Pichet Ong: belief

Transcript context

…Given your background in Singapore, how do you assess Chinese food in Singapore? What’s it good at? What’s it not good at? In the last century, if you speak to a lot of Chinese who migrated to, let’s say, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, the cream of the crop went to Singapore, and they mostly went before the war broke out, during famine times of the rest of China. I find Singapore Chinese food, at the core, to be Cantonese based, I would say, for the longest time. Over time, it’s been infused with Malaysian influence, some Western, some Thai and Indian. So you find a lot of spices. You find a lot of fermented flavors, curries, and a heavier use of cinnamon, clove, star anise, which is used in Cantonese cooking, but not quite bold. We grew up with a lot of that, and it’s different. It’s in its own category altogether, wouldn’t you say? Yeah.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.