DEATH BY DESSERT: SERIKAYA IN 16TH CENTURY MELAKA AND ITS TRANSMISSION TO PORTUGAL

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate about whether the dessert serikaya originated in Portugal or Southeast Asia.  This article proposes that an account about serikaya in 16^th Century Melaka from Oriental Ethiopia by João dos Santos supports the view that serikaya was present in Southeast Asia before the arrival of the Portuguese.  In the account, a woman attempts to kill the Bishop of Melaka with a dish of poisoned serikaya that is described in a way that indicates that the dessert was popular in Melaka but not known in Portugal.  According to a recipe note from the Convent of Santa Clara in Elvas, Portugal the recipe for the dessert was likely passed from Melaka to Goa to Portugal and adapted along the way.  The significance of this finding is that Ethiopia Oriental provides one the oldest extant sources about serikaya and lends support to the view that the cosmopolitan culinary culture of Melaka and Southeast Asia influenced the culinary culture of Portugal and beyond.