SINGAPORE – Cookbook author and cake shop owner Bryan Koh is known for his deep dives into the cuisines of the Philippines, Myanmar, East Malaysia and Borneo.

For his fifth book, Among Ixoras: A Collection Of Recipes From My Kitchen In Singapore, he turns inwards. The $60 self-published hardcover book has 88 recipes that are dear to his heart. It will be available in major bookstores from April 30.

He tells The Straits Times that the project had been on the back burner.

“But I kept putting if off,” the 38-year-old says. “All my other projects required me to travel. And when the guides and the people who were willing to teach me were ready, I would go. During Covid, that completely stopped.”

His other books: Milk Pigs & Violet Gold (2014) looked into Filipino cuisine; 0451 Mornings Are For Mont Hin Gar (2016) told, as the tagline says, Burmese Food Stories; Bekwoh (2018) explored food from the East Coast of Malaysia; and Tamu (2022) was about the cuisines of Borneo.

Koh, who also runs Chalk Farm, his cake business, says of testing recipes for the new book: “It was really a way of coping with the madness, coping with uncertainty. Many of us were busy fighting fires. It was a question of how you look forward in the thick of the pandemic, it was about surviving.

“I would come home a few nights a week, test recipes and do some writing.”

The book is divided into five chapters. Five Stones has favourite recipes from Koh’s school days, including Hainanese pork cutlet, chwee kueh and sweet corn ice cream.

“I remember eating pull-apart roti susu with butter and hae bee hiam,” he says. “Fried chicken with achar. There is a sense of simplicity about these recipes.”

A Bottle Blue is a chapter dedicated to recipes from his mother’s side of the family in Penang. These include mee siam goreng and kerabu nanas, a pineapple salad.

Also in this chapter is the recipe for his grandmother’s gulai hor cio, a chicken and long bean stew where pepper plays a key role, together with makrut lime leaves, turmeric and belacan.

“When I was younger, I didn’t really appreciate it. I used to gravitate towards more lemak curries,” he says of curries enriched with coconut milk.

From his father’s side of the family came recipes for Teochew dishes such as steamed pomfret and braised pork ribs with bittergourd and fermented black beans.

“My grandmother didn’t cook a lot, but she would make steamed pomfret, and my aunt taught me the recipe for pork ribs braised with bittergourd and fermented black beans,” he says, adding that he also developed recipes for pig trotter terrine and orh nee, or yam paste, that his father enjoyed in Teochew restaurants.

There is also a baking chapter – Crumb Kin – with recipes for durian puffs, pineapple tarts and Viennese fingers, among other things.

“Nothing very rich,” he says. “There are recipes for butter cake and chocolate cake, and rock buns, which I remember making with my mother.”

The last chapter, The Kindness Of Others, has recipes from family friends and domestic helpers, including chicken adobo made in the oven and Hakka thunder tea rice.

During the pandemic, he also had a chance to look at the cakes in his business and see how he could improve on them, come up with new offerings and revive old ones.

New cakes at Chalk Farm include Mango Meringue Cake ($12 a slice); Pistachio Lemon Cake ($11 a slice); Butter Brilliance ($7.80 a slice), a butter bundt cake coated with chocolate; and Two Cheese Bingka Ubi ($9.30 a slice) topped with gouda and parmesan custard. His colourful Kueh Lapis ($7.20 a slice) is back on the menu, and new kueh include Puteri Ayu ($5.50 for three) and Kueh Ubi ($5.50 for three).

On the writing front, he is diving into the food of Laos and of Northern Malaysia. He is also working on a new edition of 0451 Mornings Are For Mont Hin Gar and a hardcover edition of Bekwoh.

Although there is some seating at Chalk Farm at The Paragon shopping mall, he hopes to open a cafe with desserts and some savoury food. A good location, however, is hard to find, he says.

“So this is a pipe dream right now,” he adds.

• Among Ixoras: A Collection Of Recipes From My Kitchen In Singapore is priced at $60 and will be available in major bookstores from April 30.