Image: Pebbles240 · CC BY-SA 4.0
My Favourite Recipes
- Year
- 1952
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- Singapore · Southeast Asia
- Language
- English
- Category
- Southeast Asia
My Favourite Recipes by Ellice Handy stands as a foundational English-language cookery book of postwar Singapore, gathering domestic recipes drawn from the island's Peranakan, Malay, Indian, Chinese, and Eurasian kitchens. Issued in 1952 under the auspices of the YWCA, the compilation helped codify Straits home cooking for a literate urban readership and remains a touchstone reference for the culinary heritage of the Nyonya household.
Cooking from this book
Ayam Buah Keluak
Signature dishThis Peranakan chicken stew, enriched with the dark, earthy kernels of the Indonesian keluak nut, is widely regarded as the defining dish of the Straits Chinese kitchen. Its inclusion in Ellice Handy's pioneering 1952 collection helped establish the book as a foundational record of Singapore home cooking. For generations of Nyonya cooks, the laborious preparation of the nuts and the slow simmering of the gravy came to symbolise both heritage and hospitality.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
