Food Culture

The more I spend time in Singapore and Malaysia, the more I realise just how different the food culture is between Singapore and Sweden. Not just Singapore but one can safely say, the entire South East Asian region.

I've always been aware and am grateful of the fact that I grew up in a country and society where food is more than just nourishment, it is a lifestyle. We talk about what we're going to have for breakfast the next day when we have dinner, we talk about what we're going to eat for lunch at breakfast and we discuss our dinner options at lunch.

My brother says that Asians eat all the time because we need to. It's the heat..we need nourishment and replenishment of the energy we lose in the high temperatures we're subject to. So that is the main reason why we eat all the time. And yes I agree..it does feel like we eat ALL the time.

Dear husband doesn't quite understand how and why for example the Malays can eat things like nasi lemak, lontong and mee rebus for breakfast. As a matter of fact, the fact that Singaporeans eat hot food like curry puff, char kuey and congee in the morning confounds him. All he can muster at 8am is a bowl of cereal with orange juice and even chicken ham on crackers if he's feeling adventurous. Hai angmohs...how you miss out on the fun of food.

My father in law once asked me, how do you taste the food if your food is so spicy? Well, this is something that will forever evade those who are unable to or resist to capitulate to the wonders of spice and spicy food. What is nasi lemak without the sambal? What is laksa without the kick of chili in the gravy? What is malay food without the all important chili? How can the food not be spicy if it's all ABOUT the chili? That IS the taste of the food. That is what we LOOK FORWARD to. For the uninitiated, they would view the very idea of sweating through every pore of your body (and most unglamorously your upper lip) and sucking in air through your teeth to cool the burning tongue as you wolf down a plate of nasi briyani or sambal prawns or rendang most distasteful. But for the 'victim' who has to endure the fire burning in the mouth, it is mouthful after mouthful of pure heaven.

Most Singaporeans would say, where got KICK if we don't have sambal with nasi lemak?. And that's what we're looking for when we order a bowl of hot, steaming tomyum soup.

I have been away from my food paradise (Singapore lah, where else?) for almost a year and as I flew my horrendous flight to Singapore, it was mostly the thought of all the food I will get to enjoy when I arrive that kept me from teetering over to the dark side at my lowest point on that flight. And it is not just the fact that I will get to eat all the traditional food that makes Singapore such a food paradise for me. It is also the variety of food that is available and just how easily I can find food at any hour of the day. I just need to know where to look. But in Sweden, no matter where I look, it is next to impossible to get food other than what is sold at petrol stations late at night (which is 9.30pm). There have been moments of dire straits when I had had a craving so strong, I actually wanted to send the husband out to look for something to eat but it was like looking for a diamond in a large cave without any tools. It just could not be done.

Something else that has become precious commodity to me? Coffee...more specifically, mocha frappucino. The 2nd day after I arrived in Singapore, I rushed to the nearest Coffee Bean to indulge in a frappucino...any frappucino. Except perhaps caramel or some funky spiced frap cos I'm not THAT desperate.

This trip and I think for every single trip back to Singapore from now on, will be a trip spent mostly on buying spices, sauces, condiments and special mixes. Just so I can enjoy my favourite foods when I have to go back to the land of mashed potatoes, meatballs, jam, roast beef and bernaise sauce.