Culinary cultures are a conspicuous feature of Singaporean history, society and culture. Singapore is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, so much so that its accurate description is a matter of exciting debate among academicians as well as non-academicians. While food critics have written extensively on the technicalities of tastes and preparation methodologies, there is little existing literatures (both academic and trade professional) on the significance of the vessels used to serve the foods and the constant indigenization of foreign foods to fit local tastes. This writing opens a new window to it by discussing the food-serving vessels used in popular cafeterias and restaurants, something that has been rarely talked about in a book before. This is not because food-serving vessels are unimportant, but because varied knowledge (e.g. economics, cultural anthropology and food science) is required to write about them. This multi-disciplinary approach was adopted to focus on food vessels and the indigenization process. It uses a combination of area studies approach in cultural anthropology, socioeconomic historical perspectives and scientific food safety aspects in the use of serving vessels.
Studying food in its entirety is not just about the taste factor alone, but also how it is presented on the dinner table and how they are tweaked to create greater resonance between the average consumer and the original orthodox version of the dish before it migrated to multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-dialect Chinese consumers. These material artefacts and cultural dissemination processes tell the story of the history of designs, aesthetics and fashion; material culture and utilitarian ergonomics; transformative changes through technological progress; diverse ethnic groups and culinary culture; lifestyle choices and eating habits; rituals and symbolisms; migration and diasporic history; localization and indigenization; and nostalgia and identity. All these features are important aspects of culture (including popular culture) in East Asia as different types of Northeast Asian cuisines and food-serving vessels migrate to Southeast Asia and adapt to fit local consumer tastes.
This publication is divided into two sections. The first part is on Chinese food culture in Singapore. Descendants of immigrants from China form the majority of Singaporeās total population (approximately 74%). However, even among Chinese immigrants, there are variations in ethnicity, region and religion. This writing distinguishes each carefully. Part I looks at the use of porcelain vessels within multi-dialect cultural spaces in the consumption of cooked food in Singapore. The hawker centres and kopitiams (coffee shops) are ubiquitous in Singaporeansā lives. In the meal tables found in these facilities, the potteries used to serve hawker foods have a strong presence in the culinary culture of Singaporeans. From the hexagonal bowl to the coffee cup and bak kut teh (traditional pork rib soup, usually peppery Teochew version served) mud teapots as well as the exportware mass-manufactured changhuo rice bowl on the table, many types of ceramics or pottery are used. The writing looks at the relationship between those utensils, the food or drink that are served as well as the symbolic, historical, socio-cultural and socioeconomic implications of using different kinds of porcelain/pottery wares.
A healthy dose of observation studies from the historical anthropological approach is utilized in the writing with a combination of interpretive work based on collected images. The writing presents a new approach on how to gather information: the author took photographs of food-serving vessels on a daily basis, spanning years, and included them for analysis in this writing. Due to the experiential nature of the subject matter, and there is a need to utilize the five senses to handle the material artefacts, while many academicians prefer to separate their academic activities from their daily lives, experiential activities like food consumption are part of the research carried out for this project. The liberal approach in methodology makes the volume suitable for use by practitioners as a trade professional writing. This writing can help practitioners (like restaurateurs, chefs, dieticians, food critics, hawkers, food entrepreneurs, food industry executives, food scientists and so on) and general readers make their daily design and planning for meals more enjoyable.
Considering Singaporeās multi-racial structure and its multi-faceted and comprehensive thinking, it is necessary to analyse every vessel. Based on accumulated practical and professional fieldwork experience and expertise, the writing meticulously examined material artefacts for historical study, aesthetic value, constructed notions of traditions and clues on cultural interpretation. Through the study of porcelains on which food was served in hawker centres and coffee shops, it was possible to understand the consumption habits of Singaporeans in the past and present. This writing surveys the different ways Singaporeans utilize and understand ceramic serving utensils in the hawker centres in the twentieth century to the contemporary period. By studying the clay use, provenance, form, design, composition, kiln technology and manufacturing method of these ceramics, this writing will study how to appreciate the aesthetics of these objects and their relationships with hawker foods. This writing will focus mainly on serving utensils for Chinese food, but, in multi-cultural Singapore, the other colourful cultures are just as interesting and deserve full-length article coverage on the symbolisms of their utensil designs and usage too. They will be subject of future writing projects.
The second part discusses the rise of two food cultures in Singapore: Japanese and Korean. Singaporeansā embracing of these two cultures has led to the development of multi-cultural foods in the country. This section highlights cultural norms are constantly evolving and the outcome of dynamic interactive negotiations between producers and consumers. Part II focuses on the indigenization of foreign foods in Singapore, using two case studies of hipster foodāJapanese and Korean. While authentic Japanese and Korean cuisines find resonance amongst the youths of East Asia, some of them have adapted hybrid local features in terms of sourcing for local ingredients due to costs and availability factors; modifications needed in aesthetic presentation and use of fo...