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Peranakan is the term given to descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Indonesia and Singapore and married the native Malays. Peranakan (or Nonya) cuisine combines the best of Chinese, Malay and other Asian influences to offer a unique fusion of exotic food. The food is aromatic, spicy, and herbal. Peranakan cuisine also includes a wide range of desserts that are popular in this region. Irene was born to a quintessentially Teochew family, and married into a traditional Peranakan family. Cooking wasn’t always her strong suit, and she had to enrol in cooking classes after her marriage. Then, through trial and error, swapping recipes with friends, gleaning cooking tips from neighbours and friends, and tapping on her husband’s discerning taste buds, Irene’s culinary genie emerged. As the years simmered and broiled, Irene gained confidence and started her own cooking classes. She taught at classes organised by the Social Development Unit, the Welfare Club of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and other church groups. With all these classes, she was able to fine-tune her recipes even further.

Writing a cookbook had always been on Irene’s mind, but she passed away before she could complete it. This book is compiled by her daughter Elaine Yeo.

Irene’s Peranakan Recipes is part of Epigram Books’ award-winning Heritage Cookbook series, which showcases the best of Singapore’s major cuisines through authentic family recipes.
“The range of dishes here is quite comprehensive and any home cook who masters the recipes will be well-armed for the task of feeding a family in tasty and varied ways for a very long time.”
—The Straits Times

“The slim, simply designed Irene’s Peranakan Recipes, bereft of the usual glossy mouthwatering shots of curries and sambals that you find in cookbooks, seemed like a pretty authentic Peranakan read.”
—The Peranakan

“Even though I had no intention of cooking its complicated recipes, I could not resist this elegantly packaged volume published by Epigram [Books] which comes with colourful ribbon bookmarks and illustrated chapter title pages that give the book an old-world air.”
—Ong Sor Fern, The Straits Times
Irene Yeo was a passionate cook who ran her own very popular cooking classes after retirement. She organised cooking classes for the Social Development Unit, the Welfare Club of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and other church groups.
Her younger daughter, Elaine Yeo, who wrote the introduction to the book and compiled her mother’s recipes, is an oboist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). She was aided by her sister, Karen Yeo, who plays the double bass for SSO.

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Irene’s Peranakan Recipes