BibikJee’s Nyonya Flavours Preserves Peranakan Culinary Legacy in Melaka

MELAKA, 14 November 2026 – A Melaka-based food venture called BibikJee's Nyonya Flavours has been launched by two siblings to keep alive the cooking legacy of their late mother. Isabel and Darien Lau founded the brand after Isabel promised her dying mother they would never forget her, and that their young children would grow up knowing what a remarkable cook she was. The company sells jarred versions of Jeanie Lau's most celebrated Peranakan condiments, including her signature cili garam and sambal tumis, transforming family recipes into a commercial enterprise.

Jeanie Lau grew up in a Peranakan family as the fourth of seven children, learning to cook from her mother and aunts from an early age. She built a parallel career as a nurse and midwife at a government hospital in Melaka, where she was known not just for her medical work but also for her impressive range of Peranakan dishes, from pongteh and asam prawns to sup itik tim. Her children say her cili garam and sambal tumis were unlike anything else they had tasted. The commercial opportunity arose after Darien opened Nenijee's Nyonya Kitchen restaurant in February 2024 with their father, following a pandemic-era food delivery business called The Native Cook. Restaurant visitors kept asking to buy the homemade sambals to take home, prompting the siblings to start packaging them commercially.