Annabel Jackson, who received one of the first grants from the Guild’s Fellowship Fund, has this update for Guild members.

‘My unique research area had moved from Macanese cuisine – the indigenous cooking of Macau – to a broader exploration of Portuguese culinary influence in Asia. I have also begun to explore the ways in which broader Asian cuisines, with Portuguese influence, have interacted with each other. To this end, I was particularly keen to explore the cooking of the Kristang (Christian-Portuguese) community of Malacca. It was for this research trip that I was delighted to receive funding.

‘In Malacca, in addition to Malay cuisine, very important is the Nyona-Baba cooking, simplified as the cuisine of early Chinese immigrants who married locally. Later, when the Portuguese arrived (1511), they also intermarried and so Kristang cooking traditions were born. I was immediately struck how this cooking in so many ways mirrors Macanese cooking, just with the rempah added. I was particularly lucky to meet Chef Melba, who is perhaps the only Kristang chef working professionally; and to see how Kristang cooking within the tourism mix has brought visibility – and livelihoods – to this almost forgotten community. I am really keen to go back to explore further but also: I need to go to Goa!’