families, which meant a mish-mash of flavours and influences, resulting in dishes like chap chye, ayam buah keluak and ayam pongteh.
