Written and Illustrated by Lim Peiwen 林文佩
Language: Simplified Chinese, with pinyin
Chinese New Year was right around the corner when I got hold of these books about traditional Chinese dishes in Singapore. I started off with 今天我们捞鱼生. For the uninitiated, yusheng is a typical festive dish that is commonly eaten in Singapore/Malaysia during Chinese New Year. Guess what? You can also find it in the Southeast Asian restaurants here in Sydney!
Anyway, reading 今天我们捞鱼生 made me miss Singapore so much, I went on a reading rampage and read all 8 books in the 新加坡华族传统食品 series with my children. Food is such an important part of Chinese culture, I don’t think you can learn a language without understanding its food and culture. This series of books created a connection from Australia to Singapore for us, as we follow the siblings, Tianguang 天光 and Liangliang 亮亮 on their culinary adventures with their family. Whether it’s making dumplings with grandpa or mooncakes with daddy, the two kiddos try their best to help, sometimes having the opposite effect!
My children liked reading about the process of making the dishes, and a couple of times, they looked on enviously as the characters tucked into their homemade dishes. Oops! Mummy has to brush up on her Singaporean culinary skills.
This book was one of Popular Bookstore Reader’s Choice Chinese readers in Singapore for 2020. I completely agree!