Wasn’t Chef Raymond afraid of the reaction of hardcore Peranakans, of the “fussypot” bibiks?
Chef Raymond exclaims, “Of course I had that initial fear! Like I said, Peranakans are fussy about their food because after cooking … [the bibiks always] go play cherki. And then they share recipes, they share food … And everybody will ask, ‘Why yours never cut nicely?’”
When he first launched his vegan dishes, these ladies would say, ‘Wah you do Peranakan [vegan] ah,’ and all these things … [but if] you ask all the older ladies to eat vegetarian, I tell you, they’ll stare at you, that killer look.”
However, as word got out, Chef Raymond’s vegetarian menu grew in such popularity that it comprises about 20% of his restaurant’s revenue today. Thanks to the vegan option, his restaurant even hosts a contingent of 20 to 30 monks who visit every week, still garbed in their saffron robes.
Surprisingly, “The first people who came to try this were the Peranakans,” Chef Raymond says. And they enjoyed it—which is, really, not surprising, given the quality of Chef Raymond’s spice blends and generous heapings of buah keluak.
The meat is after all only a vessel, a bearer of spice and sauce.
