Eating her curries and kway : a cultural history of food in Singapore / Nicole Tarulevicz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tarulevicz, Nicole.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food habits--Singapore.

Food habits.

Food preferences--Singapore.

Food preferences.

Singapore--Social life and customs.

Singapore.

Manners and customs.

Physical Description:

xi, 204 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2013]

Summary:

"While eating is a universal experience, for Singaporeans it carries strong everyday and national connotations. The popular Singaporean-English phrase "Die die must try" is not so much hyperbole as it is a reflection of the lengths that Singaporeans will go to find great dishes. In Eating the Nation, Tarulevicz argues that in a society that has undergone substational change in a relatively short amount of time, food serves Singaporeans as a poignant connection to the ever-changing past. Eating, the how and the what, has provided a unifying experience for a diverse society; a metaphor for multiracialism and recognizable national symbols for a fledgling state. Using food as a category of analysis, and analyzing a variety of sources that range from cookbooks to architectural and city plans, Tarulevicz gives the reader a thematic history of this unusual country, which was colonized by the British and run as a port within Malaya, but which is without a substantial pre-colonial history. In doing so, Tarulevicz moves away from the predominately political and economic focus of other historians of Singapore, and provides an important alternative reading of Singaporean society"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 A Brief History of Singapore 10

Chapter 2 Making the Past the Present: Food in a Multiracial Port City 24

Chapter 3 Public Spaces, Public Bodies 39

Chapter 4 The Kitchen: Invariably Offstage 59

Chapter 5 Jam Tarts, Spotted Dicks, and Curry 77

Chapter 6 The Pizza of Love 92

Chapter 7 Picked in Their Fresh Young Prime 116

Chapter 8 Food Sluts and the Marketing of Singaporean Cuisine 137.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780252038099

0252038096

OCLC:

843858203