JAMES LOUIE

CLAIRE KNOX Wrote “Green Dreams,” Wrote and photographed “Turning the Tide,”

deputy editor relished the chance to combine his love of heritage, languages, and food for this issue’s story on the Kristang, the smallest ethnic minority in Malaysia. “I’d known about the Kristang people and their creole language for a couple of years, though I had trouble tracking them down when I visited Malacca for the first time back in 2015. The highlight for me on this trip was spending a good number of hours with celebrity chef Melba Nunis. She was extraordinarily passionate about her Kristang roots, and proved instrumental in plugging me into the tight-knit local community. Learning to cook her generations-old recipes and then eating those dishes afterward was a major bonus. One of the first things I did the weekend after returning from Malacca was to try my hand at making fried mackerel fillets with sambal binagre, my favorite Kristang dish. The complex, layered taste of that sambal took me right back to Nunis’s restaurant.”