THIS November, Aliyaa, in collaboration with The Minority Taste, invites diners to discover a cuisine shaped by journeys across the Indian Ocean and lovingly kept alive around family tables.
“Ja Minissu: The Malays of Ceylon” brings Sri Lankan Malay chef and culinary storyteller Ruzaina Hadgie to Aliyaa for four evenings: two in Kuala Lumpur and two in Penang.
For Malaysian diners, the story may feel like meeting a long-lost relative: the names and aromas are familiar, yet the flavours have evolved into a world of their own.
From the 17th century, people from across the Indonesian archipelago arrived in Ceylon under Dutch rule, followed later by others from the Malay Peninsula under British rule.
Over generations, their descendants made Sri Lanka home, preserving traditions and also adapting recipes to local ingredients.
The food that emerged carries echoes of South-East Asia while belonging unmistakably to Sri Lanka – it is where pandan, lemongrass and coconut meet roasted curry powder, curry leaves and chilli.
Sri Lankan Malay cuisine offers a repertoire far beyond dishes most visitors encounter.
There is babath puruth, a spiced tripe and offal curry enjoyed with pittu; daging chuka, beef cooked with vinegar, spices and onions, and sathay daging, the community’s take on beef satay.
There are savoury pastries known as pastol, fragrant rice dishes and the sharpness of Malay achcharu.
Sweets include serikaya –known in Sri Lanka as watalappam – and dark, glossy dodol.
These dishes represent the broader tradition; the event menu will be announced separately.
For Ruzaina, food has always been a family affair. Her parents worked as professional chefs in Kuwait.
With her grandmother and grandaunt in Sri Lanka, Ruzaina developed a deep connection to the Malay dishes she grew up eating.
The family kitchens inspired her to found The Minority Taste, a platform devoted to sharing Sri Lanka’s food traditions and culinary stories with a wider audience.
At Aliyaa, Ruzaina will share a cuisine close to her heritage with a Malaysian audience that shares part of its history across the water.
The “Ja Minissu: The Malays of Ceylon” menu is available for dinner at Aliyaa Kuala Lumpur in Bukit Damansara on Nov 25 and 26, and at Aliyaa Penang in George Town on Nov 29 and 30.
For reservations, call 017-883 3738 (KL outlet)/ 012-653 8603 (Penang outlet).
