Preserving Heritage in Art & Food
YC is my favourite Singaporean muralist; he does an important & beautiful work preserving our Singaporean heritage through his paintings. He recently completed a 3-storey in Chinatown – it’s on my To-See List. View another one of his murals here and here.
Last year, he had a studio exhibition of works on canvas (and wood, blinds, table tops) where I enjoyed the work featured above.
Looking closer, I had to get some real life examples of the foods & bird cages he depicted:
A quintessentially Singaporean breakfast of kaya (coconut custard) toast, soft-boiled eggs, tea/coffee. This used to be my breakfast of choice at the end of many a run, pre-pandemic. I have not eaten out in public since.
水粿 Shui Kueh (literally “water cake”) is a steamed rice cake, served with preserved radish. Although a popular breakfast food, my most recent fond memories of this food is at the end of Marriage Encounter meetings, when it is almost always present at our potluck suppers.
Loving Husband ran to get this image for me from one of the few remaining birdsong venues.
🖼️ 🖼️ 🖼️
Manja at Embarassment of Riches’ has a This day in my Blogging History segment at the end of each of her posts. I am inspired to peek back at my old posts from around this day to see what caught my attention then:
- 25 Jan 2021: Monday Mural: Evolution (coincidentally, a mural from Penang, Malaysia)
- 29 Jan 2020: Rural Charm (a whimsical door in Ipoh, Malaysia)
- 30 Jan 2019: The Changing Seasons (winter in London, UK)
- 25 Jan 2018: Silence in Bangkok – Peaceful morning runs (quieter side of Bangkok, Thailand)
- 13 Jan 2017: And the sun rises (London, UK)
🖼️ 🖼️ 🖼️
This post is my contribution to One Word Sunday: Heritage hosted by Debbie at Travel with Intent
Touring My Backyard 
A very different breakfast apart from the soft poached? eggs. Loved the bird singing event and mural.
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They are soft poached eggs, Amanda – good eye! Did you get to taste this when you visited? Thank you for enjoying the mural with me!
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I don’t believe I have had the pleasure of coconut custard. Next time I am in your lovely country, I will be sure to try it. Lately, I have been eating a lot of coconut flavoured foods.
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This is what we’ll have for breakfast when we meet Amanda!
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What a lovely thought!
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I find artwork about food so satisfying. 🙂
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I know, right? and he is preserving heritage as well, so all the more exciting!
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What a wonderful idea, beautifully executed! I also enjoyed learning about a typical Singaporean breakfast. Sounds delicious!
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I am delighted that you enjoyed the conceit & planning that went into this post, Carol Ann! Maybe one day you will visit Singapore and it would be my pleasure to introduce to you other Singaporean breakfast foods (there is a reason breakfast is my favourite meal of the day – except ironically, my personal favourites are PB&J toast & pancakes!)
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They make great blinds! I love the birdcages. Intrigued by coconut custard though?
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It is a custard that quintessentially South East Asian:
https://rasamalaysia.com/kaya-recipe-malaysian-coconut-egg-jam/
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It sounds really lovely, Ju-Lyn. I enjoyed reading about it so thanks for the details.
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I am delighted to share my foodie obsessions with anyone who would listen – I am glad you asked, Jo!
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I love this post Ju-Lyn. Such a great idea to pull together the murals with real photos.
Aside from your pictures, one thing grabs my attention … What is a Marriage Encounter meeting?
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Marriage Encounter is a marriage movement we are a part of … to make good marriages better. We meet regularly to support each other in our couple journey.
https://wwmesg.org/
Thanks so much for taking interest.
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What a lovely mural and a different, but yummy-looking, breakfast to what I’m used to. So glad to see that you keep doing your blogging memories. Thank you for linking to my memorable event. 🙂
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I love that we are able to connect in so many different ways – such fun! We don’t always enjoy these traditional Singaporean brekkies – it’s also a special treat for us! (It’s usually just toast with peanut butter or beans on toast for me)
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Great art
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Thank you for popping in to enjoy it with me!
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Beautiful murals! And the food looks fantastic. How I would love to try coconut custard as I am crazy about all things coconut.
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Oh, Laurie! you would love so many of our Singaporean sweets then – many of them have coconut milk in them!!!!
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As I LOVE anything coconut, I am sure I would.
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I miss those Singaporean breakfasts. Its been four years now since I last had one!
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Time for a re-visit, Donna!
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I am fascinated by the Birdsinging Club. People really bring their bird cages so the birds can sing to one another? That is one of the most incredible, wonderful things I’ve ever heard.
Also, I, of course, want to try ALL those foods! 🙂
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The birdsinging used to be a common sight & sound in all little neighbourhoods … very musical mornings!
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That is SO lovely! Oh, what a treasure!!!
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This weekend, I thought of you when we ran through a little neighbourhood enclave right into the midst of birdsinging aficionados. We stopped to listen a while, snap some pics, marvel at the little swings & toys each bird had.
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Awwwwww!!!! How lovely! What a stupendous time to be thought of, Ju-Lyn. Thank you for telling me and for enjoying that moment on my behalf. 🙂
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I think about you a lot these days when we are doing our run explorations … I found a Durian cafe which I am going to take you to when you visit! They do cakes & pastries with said fruit … maybe you might actually like those.
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Oh my gooooosssshhhh! That sounds FABULOUS! I can’t wait. Would be so amazing if I was actually able to do this some day! Here’s hoping (and praying)!
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I can see why he’s your favourite Singapore muralist!
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I love his aesthetic & subject matter! And that he generates so much new work! It’s so exciting to discover his murals!
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