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Pufferfish dish lets me hold on to my island past
Through food and digital media, the descendants of the displaced Southern Islanders of Singapore preserve their heritage
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The author and his mother with bubur lambuk ikan tenggiri (spiced porridge with mackerel), a dish made with his great-grandmother's recipe that offers a taste of Pualu Semakau.
PHOTO: BERITA HARIAN FILE
Firdaus Sani
Singapore loves its food and we await the next big obsession, be it an ondeh-ondeh pretzel or a salted-egg donut.
For me, it is a taste of the past that I crave: the ikan buntal or pufferfish that is cooked in the old ways of my ancestors, who were inhabitants of one of Singapore’s Southern Islands, Pulau Semakau.
