Gan Chin Lin: “When it comes to substituting meat products, a lot of people can only imagine the didacticism of swapping one protein for another protein, but I think that it really expands your horizons when you think about taste and experience and how a substance reacts to heat over a duration of time… It’s really interesting to see the diverse ways people try to reimagine certain memories of food. I wouldn’t say that they are replicating meat wholesale; I think there’s a certain extent to...

Woo Qiyun: “Keep Cup is designed for an Australian audience. So many of these reusable cups are not designed to be culturally sensitive or culturally specific, so I’ve always been worried. I’ve even emailed Keep Cup, saying, “Your cups do not fit the way that Singaporean or tropical countries drink bubble tea for example. It does not make sense for our context. Your silicone cups don’t always fit our uncle pouring the kopi because they are so unstable. There can be alternatives if we think...

Lace Zhang: “During Chinese New Year, I saw my maternal grandmother, the only one who could cook the Chinese New Year feast for everyone. She was piling the table up with her signature dishes like her ngoh hiong and her kong bak bao. In that room with three or four generations, I took a look around. She was standing there, saying that she was really happy that everyone’s gathered around. I saw that amongst everyone there, no one has learnt how to cook her food from her. No one else really had...

Yeo Min: “In my generation, very few of my friends eat Chinese pastries. They don’t really buy Chinese pastries to eat… A lot of the people who ask me if I am selling snowskin mooncakes are actually around my age. They would ask why I am selling traditional mooncakes, “I don’t think this kind of old taste would be what me or my friends would eat.” I felt a bit sad because I think that maybe it’s because they have not tried these traditional pastries from many different shops. There are some...

Yugnes Susela: “A lot of people are not aware that even in Tekka market, it is a hawker centre that caters to all races. We have very good Indian food, very good Chinese food. To be honest, one of the best duck rice is there in Tekka centre. There is an aunty selling Western food for 20 years. If you want a really good prata served by a Malay couple, it is there. Tekka is one place where all races and cuisines are there… It is the most beautiful thing!”   Susela, founder of The Elephant Room,...

Sook Yoon Yang: “There have been instances where some people say that they ate the best laksa in the whole world in Australia. I usually have a problem with people making statements like that not because I think Singapore or Malaysia is the best. But you cannot claim to have the best when you’ve not had all the different types of laksa… There are so many types of laksa that exist in Singapore, in Malaysia – different states, different ones. And people don’t know that.”   Yang, founder of...

Syazwan Majid: “We will never be able to understand fully how it is like to live in a kampung, to work hard for your food, to forage for this food. The tedious nature needed to keep our day going, that itself contradicts the notion that we are a lazy people. This narrative that paints the Malays as lazy native is really just not true. If we were really that lazy, we would have all starved to death – we would not have been working in the fields, we would not be fishing out at sea for days at...

Surekha Ragavan & Alia Ali: “So much of food content is focused on relevance and convenience. But relevance and convenience to who? Who is it relevant and convenient to? And who owns the seat at this table? Who is dictating what is relevant and what is convenient? We have to rethink how we position recipes to be relevant or accessible or convenient, because we also don’t want to erase the cooking cultures of more marginalized communities.”   Ragavan and Ali, co-founders of Periuk, share...

Krisada Virabhak: “When I went to the Peranakan museum, they had the altars all set up, but there was just no feel. Because it was empty – it is not sustainable to keep putting food there. The exhibits did not really reflect the offerings that they prepared. I thought maybe through my sharings, I could share with people what we prepare. Because, in fact, all these recipes and offerings for prayers, they differ from family to family. Even amongst sisters, recipes differ for the same...

Dhruv Shanker: “A lot of people did mention that, ‘Oh you know what, you’re not gonna miss Indian food. I’d imagine that the first thing you’re gonna miss is the food, so you’re sorted – Singapore has lots of Indian food.’ So I came with a very open mind, but I realized after moving here that the Indian food here is very different from typical Indian food. And that was fascinating for me because I had not seen that facet of a cuisine that I thought I was quite an expert in.”   Shanker,...

Chriss Prowler: “The problem is that everyone looks at the world now from their own perspective. It’s all me, me, me, me. You look on Instagram, ‘It’s me eating their food’. And this is the wrong thing. It should be, ‘I went to their place and ate the food’, not ‘I’m doing them a favour’. You mentioned a couple of food bloggers and video guys earlier… They literally just go anywhere. If it’s got something on the menu that they don’t really know, they’d just buy it and make a video of it...

Loh Yi Jun: “Experimentation is very natural. Having food evolve over the years is a very natural occurrence, and within all these experimental foods, there will be some that don’t taste good – there will be some bastardized versions. But at the same time, there will be some really great, inventive dishes that drive the food industry forward as well. An example that comes to mind is Dominique Ansel’s cronuts. Croissants and donuts, those are two things that you wouldn’t think of putting...

Sarah Benjamin Huang: “Growing up, everyone called me angmoh all the time throughout my entire childhood and adolescence. Even though I grew up in a house where we spoke Mandarin at home, everyone on the outside was telling me that I was angmoh and I said, “Fine, I’m angmoh, I will leave this place.” I felt that since I’m not wanted here, I’m gonna leave. I feel very Singaporean but I never felt like other people felt that I was Singaporean enough for them. We understand Singaporeanness as...

Lim Boon Kian: “I want people to understand that Bangladeshi food is not just for low-level people. Bangladesh is a country; they have their own culture and they are very proud of their food. I started Bangla Lim with the intention of introducing this cuisine to the public, and to let poorer workers have another option, to have better food… I have been a businessman for many years and I have always been very profit-driven. This stint with Ministry of Manpower opened my eyes to another world;...

Robert Chohan: “The Singaporean world of coffee offers something completely different – there’s no espresso, there’s no latte, there’s no cappuccino. It’s strong coffee with old school milk and sugar, and for people that want something different, they have evaporated milk. This entire world of coffee is the backbone and blood of Singapore because everything happens around kopitiams and food joints in general. This coffee – not only does it come from Singapore, it is accessible by everyone, it...

Dana Safia: “When it comes to jamu, people always think that it is a placebo effect as it has a long tradition. To them, it does not fit in the modern world anymore. This is the reason why I think it is time to redesign what jamu is and rethink how we convey the message of what jamu means to the general public… We are all immigrants in Singapore – the only indigenous people are the Malay Malays. The Singaporean identity is derived from different cultures, backgrounds, and religions. This is...

Hung Zhen Long & Jason Chua: “We enjoyed the hawker life, but we were thinking that we cannot do it for a long time. Back then, our neighbouring stalls were all old people who have been doing this for 40-50 years – they have been doing it since they were young. A lot of them are now actually having a lot of health problems. We want to work towards financial freedom – everyone’s dream – and having more work-life balance. If we are hawkers until we are old, we can foresee ourselves being in...

Seasonings Magazine is a collaboration between Hafizah Jainal (Hafi) and I, Pamelia Chia. It is a quarterly food publication that provides an insider's view into Singapore's festivals and festive food. In each issue, we highlight the beauty and cultural richness of one "season" in Singapore, to show that you don't have to belong to a specific race or religious group to appreciate a festival, because we have more in common than we think. In this current social climate, it is important for us...

Tan Ding Jie: “I never really appreciated cooking or Singaporean cuisine until I went to the UK to study. Over there, you really see what everywhere else has to offer. Even though there were a lot of Singaporeans in London, strangely enough, you don’t see a lot of Singaporean restaurants. Coming back to Singapore, that was when I started to rediscover Singaporean cuisine. I realized that we have such a rich history, our cuisine is so interesting and intricate – it tells stories about who we...

Vasanthi Pillay: “The Western world has a way of repackaging our culture and selling it back to us. So firstly, I would say that we as Asians must be more aware of our own food and lifestyle, and embrace that… Yoga comes from India, it was taken to the West, repackaged and sold it back to us. And now everyone is asking for yoga that is RYT Alliance, which is from the West. That’s totally misunderstood, the word that I would use is ‘bastardized’... The West right now is promoting turmeric...

Ken Koh: “We had been losing money for years, not because our sauce was not good, but we had no marketing, no awareness. It was a sauce that survived for 60 years purely because of word of mouth and the quality of our products. We don’t have a price advantage – my cost is a lot higher, nine months versus two weeks of soy sauce brewing. I visited 13 soy sauce breweries around Asia and realized that no one makes soy sauce like us anymore. I went to a soy sauce museum which showed how soy sauce...

Shamsydar Ani: “There came a point in my life where our family dynamics changed and Hari Raya was different. That was the year my mom was taking a step back and was just like, ‘I don’t want to celebrate Hari Raya this year – I don’t want to cook, I don’t want to make ketupat.’ When Hari Raya came around, she herself felt that something was missing. So we’ve kept on with the traditions. No matter how life changes, the traditions are something that you want to continue each and every Hari Raya....

Khee Shi Hui: “We tried to explain to some relatives that cared very much for things like shark’s fin. We took that off our wedding menu and tried to explain as best as we could. Not everybody would understand, but we tried to stay true to at least that. It was not possible to omit meat, so we tried to discuss options with the restaurant to see what were some essentials that we needed to keep because meat can be quite symbolic to the Peranakan culture where my husband comes from. If we do...

Chong Jin Yuan: “It’s frustrating because it takes 3-4 hours to roast, and the whole process from drying to roasting to tasting the product when it cools down requires the entire day. If it does not turn out the way you want it to be, you just do not have the time or energy to redo it. There is a lot of technique. It is not just one step that can make your roast belly very good – it’s a mix of different techniques. You’re playing with the chemistry, acidity and alkalinity.” ** Chong, chef...

Syarifah Nadhirah: “Prior to Paperweight Studio, I was already leaning towards botanical drawings and paintings. At one point, it struck me to do more research and learn more about our local ecology because there’s so much we can learn from just in our own backyard. There are so many things that we overlook. We try to illustrate more plants that are endemic to our country to educate people as well along the way… Through the book, I wanted to show that there are so many types of food that are...