Devil’s Curry

It is no wonder this fiery chicken curry, laden with so many dried chillies it is stained flame orange, got the name ‘devil’. In fact, it is a culinary misnomer that has stuck in this Malaysian dish from the Portuguese Eurasians of Malacca. ‘Debal’ actually means ‘leftovers’ in the local Kristang language and once this was a dish saved for Christmastide, a spicy way with festive leftovers.

Located midway on the straits that linked China to India, Malacca was long one of the most imp