Cookbooks tell personal stories. While many women left precious little behind, often their cookbooks provide enough to catch a glimpse of the person. In evocative culinary memoirs composed of directions for cooking, accounts, textual fragments, marginalia, and paper ephemera stored between the pages of a book, women inscribed themselves in their recipe texts as testimonies to their existence.
— Janet Theophano, Eat My Words: Reading Women’s Lives through the Cookbooks They Wrote (New York: Palgrave, 2002)
My grandmother was born in Singapore in 1915 and her name was Nice, pronounced as in ‘you are such a nice person’, not as in Nice, France. All her life, until she passed away at age 92, grandma was a dedicated homemaker and loved cooking and baking.
“Ma Ma”, as I called her (the Cantonese manner of addressing one’s paternal grandmother), left behind notebooks full of handwritten recipes, mostly Straits Chinese, nonya dishes learnt painstakingly from her mother-in-law, or western-style cakes and pastries which she had developed a penchant for in YWCA cooking classes in the 1930s. She later conducted cooking classes for the YWCA herself, one of which you can see in the photograph in this blog’s header.
Many people have asked for my grandmother’s recipes, seeking to rediscover that authentic nonya flavour. However, in the course of going through these cooking notes and reading more about food history, I’ve realised just how difficult it is to recreate the taste of foods in bygone eras. Most cooks in the past worked from sheer experience, not written recipes, and they themselves hardly made notes. Perhaps it’s because our local recipes have always been passed down in an oral tradition through the different generations of females in a family, so there was no practice of writing them down. Even when cooking notes were made, the imprecision of the quantities or recording them in terms of prices (which have been subject to a huge amount of inflation in 50 years!) have made them hard to follow in later years. [N.B.: very interesting information on interpreting and adapting old recipes at Foodtimeline.org as well this Australian food history blogger’s comments on recreating grandmother’s ‘pinch of this and fistful of that’, or as we say here in Singapore/Malaysia, the ‘agak-agak‘ method of cooking.]
It’s taken me some time to even figure out what the ingredients are – as you can read on the ‘Unfamiliar Ingredients‘ page. But identifying them isn’t the whole story: the way our foods are grown and produced in the 21st century aren’t the same as back in 1957 – were they all ‘organic’ in those days :)? The cooking implements we use today are different as well, and it doesn’t take much to realise that food cooked over a charcoal stove in an iron pan is quite different from using a non-stick Tefal pan on an electric or induction hob!
So I’d like to share my grandmother’s cooking notes with you here firstly as pieces of nostalgia, and only secondly as a cooking guide. To cook from them, you’ll have to experiment, perhaps do some additional research, then adapt them to suit your own tastes and in time, create your own culinary family tradition, I hope :).
From another perspective, my grandmother’s recipe notebooks are historical documents, revealing the cosmopolitan nature of English-speaking Asian society in Malaya (who were schooled in immaculate penmanship!) during the late colonial period, through an international taste in food and the linguistic diversity in names of ingredients. These recipes illustrate cooking methods and ingredients in vogue at the time, which were partly the result of food technology innovation and the marketing of consumer food products.
My grandmother’s notebooks span the period from just before 1957, the year in which the Federation of Malaya gained independence, to c.2005, an alternative record of Singapore/Malayan history from the private sphere of domestic food practices.
Please leave a comment when you visit, especially if you’ve tried the recipes! You can also email me at nice.niceties@gmail.com.
(My grandmother, Nice, is standing at the back on the extreme right.)
(Grandma Nice, early 1930s. Read more here.)
What a lovely idea to set up this site. I like reading the original and beautifully hand written recipes – and your commentary about the historical or even personal context makes it even more interesting. Some of the dishes *seem* so simple, i’m tempted to try them.. if so, will report back here.
By the way – do you have any other old photos to share? Maybe your grandma cooking, or the family tucking into one of these dishes?
What a beautiful, loving tribute to your grandmother. Will try some recipes and report back. Thank you for sharing this. I love family recipes and regret that my aunts and my mothers nanny never left any written record of the wonderful food that they used to cook. Some of the tastes and flavours are now just childhood memories.
Thanks for all your kind comments :). The Poh Piah Egg Skin-making photo I’ve just put up is the result of the search for photos!
What a lovely tribute to your grandmother and wonderful gift for your family to enjoy.
its such a good idea. i can hardly get my grandmother to write anything down so i’ve taken to writing whatever she tells me on scraps of paper after which i promptly lose. do you have any ideas what to do with gula melaka? apart from onde onde and sago pudding?
I have a Bee Cheo recipe here that uses gula melaka. If you are interested in dessert recipes, the many cookbooks out there should give you some ideas. Most recently in our home, we tried out some Malay desserts using gula melaka from Zarina Ibrahim’s recipe books.
All the best with recording your grandmother’s pearls of wisdom, I’m sure there will be other family members who will also appreciate your efforts.
I’m glad that I’ve found this site. Thanks for sharing this wonderful & precious recipes from your granny. Cheers :)
Thanks so much for writing all these down. It made me wish my Nonya grandma (bless her soul) had written her secrets down.
i love your blog. i was looking up on buah keluak and found you.
keep up the good work
Hi Lily,
Thanks for your kind message. Are you Lily from Lily’s Wai Sek Hong? I love your recipe blog too – it’s on my blogroll! I admire the way you make everything (so many things!) from scratch. I learn a lot from your recipes, thank you very much for sharing them.
Hai….you very nice blog….I am sure that you’re also good baker like you grandma.
I’d like to try your recipes. Many thanks for sharing your recipes….
Regards,
Rita
Compliments to your effort and dedication.
This is a lovely document of historical value.
Thank you for the trip down memory lane.
And most of all, thank you for sharing!
Hi,
I found your website while looking for a recipie on how to make poh piah skin. What a surprise to see recipies dating back to Merdeka…!
With Chinese New Year around the corner, perhaps you can share some recipies from your grandma notebook for CNY goodies, especially the nonya ones.
Thanks for a wonderful website.
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your compliments.
In my memory, my grandmother was never a big CNY baker – we had other expert nonya relatives to carry the burden of that (like the ones in the poh piah skin making photo on the ‘Recipes List’ page :)!). As you can see from the sweet recipes here, my grandmother also went more for Western baked goods rather than traditional Asian sweets.
Will be putting up a the last few recipes from this notebook (mostly sweet stuff) in the weeks to come, then move onto the next notebook.
Hi,
I’m so glad to have found your blog. Your grandma must be glad to have you pass down her recipes. Really a ‘nice’ way to ensure the continuity of forgotten memories and precious mementos left by our forefathers. :)
I will take time to browse through the recipes and let you know when i’ve tried it. :)
Hi Rita (sorry for taking so long to reply) and Aimei,
Thanks for your compliments. I’ve just had a look at your individual baking blogs and want to say they are very impressive! I’m sure you’ll both be able to execute my grandmother’s recipes better than I could :). Would love to hear your reports if you try any.
Hello!
I discovered your site when I Googled “ngoh hiang” and wanted to say thank you for sharing your grandmother’s recipes.
It is indeed a privilege to see her actual hand-written recipes and notes – she had such lovely handwriting too!
As a Malaysian whose grandparents were originally from Singapore, your site has certainly struck a chord and evoked a great deal of nostalgia.
Nice!!! :)
Best regards,
Kate
Glad you like my grandmother’s recipes, Kate. Several people have told me the handwriting reminds them very much of their own mother’s and grandmother’s cooking notes too. Thanks to everyone for sharing the nostalgia!
I just found your blog through a link posted on a board I frequent, and I must say it is a real treat to be able to see all those old recipes. Having worked with many “old fashion” recipes, I look forward to trying some of them soon :)
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful treasure-trove of inspiration!
Peace,
Sedim
Thanks, Lady Sedim. Do let us know how my grandmother’s recipes turn out if you try them and perhaps share some tips on working with old recipes too :).
Hi! nice of u to post these recipes.
Tried your pineapple tarts. Gd. But I changed a little here and there.
I notice there is another one at jodelibakery.netfirms.com.
Is it your website?
Thanks for trying, column01 and glad it was successful! Changing and adapting recipes is all part of the cooking process, I think. Sometimes it’s necessary because of different local ingredients, altitude, humidity or just personal taste. I find it very hard to follow any recipe exactly, which is a bit more risky when it comes to baking compared to cooking!
Nope, I’m not jodelibakery.netfirms.com.
Hello — Yours is a wonderful site, made more charming by the scanned and beautifully handwritten notes of your granny’s. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Josh :).
I absolutely love what you have done. I truly believe in recipes and creations beyond just ingredients. Your blog is full of love, memories and heart warming stories.
I can’t wait to begin trying out the recipes. I’m sure they will take me back to the times where food meant family. Having been away from home for so long makes me appreciate our Malaysian/singaporean cuisine so much more.
I really hope you’ll be keeping this great project of yours up. Looking forward to more recipes from Nice.
Sincerely;
Su
Hi Su Yin,
Thanks for your kind words and encouragement. I will try to keep updating this blog regularly until I have completely exhausted grandma’s notebooks :).
Love the culinary academy stories on your blog – plenty to learn from you :).
Dear Niceties,
Just need to check with you, do you have done the production and supply the Egg Skin to customer? what i means is do you selling the egg skin or do you know where can i get the egg skin in Malaysia.
Thanks & regards,
Jenny.
Dear Jenny,
Sorry, I am not in the food business. I am merely documenting my grandmother’s home cooking experiences.
I’m in Singapore and not familiar with where to get things in Malaysia. Maybe other readers here can help out?
Best wishes.
I have been looking for an achar recipe for a long time, I remember the church in Kota Kinabalu used to make for sale at church’s jumble sale. I loved it but I haven’t had any since moving to the USA 25 years ago. I’m going to make it soon. Thank you! I’m going to try a lot more recipes from this blog besides the achar. These are the things I grew up with when we were still a British colony. Wow, what a treasure!
Hi niceties
I have been asking myself the following question for the past few weeks: Just what happened to Sunday lunch? So, I decided to create a weblog asking the question and inviting others to join in my search for the many answers.
I then decided to look for a picture of a good old fashioned Sunday lunch and stumbled across your website. What a lovely surprise and treasure book of recipes! I have added your website to my Blogroll.
I hope you can share some of your thoughts and insights with me. In anticipation I look forward to our discussions.
Stay blessed!
dandiella
Niceties,
I was searching for a coconut cream pie recipe and found your website. What a treat! Your site is simply inspiring. I have been reading through the recipes and found several that sound wonderful. I can’t wait to make them. Thank you for sharing your grandmother’s love for cooking.
Adele
Dandiella,
Thanks for your message. Do share your blog URL with us so that we can read more about what you mean by “Sunday Lunch”. I think a special weekly meal for the extended family to gather still persists for families who feel this kind of interaction is important. However, in the modern world where many people live increasingly far away from their families and relatives, it’s not so easy to gather weekly.
Adele,
Thank you for appreciating grandma’s cooking notes and your kind compliments. Hope you can preserve your own family’s culinary heritage in your own way too :). Do leave more comment if you try any of the recipes – thanks!
What a wonderful blog! Your grandmother’s handwriting looks eerily similar to my own grandmother’s (she lived in neighbouring Malaysia) and I too have her recipe book!
Hi Su-Lin,
Thanks for your compliments.
I think it the style of penmanship people of that generation were taught in colonial schools :).
You’re very lucky to have your grandmother’s recipe book – a very precious heirloom! Did you by any chance pick up your cooking skills from your grandmother too (what an extensive cooking blog you have!) :)?
Hi niceties – no, unfortunately, my grandmother passed away before I was born so I never knew her. But I know what she liked to cook and bake through her cookbook!
Hi Su-Lin,
All the best in creating your own culinary tradition to pass down to your own grandchildren :)!
Just browsing thru and am very impressed! Will have to visit again. Side story..we just did a coffee book “Memories and Flavours”for our mum’s 80th b’day. She isn’t as sophisticated as your ma-ma but the love of cooking is the same.
Thanks for your compliments, Chris. I would like to see your family’s coffee table book — is it available in Singapore bookshops?
And wonderful that your mum gets to see her recipes in print, I was too late with this blog for my grandma to enjoy ….
This is the 1st time visiting your blog. It’s really unique, I like the hand writing and the personal touch to it. So heart warming.
Aside from being speechless of your unselfish sharing, i’m thankful that you shared.
Keep your grandma cooking legend going … It will stay in many people hearts.
wonderful dedication for your grandma
ur grandma was beautiful
Thanks for the kind comments, Nick :).
And your Grandma was beautiful too.
this is from HK, how unique your site is it ^^ I am already preoccupied by your site. I understood your feeling how captivating it is , in the course of tracing back your grandma memories , and I would love to try those traditional receipts ^^
Hi
Is your ma-ma Cantonese? So is mine! :D
I love cantonese food
Hi, I love your wonderful blog with the sepia photos and unique handwritten recipes, reminds me of ones my mom has. I told Twitter world about your lovely site. My blog is not up to snuff but working on it. My mom was born in S’pore and dad from Malacca, so very familiar with many of your recipes. I’m going to experiment with some. It’s so much work that I’ve never had time to pursue. Thnx for sharing. We had family reunions in Penang and S’pore in last two years and will blog about them.
Hi, you have such a wonderful blog with great stories, photos and recipes! I give you kudos for capturing the past through food and I definitely resonate with what you are doing. I used to work at the National Museum in Singapore and I lived in Singapore all my childhood and teenagehood even though my family is from Indonesia. I have a cookbook coming out called “The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook.” I’m so glad I found you (through Robyn at Eating Asia)! Take care!
Dear Niceties,
I came across your blog today while looking for a recipe for ladies fingers. What struck me was the hand-written recipes that your grandma left behind. It reminds me so much of my mum and it’s made me so sad ‘cos my mum now suffers from dementia. Her handwriting was so similar to your grandma’s – each letter so beautifully and carefully written. And like your grandma, she used to scribble down recipes, except they didn’t have precise measurements – it was a little of this, a little of that. I was somewhat frustrated then, but as I began cooking myself, I realised that you can’t really follow everything from a recipe. It is really a lot of agak agak and experience. But she was such a great cook. And I really miss her cooking :(
Dear Isabella,
Thanks for sharing your personal stories about your mum and learning to cook. My grandma didn’t cook much in her last years too so these are really memories from my childhood past too. All the best.
[…] then I came across this blog called ‘Nostalgic Recipes from Nice‘. Nice is the name of the author’s grandma. I read some of the things she wrote – […]
Dear Niceties,
this is such a great blog.. I also have a handwritten book by my mom.. written mainly in the 60’s and 70’s.. it is now being eaten away.. I have to scan those pages before they are gone for good.
Keep up the good work, I love the recipes and the photos!
Well Done!
-Naz
Thank you for a unique blog and for sharing all of your grandmother’s wonderful memories. I’m sure she would have been very pleased if she knew the effect she’s had on your culinary interests and abilities.
Certain strangers from around the world can now appreciate your grandmother through your blog.
Also, thank goodness there is no reference to “…add one can of cream of mushroom soup”!
Good luck!
When I was googling for Pong Tauhu when I came across your website.
I still have hand written recipes by my late Mama Elsie. Very similar handwriting ( Convent school training) & measurements. 1/2 ct or 1 ct worth of chilli . A thumbsize of assam & 1 goli of blachan etc.
My grandaunt Daisy use to lunch with a lady called Nice. Could she be your Mama?
I was born in South Africa in 1957 – at an early age I called my grandmother “Nice” – and the name stuck.
This is a great site and tribute to your grandmother.
See page 52 for “Nice’s Fudge” at http://www.scribd.com/doc/9270610/RB2-20081221
Regards,
Rich
What a wonderful way of paying tribute to your grandmother. Thank you for sharing your family treasure with us as these recipes must be flavored by the many many beautiful memories and moments that you have of/with your grandma.
I chanced upon your site whilst looking for ngoh hiang recipes. It’s such a delight to meet someone like you – so willing to share your grandma’s recipes. They so remind me of my husband’s late Eurasian grandma and her recipes, so meticulously writtenly in cursive.
The soojee cake recipe is a revelation! So different! I must try it out in honour of Grandma Nice someday! Thank you.
Thanks for your history and sharing the recipes from your grandmother. I am going to try the basic cake recipe. It’s looks like an easy recipe that might not fail.
Thanks,
Catherine