PETALING JAYA, Dec 21 — For local musician Lyia Meta, Christmas always meant tantalising aromas wafting out of her grandmother’s kitchen.
From classic Eurasian favourites like Devil’s Curry and Christmas pie, to sweet-smelling desserts like fruitcake and sugee cake, traditional, home-cooked food was always in abundance during Christmas.
“During Christmas, we used to hang out at my grandmother’s house and enjoy just watching her cook.
“She was so fast in the kitchen, it was like she was on ‘fast forward’ the whole time.
“Christmas dinner was a big deal,” said Lyia in an interview with Malay Mail.
“We’d have family and close friends over, and the table would be full of all the famous Portuguese dishes, all single handedly prepared by my grandmother.”
While this year has been particularly tough for Lyia like other circuit musicians all over the country with live entertainment largely prohibited throughout the year, it has also given her a little more time to cook and bake her treasured traditional dishes.
Since the movement control order came into place, Lyia turned herself into a food entrepreneur, mainly cooking and selling traditional Eurasian dishes and cakes via her Facebook page, Pot to Plate by Lyia Meta.
“I didn’t really want to cook and bake for a long time. I only did it for my immediate family. But you know, the times are as such,” said the 49-year-old.
“And also, in a way, I think as we get older, we have to realise that we need to keep certain traditions alive. It shouldn’t stop with us.
“So that’s what I’m trying to do, by cooking all of these Eurasian dishes, the way my grandmother and mother used to do it.”
The Melaka-born singer currently cooks and sells a variety of traditional Eurasian Christmas dishes on her Facebook page such as Curry Seku, Devil’s Curry, Curry Feng, sey bak, fruitcake, sugee cake and pineapple tarts — all using her grandmother’s recipes.
Lyia even created stunning brushwork art on some of her cake orders this Christmas, as she took fondant art to a different level, by painting Christmas-themed silhouettes on the cakes.
“My customers always want me to do icing for the cakes but I don’t really have the technical skills to do the icing like cake decorators out there. So I told my customers if they’re okay with it, why not put some of my paintings on the cake instead.”
Lyia is also a skilled artist and sells her impressive paintings and realistic portraits as well as a form of income.
She said that it takes around two days to finish the brushwork fondant cakes, as she preps the cake a day in advance, before spending the next morning painting the illustrations.
Lyia also said that while she enjoys spending time in the kitchen whipping up Eurasian delights, the profits made from cooking aren’t really enough to pay the bills.
“It’s not viable. There’s no way it can be because the market is so saturated.
“When Covid-19 hit, a lot of people fell back into cooking, because most Malaysian households have at least one cook,” she said.
“So everybody who can cook went back to doing that and there’s just so much food out there. Whether it’s good or bad, it doesn’t matter because it’s still out there.
“So what the food does is basically give us enough money to survive that day, like a hand to mouth kind of thing.”
Luckily for Lyia, however, she’s managed to get by this difficult year by pursuing her other artistic talents like painting, and has recently also begun selling hand-painted Christmas-themed lanterns.
“My art has sort of helped make ends meet.
“In these past two months, it’s been quite profitable,” said Lyia.
“I’ve been making these lanterns every year for about four or five years, for family and friends.
“Then in the past two years, there has been a lot of interest from overseas like in the US, Australia, Russia and Singapore.”
Lyia said that it takes roughly 10 days to prepare the lanterns, depending on the patterns, as she paints on all four sides of the glass and usually has to wait for one side to dry before painting another.
Lyia is one of the few local circuit musicians who have gained international recognition for her musical exploits.
She has also won numerous awards for her music, most notably picking up the World Music Artist of The Year award for two years running at the 2018 and 2019 Josie Music Awards in Tennessee, USA.
