A Nyonya chicken curry thick with candlenut, lemongrass and kaffir lime, gentler than Indian curry and finished with a squeeze of lime, eaten with rice or roti.

Kari kapitan is a Peranakan signature whose name likely honours the Kapitan Cina, the community headmen of colonial Penang and Melaka, though kitchen legend prefers a cook telling his captain what was for dinner. The rempah of candlenut, galangal, turmeric and belacan marks it as Straits Chinese: Chinese technique married to Malay spice. Penang's Nyonya houses treat it as a benchmark; the starred kitchen at Auntie Gaik Lean's keeps it on the menu as a measure of the old repertoire.

3 editor picks for Kari kapitan in Penang, ranked by editorial score. All Penang signature dishes · Kari kapitan across every city.