My foodie secrets of Singapore
| Published date | 22 May 2021 |
Elizabeth, 33, has also written her first cookbook, Makan, whose title means 'dinnertime', or 'let's eat'. She describes it as "a love letter to my family" and "our Singaporean heritage".
It's packed with the Singaporean dishes she grew up eating ("I would be baffled at beans on toast"), using seasonal ingredients found in Britain (her dad is British; Sunday roasts were a weekly staple).
In the book, Elizabeth, who trained as an architect before turning to food via a stint on MasterChef in 2011, writes: "When people move and mix together, food just gets better" - and is adamant that's true, "because food represents community. And without community, there's no food, there's no recipes, there's no knowledge of culture and dishes."
" She says people's interpretation of Singaporean food is often cofined to Singapore noodles, which is nonsense. "One type of noodles in Singapore? It doesn't exist," Elizabeth scoffs. "[T"[hat is] a fusion of someone's idea of Singapore."
" While high streets tend to be brilliantly spiked with restaurants celebrating Indian, Chinese,Thai, Indonesian, and Vietnamese food, Singaporean restaurants often just aren't in the mix.
""here are many great ones, but just not enough," says Elizabeth.
Partly it's down to the exceptional culinary secret-keeping of Singaporean home cooks. "Makan represents the culture of my mum," explains Elizabeth. "She cooks a lot, like a lot of her founder Elizabeth Haigh generation, but they don't really pass on that knowledge because it's just their way of showing love, that they do all the cooking."
" Elizabeth had to doggedly prise the knowledge out of her mum, but you'll be glad she did.The recipes in the 'Nonya Secrets' chapter, featuring her spiced chicken noodle soup, Gado Gado peanut salad, Malay hot and sour noodles, in particular are ones "she would go probably to her grave with if she could; I had to beg her to share them with me".
Telling her mum these very personal recipes were to be published in a book "took some convincing", but Elizabeth had a strategy. "I promised a lot of cooking - and a dedication."
It was also important to her to be able to make these dishes for her three-year-old son, Riley.
""hat's the way to get your mother...
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