Peranakan Heritage Cooking (Singapore Heritage Cooking) Hardcover – November 1, 2011

Love the recipes . Have already tried a couple and they turned out great. Gorgeous pictures!!

It's a great cookbook if you can find the ingredients. I love peranakan cooking, but after buying this book i am going to continue to go to great Singaporean restaurants. i am NOT going to try to master the cooking in my US home!

Good

Amazon should allow users to vote for the removal of useless comments like the one from Stephen Foster above. 3 Stars for a book you 'plan to buy' and haven't even read? Thats just ridiculous.I've had many opportunities to meet the author as well as sample his food. As with most Asian cooking that starts with a 'rempah' or spice paste, flavours will vary greatly depending on the ingredients at hand. That is why recipes such as these can serve as a guideline for improvisation by more experienced cooks.However, if one wants to just follow the recipes directly, the recipes in here are authentic with no ingredients 'left out' as is always the case when it comes to Asian recipes. Most Peranakans will never share their recipes with anyone but thankfully, the author unselfishly chooses to document and share his 'secret' recipes.My favourite recipes in this book are the babi tohay (His family recipe for pork in red rice yeast), mee siam, fish otak, chicken buah keluak, tamarind fish curry and okra salad with chilli. Each of these recipes work perfectly and taste great. I'm looking forward to other books that the author might be releasing in the future as Peranakan cooking is so diverse that this book probably covers only the 'greatest hits'. I would recommend that lovers of Asian food add this book to their collection and please don't leave it on the shelf....cook from it!

[Why are people slamming this "review"? I wrote it purely because I found it difficult to find information about this title, and thought I'd share what I managed to find. I make that quite clear.]After a lot of googling, I finally found a write-up of this book on the Australian Penguin site. Here's what they have to say:The Singapore Heritage Cookbook series documents and preserves the cultural and culinary heritage of the different ethnic groups in Singapore through recipes passed down from generation to generation. Each book is made up of two parts: an introduction that provides an overview of the history and culture of the community in Singapore and a selection of delightful recipes including traditional dishes and dishes that boast a distinct regional variation that makes them uniquely Singaporean. With its focus on the cultural and culinary heritage of the Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians and Peranakans in Singapore, the Singapore Heritage Cookbook series is the definitive reference for anyone looking to learn and understand more about the different ethnic groups in Singapore.My personal interest comes from years of frequenting my favourite restaurant: the Redmond Malay Satay Hut. It's a quirky, laid-back Malaysian restaurant that features several fantastic Peranakan/Nyonya dishes. I looked for their source and discovered the Peranakan/Nyonya are Straits (Singapore) Chinese, which perked my interest since my Dad spent WW II in Singapore as a ... guest of the Japanese Army, not eating any of this food (nor much else). I plan to order the book (and also this one, which seems it might be a definitive authority) and will hopefully post proper reviews shortly.The fact that this comes from a SERIES of Australian Penguin books about Singaporean cooking gets me looking to investigate more.