Madam Choy's Cantonese Recipes

The Singapore Heritage Cookbooks This series, which we import from Singapore, consists of individual books (seven to date, hopefully more to come) highlighting the traditional home cooking of each of the various ethnic groups in the busy, prosperous city state.

Every book includes an affectionate tribute to one person whose cooking represents the cuisine featured there, and charming, highly personal commentary on many of the dishes reflects the interchange among Singapore’s different cultures. Those looking for definitive, systematic studies of ethnic traditions will be disappointed, but these handsomely designed slender books offer a fascinating window into everyday fare.

Those who assume that Cantonese food is familiar in the US because so many restaurants purport to offer Cantonese fare will be surprised by the collection from a woman who married into a large clan of highly recent immigrants and used cooking as a way of asserting her identity and independence. Braised chicken with potatoes; minced pork steamed with salted fish; radish cake with dried shrimp.

Flexbind.