Immigrant Food....

Once I attended a course where the trainer asked what we had for dinner the previous night. After hearing the replies from the course attendees, she went on to ask why we are jamming our body's digestive system, especially with complex foods such as curry fish head, bak kut teh etc. Her main point of contention is not that the food are harmful to our bodies, but more she couldn't understand why modern Singaporeans who are enjoying relatively good incomes and comfortable lifestyles are still eating immigrant food...?

Basically food such as bak kut teh and curry fish head etc are unique to Singapore and Malaysia. The reason is that early immigrants to Southeast Asia are mostly poor dock workers who don't have money to buy fresh ingredients for a good meal. There's no such thing as a steak or a whole chicken for a good meal, unless a whole group of workers sacrifice their salaries for a whole month to buy and share one chicken. Ingredients such as pork bones and fish heads are cheap as the wealthy would prefer fleshier cuts. With these basic ingredients, workers salvage what spices and vegetables they can from the docks and mix it all up in a pot. That's where bak kut teh, curry fish head and kway chap comes from.

So the trainer is asking why are we now eating poor man's food when we can afford better. But she fails to understand that these are food unique to Singapore. No, I've not been paid by Singapore Tourism Board to market their Uniquely Singapore concept, but born and bred here, I feel a sense of connection with such food. It is iconic of the lifestyle my grandparents had in early Singapore / Malaysia and many others like them. And while Singapore is complaining about the lack of creativity, to think out of the box... but hey, aren't these exact examples of how early Singaporeans can be inventive and creative in developing new recipes, new ways to enjoy food? What's more, these dishes are getting well appreciated by the foreign community. I remember reading somewhere that a Singaporean businessman made his success in Shanghai selling just one of these... bak kut teh. And there are plenty of foreign tourists who came to Singapore and loved the unique taste of curry fish head and chilli crab.

So why shouldn't we eat these food and enjoy them? Especially if we can now afford fresh ingredients and good cooks to provide quality to such dishes? Enjoy away I would say, and feel proud that there is something... ok unique... about Singapore.