Introduction

I am Singapore-born Chinese, with parents whose antecedents hark back not only to eastern China, but also to southern China, mingled with South-east Asia. Our family kitchen was always perfumed with the scent of intoxicating herbs and other aromatic ingredients, such as lemon grass, ginger, chillies, limes, fresh coriander and dozens more besides. However, what ran through all the family menus, that featured Thai, Indian and Malay elements and even colonial British culinary influences, was the strong Chinese thread.