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Books of the Week: Heritage Cookbooks

This week, we’re featuring not one book, but ONE WHOLE SERIES of books.

We are, of course, talking about the Heritage Cookbooks series, which was first started more than a decade ago and features popular favourites from various cuisines: Teochew, Hokkien, Cantonese, Eurasian, Indian and Peranakan. 

WHAT’S IN IT? Well, recipes, recipes and more recipes, that's what. Mind you, these are all family recipes — hence the books’ personal titles, such as Uncle Anthony’s Hokkien Recipes, Madam Choy’s Cantonese Recipes or Uncle Lau’s Teochew Recipes. 

These are real people, not made up names. Uncle Anthony is Anthony Loo, who used to run a hawker stall in Bedok; Madam Choy is former journalist-turned-mountaineer Lulin Reutens' mother; while Uncle Lau is food consultant Tan Lee Leng's father. 

The recipes are fairly straightforward and you’ll find a whole load of them in each book. Uncle Anthony’s Hokkien Recipes, for example, contains more than 90 recipes alone.

What’s also interesting is how one dish can translate across the various cuisines. For instance, the Cantonese, Teochew and Hokkien books all feature a recipe for Lotus Root Soup. But one glance at the ingredients and you’ll know that they’re not going to taste the same. The Teochew version, for example, uses black-eyed peas and black beans; while the Cantonese version favours red dates and dried squid.

The Hokkien and Cantonese recipes for watercress soup are also markedly different, as are the recipes for something as basic as fish stock.  

WHY SHOULD YOU GET IT? Well, for one thing, we’re offering a cool bundle discount with two books for only $38 (UP: $45.80) — so why not?

But really, there’s no better time for it. With Chinese New Year around the corner, here’s your chance to whip up some tasty treats for the family at reunion dinner.

(Remember that New Year’s Resolution to learn a new skill?)

And while the Teochew, Hokkien, and Cantonese dishes are easily the go-to choices for this festive season, who’s to say you can’t liven the dinner table  with recipes from the other cuisines? 

The ayam buah keluak and chap chye from Irene's Peranakan Recipes, for example, can sit well at any reunion dinner table, while Robin's Eurasian Recipes, for example, feature pineapple tarts and sugee cake recipes from Quentin Pereira (yes, he of Quentin's Eurasian Restaurant fame), which are fitting sweet treats for Chinese New Year too. 

And if you're feeling poorly after eating, Madam Krishna's South Indian Recipes has a few home remedies that you can try. 

Get them today here

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