Die, Die, Must Try: A Cultural History of Food in Singapore

Dr Nicki Tarulevicz gives a talk on how eating is not just a universal human experience it also helps define our nation. Questions of how and what to eat become unifying experiences amidst diversity and can be understood as a metaphor for multiracialism. Food provides Singaporeans with a memory of home, comfort, and a nostalgic experience, as it does elsewhere; but in a society that has undergone extraordinary change in a relatively short time, food also serves as a connection to an ever-changing past. Dr Tarulevicz is the author of Eating Her Curries and Kway: A Cultural History of Food in Singapore (University of Illinois Press, 2013) and holds an appointment in Asian Studies in the School of Humanities at the University of Tasmania.