Over the weekend, a commentary that I wrote on hawker prices was published on CNA and has sparked a bit of debate. Much of the discussion has been robust and I thought I’d share my views on some of them: “Letting hawkers set their own price at will is going to raise the cost of living for everyone. Thus, price controls are justified.” Some have argued that even though Singapore is a first world nation, the cost of housing and car ownership (though whether this is truly a necessity in...

Five to six years ago, when I was working on Wet Market to Table, I came across the menu at Nouri where regional vegetables and fruit were celebrated in new and unexpected ways. Lots has changed since then and it is not uncommon now to see young chefs working with produce from our markets, but back then, it definitely got my interest. I’ve wanted to have a conversation with Chef Ivan for quite some time, but it never happened, owing mainly to the fact that I was leaving for Australia… so it...

The Singapore Noodles podcast is back... and integrated into the newsletter! In this episode, I chat with Jimmy Teo, a young hawker who runs Huang Da Fu Bak Chor Mee at Commonwealth Crescent Market Food Centre. Pricing has always been a hotly debated issue when it comes to hawker food, and Jimmy shares candidly about struggles that hawkers face, and how we can keep hawker heritage alive by simply stepping into our own home kitchens. If you’d like to visit Jimmy and taste his bak chor mee, you...

Vasunthara Ramasamy: "There are so many styles of chicken curry; there is even a white chicken curry. If Clarissa cooked that, people would say that that is not a Singaporean chicken curry. So what is Singaporean chicken curry? Do we have one? The consensus is that we can never have a national dish because it is very hard to represent Singapore. But why seek for singularity when you are so diverse? Why do we seek such homogenous experiences with Indian food?" Vasunthara Ramasamy, Culinary...

Preston Wong: "The goal should always be to make the message of sustainability and reducing food wastage as mainstream as possible. What point is there if it is just within that echo chamber of eco-conscious people? For us, we can break that barrier because price is not a big issue unlike other sustainable merchandise that may face challenges of accessibility due to price point issues. I would think that surplus food is a good bridge and show people that things can be affordable, and yet can...

Evelyn Yap: “Singapore is not an agricultural country. That limits the kind of produce we get, but also, we don’t know what is out there because our habits have changed to shopping at supermarkets, as opposed to wet markets, which stock more diverse produce.”   Evelyn Yap, chef & founder of Happivore, shares about her journey as a chef supporting farmers, plus: *How Rustic Canyon shaped the way she cooked* *Supporting farmers in Thailand* *How her experience in Thailand has impacted her...

Edmund Wee: “We don’t get a lot of chances to form relationships with people in our lives – we’re busy, we’re working. And you have to go shopping for your food. You either shop on Red Mart or the supermarket. Why do those two when there’s a third alternative, where you can do your marketing and at the same, you form relationships. Why not? It is so wonderful! So, it’s a no brainer for me to decide to go to the wet market. It is obvious to me to do so.”   Edmund Wee, publisher & CEO of...

Christopher Ng: “It is heartwrenching every time I go back to Singapore, because I see the difference. And it is a significant marked difference every year. I try to go to the places that are familiar to me, but even those places are changing rapidly although certain places are still familiar, I wonder how long they are going to last.”   Christopher Ng, the blogger behind Christopher’s Asian Delicacies, shares about his relationship with food growing up, plus: *Lakeview market* *The...

Khir Johari: “When we look at our understanding of Malay food, it is typically based on a narrow window, and that is the hawker centre. If you get a chance to visit Malay homes (your Malay neighbours or friends), that is where you get to see things that you don’t normally experience… Reading and travelling help to inform, and with that, you’ll come to understand the diversity and beauty of Malay food, and look at it as a very healthy diet. Any food you eat in excess is bad, regardless of your...

Christy Chua and Tan Aik: “Through my interviewing experience in school or at The Slow Press, I feel that sometimes when we talk to older hawkers or business owners, they might be quite unwilling to share about what they do. Sometimes they would dismiss it as, ‘I do this everyday, nothing new. It’s just normal going to work. I come here, fry some noodles and go home.’ They’d literally tell me that. I’m sure there’s a story but I can’t seem to dig it out of them, and that leads me to think,...

Christopher Tan: “I think what everyone needs to realise is that we all have a say in how the food culture of our country evolves. We all have a stake, we all have a say, and we are all culture makers. Your national food culture is not something that you should have to order in. It should be something that you stand in, you cook, you practice, and you live out. Your heritage is your anchor, your compass, and your passport from which you go and explore other places, but you hold your passport....

Desmond Shen: “We basically tried not to throw anything away, and I think one of the steps to do that is to name the thing by its part, instead of just calling it ‘waste’. If you are trimming carrots, you take away the carrot head, end, and peel – and you call that that. You don’t call it ‘trim’, you just call it ‘carrot peel’. What are we going to do with the carrot peel? What are we going to do with the carrot tops? What are we going to do with the end bits of the carrot… Especially with...

Sheere Ng: “Our understanding of inmates is they are either repentant or incorrigible. It’s black and white. But I think that the masak shows them to be abit more multifaceted, showing them to be loyal but ill-disciplined, angry but funny as well. I learnt something from trying to understand masak, and I simply wanted to tell that story…” Sheere Ng, author of When Cooking Was A Crime and co-founder of In Plain Words shares about the twists and turns in her career, plus: *How her love for...

Rebecca Koh: “Asian ferments used to be passed down by the word of mouth – from grandma to the mother, and from the mother to the daughters. If one generation decides, “I do not want to learn it”, then that's it… When I wanted to learn how to make rice wine, my maternal grandma had already passed on, so there's no way I could ask. I had to call my aunt and ask, “Is there anyone in Singapore you know who knows how to do it?”. And she said, “No, not in Singapore, but in Malaysia, maybe I can...

I reflect on 2 years of Singapore Noodles, answer your questions and share about my plans for the platform in 2021, plus: *How I decide on guests to feature on the podcast* *Behind-the-scenes of the podcast* *How I stay inspired in the kitchen* *How being married improved my cooking* *My upcoming cookbook* *The Singapore Noodles Membership*   Singapore Noodles: http://sgpnoodles.com/ @sgpnoodles Singapore Noodles newsletter: http://sgpnoodles.substack.com/

Gladys Foo: “When we made love letters pre-pandemic, we all will go over to my mom’s place to help out. I come from a family of six siblings, so we have everybody in the different areas. I am in charge of rolling it, my elder sis is in charge of removing the love letters from the mould to pass it to me, one of my sis is in charge of monitoring it, my second sis is in charge of scooping it. My brother is the firewatcher to ensure that the fire is consistent… My siblings and I, we have a very...

Shen Tan: “Passion doesn’t feed people – it doesn’t pay your CPF, it doesn’t pay your mortgage, it doesn’t pay for medical insurance. Singaporeans who say we are losing our hawker heritage, are, on the other hand, complaining on socials that ‘standards drop, so expensive, so little’. They can count, ‘Only got three prawns, only got two pieces of pork ribs.’ You have to ask yourself why? It is not the hawkers’ job to feed you guys for very little money. I was asked a question recently: How do...

Marcus Leow: “If there ever is a lao po bing (wife biscuit) in a more modern flavour, I honestly don’t think that’s bastardizing a recipe. I would say that that’s a way of keeping up with times and moving forward, but at the same time, reminding us of our roots… Like with kueh, you have so many flavours nowadays but the ones that get sold out are the traditional flavours – like regular kueh salat but done very well. Even for ang ku kueh or bingkah ubi, the original flavours are still the...

Sowmiya Venkatesan: “In chicken rice, chicken is the primary flavour. Your rice has the chicken flavour, your chicken has the chicken flavour, and the stock has the chicken flavour, because it is a celebration of the chicken. Whereas in India, the first thing you’d do for any meat dish is dumb down the meatiness of the meat. Whether it is a fish, mutton, or chicken, the first thing that they would do is marinate it. They would add lemon or spices so that fish doesn’t smell fishy, a chicken...

Sharon Wee: “I always thought my mom deserves a book of her own, and I thought, why not a full-fledged cookbook… Peranakans are very guarded about their cooking secrets and recipes. I was going up against older sisters and relatives who weren’t sure if I should be doing this, sharing this publicly. You can ask a lot of families – they would feel that way. You can ask them, ‘How do you make that achar’, and they’ll say, ‘Cannot tell you – it’s a family secret!’ But I took a leap of faith – I...

Anthony Leow: “In the past, grannies used to pound their own spices, but when they were old, they couldn’t pound spices anymore. While making spice blends for them, we were, at the same time, learning the secret recipes from all these old grannies, because they were actually very good and experienced at cooking. This is how we picked up the trade and kickstarted our business.”   Anthony Leow, founder of Anthony the Spicemaker, a spice shop at the wet market, shares about how his business...

Mandy Yin: “It’s better to have tried and figured out you don’t like something. It’s not failure, it’s really not. Sometimes you have to go through an incredibly bad, difficult time to understand that’s not what you need to do, and you take a different route. One door closes, another opens. I do think there’s merit in following your passion, but also in understanding your limits and knowing when to cut your losses… Life is for living.”   Mandy Yin, founder of the restaurant Sambal Shiok and...

Rovik Jeremiah Robert: “When we draw those lines, we end up ostracizing or excluding a lot of groups who are in Singapore who are making an influence regardless of what we think, and we also lose an opportunity for our food to evolve. To an extent, I can empathize, because as a young nation, identity is determined by some level of boundary-drawing, to say this is who we are, and this is who we’re not. But I also think that for food, “Why?” – food is such an exciting space to have innovation...

 Chang Pick Yin: “After I had my surgery, I couldn’t smell. Zero sense of smell. You can’t imagine how it feels like until you experience it, because can you imagine being in a kitchen and you can’t smell… At this point, because I can’t smell and therefore I can’t taste very well, the process of eating is different and diminished, so I take more joy in the process of cooking.”   Chang Pick Yin of @pickyin shares about her changing relationship with food, plus: *Learning how to cook* *How her...