Can an immigrant nation have heritage food?
Singapore loves its food culture but when it comes to food heritage, how puritan do we want to be? At the same time, if we don't try to preserve our recipes, what do we risk losing?
Who gets to decide what is heritage food and what is not? For a country like ours, where most of our recipes are adapted from versions abroad, this is a contentious topic. In some areas, food heritage is understood to be a strict preservation of a food source’s genetic history, whether it’s a specific type of grain or even an animal breed.
In Singapore, we take a more expansive definition of food heritage, looking instead at recipes and mixes that our ancestors developed. Whether it is a curry blend or a way to treat meat, the ways of old are at risk of being forgotten given the proliferation of modern technologies and external influences. In this newsletter, we highlight three such dishes that are at risk of disappearing from our food scene.
Have you caught our podcast yet?
We were very excited to have Pamelia Chia from Singapore Noodles on our latest podcast episode to share with us her perspectives on food heritage, especially given that she has spoken to so many other experts in the field on the topic. We learned about dishes we never knew existed, as well as discussed the complexities of trying to pin down food heritage in Singapore. If you enjoyed our discussion, do subscribe to the Singapore Noodles Substack below as well.
If that is not enough for you, check out the podcast episode I did with Pamelia on her show as well - we looked at what inclusion looks like in food culture, and how it affects the Singapore identity.