On a recent trip back home to Singapore, I decided I was going to spend my holiday there learning how to cook some local dishes.  While growing up there, we ate local food when we went out, however at home, we never cooked anything other than traditional South Indian food, with the occasional pasta dish thrown in.  So as an adult, I realized that I really didn’t know the first thing about Malay cooking at all, and decided to dive right in.

While searching for Malay cooking classes in Singapore, I came across a wonderful website called “Cookery Magic” run by Ruqxana Vasanwala.  A local Singaporean, she not only conducts Malay cooking classes, but other cuisines of south east asia! As luck would have it, she was offering her signature cooking class the week after I arrived. That particular class “Malay Cooking on Pulau Ubin” involved a jungle hike for local herbs, followed by traditional Malay cooking in a kampong (village) on the island of Pulau Ubin, one of Singapore’s last remaining inhabited outer islands.  The island, rich in flora and fauna is now protected from urban development, and gives us a glimpse of what Singapore was like prior to industrialization.  The population is also dwindling, with fewer than 100 inhabitants, at the time I visited. Naturally, this was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up. In all my years growing up in Singapore, I’d never been to Pulau Ubin and I’d never taken a Malay cooking class either. This was a perfect match! My adventure was about to begin.

I’m going to keep the writing to a minimum; I think the photographs say it all. Hope this little adventure entices you to explore Malay cuisine at some point in the future.

The bum-boat ride to the island….

100 year old homes…

And the food we cooked….