Does your family history live in its favourite foods? Do you see food not just as sustenance, but as legacy, identity, and history — passed from hand to hand, from kitchen to kitchen? If so, this podcast is for you.
In this episode, we speak to Chef Devagi, the Spice Queen of Singapore. She shares recipes, yes — but more importantly, stories of resilience and reinvention.
Listen to hear about:
* migration stories that stretch from India and East Timor to Burma and, finally, Singapore
* glimpses of 1950s Singapore — kampung life, Waterloo Street hawkers, and walking to Paya Lebar airport to wave at strangers
* the letter to The Straits Times, signed “poor student”, that would fund her education
* United Nations food rations turned into pancakes, payasam, gulab jamun
* HDB stories of food crossing corridors: Chinese, Malay, and Indian families exchanging dishes and ideas
* the three women who shaped her — her grandmother, mother, and periamma — and their thosai stalls
* how she went from school clerk to cooking teacher, to becoming the Spice Queen of Singapore
* original recipes and stories of Singaporean Indian dishes: Thanni saaru, tahu sambal, pink condensed-milk kesari, appam jala/roti jala, and an Indian-style mutton rendang
* resilience and reinvention — how Chef Devagi kept moving forward and stayed hungry