About the Book Series 新加坡华族传统食品
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!
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Book Titles and ISBN
There are 8 books in this entire 新加坡华族传统食品 series.
Book titles and ISBN are as follow:
- 今天我们捞鱼生 9789814791229
- 今天我们包粽子 9789814791236
- 今天我们做月饼 9789814791243
- 今天我们搓汤圆 9789814791250
- 今天我们做鸡蛋卷 9789814856133
- 今天我们包水饺 9789814856140
- 今天我们蒸年糕 9789814856157
- 今天我们炸春卷 9789814856164
What I like about the 新加坡华族传统食品 book series
A book series about food. Yum. That’s reason enough to like it. Traditional food no less. Even better! Seriously though, I love the family members portrayed. Their happiness, their annoyance, their joy are all too similar to our own family unit. If you have ever cooked a dish with your parents, or grandparents, these books will give you a warm snuggly feeling as you see the siblings help out in the kitchen, and get up to mischief. Just as you once did, perhaps?
Each book in the series revolve around the siblings helping a family member cook a special Chinese dish step by step. The sentences are slightly harder than your usual picture books, with Chinese idioms and traditional sayings. A very nice touch in my option for younger readers to learn them in context.
At the end of each book, there is a question and answer section, which illuminates the ingredients of the dish, or the recipe. Hmmm… now, if only I can get an actual recipe I can follow over here in Australia.
Rating
Can I be really biased and give this 5 stars? Because this is really the only set of Singaporean Chinese food book series I have found, and yes, because I love my Singapore food!
Where to purchase
This 新加坡华族传统食品 book series is best suited for young readers aged 5 years and up.
Physical copies are available at the local Singapore bookstores such as Popular, Kinokuniya, and Maha Yuyi. Maha Yayi will ship the books globally
If you are a Singapoean and have an account with the National Library, you can borrow all 8 of them on the app. Download the app here if you don’t already have it installed.
Google Play Books sells electronic copies of all 8 of them.
Happy Reading!
Supplementary Teaching Ideas
Would you like to teach your children about Chinese food too? I made these Montessori style Chinese food flashcards to teach my children. And of course I take them out to Chinese restaurants to see the real thing too. Haha.
