CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 102, September 2023
What can old recipes tell us about history and food heritage? This question was inspired by vintage recipes from the shelves of the National Library and Singaporeans’ love for food. We translated the answer into a food video series called From Book to Cook.
From Book to Cook is part of the library’s Singapore Storytellers initiative to engage a new tech-savvy audience with video stories based on its collection. Resources from the National Library and National Archives – such as documentary clips, photographs, books, manuscripts and articles – were crucial in research on the sociocultural and historical context around a cookbook and a recipe of their times.
The videos tell fascinating stories of the food we love: the process of cooking curry before packaged powders were the norm; creative tapioca-based dishes borne out of food shortages during WWII; an unusual take on a beloved dish nasi lemak from a 1953 cookbook published in Jawi script; an Eat More Wheat campaign in Singapore during the global rice crisis of the late 1960s; and a twist on a pasta dish based on a 1997 home economics textbook, which tells of changing gender norms.
In addition, we replicated the old recipes with traditional kitchen tools such as the grinding stone, and mortar and pestle. Does food mean and taste the same when tradition is overtaken by faster ways of cooking?
The videos on YouTube received more than a hundred thousand views. The overwhelming reception shows an appetite for more, and the treasure trove of recipes in the library is poised to meet the hunger. Season Two of From Book to Cook awaits!
< From Book to Cook Series >
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