A Tiger in the Kitchen (35 page)

Q: Can you talk about the concept
agak-agak
? It seems more than simply a lack of exact measuring. Has it been relevant or helpful in other ways in your life?

Agak-agak
is the Malay phrase that means “guess guess”—and it was something that I repeatedly heard in my aunties’ kitchens whenever I tried to press them for exact measurements of ingredients for various dishes. Unlike me—who used to follow recipes to the letter in the kitchen because I lacked the confidence to experiment—my aunties and grandmothers were serious cooks who rarely relied on measuring cups or spoons and instead would “taste, taste, taste” and then simply
agak-agak
whether a dish needed more or less salt. When I first started cooking with them, hearing the words
agak-agak
bandied about so much was frustrating—I had come back determined to learn how to make these dishes I’d grown up eating and loving and I didn’t understand why they weren’t helping me in my quest. After a while, however, I learned that they were teaching me an important lesson. Cooking isn’t a science. It isn’t supposed to be. Recipes have a basis, yes, but they are supposed to be organic and can change over time. You just have to trust in yourself enough to wing it sometimes. It’s a lesson that I started to embrace after watching them cook, and as I started helping a little more and gaining more confidence in the kitchen. I believe
agak-agak
is a philosophy that applies to life as well. You can’t and shouldn’t plan every single thing out. Sometimes you just have to let go a little and trust yourself.

Q: In what ways are you able to integrate all that you learned about cooking these traditional dishes into what must be a busier everyday life in New York?

Everyday life in New York has and always will be crazy. In my own kitchen, I’ve tried to make some of the dishes that I’ve learned. The dish I probably make the most often is a quick version of the
dau yew bak
or Teochew-style braised duck that my aunties make. Instead of using pork belly or duck, I sometimes use ground beef or pork for simplicity—no chopping involved!—and if I feel like dressing it up a little, I’ll slice up tofu and add that together with a few hard-boiled eggs to the gravy toward the end. It’s a hearty, meaty stew that lasts a few days and gets better over time. The leftovers are perfect for weeknights in New York when I don’t feel like cooking.

About the Author

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
is a New York-based writer who has covered fashion, retail, and home design (and written the occasional food story) for the
Wall Street Journal
. Before that she was the senior fashion writer for
InStyle
magazine and the senior arts writer for the
Baltimore Sun
. Born and raised in Singapore, she studied journalism at Northwestern University. Her work has appeared in the
New York Times
and
Marie Claire
, among many other publications. You can follow her travels and eating adventures at
www.cheryllulientan.com
.

Copyright

Copyright © 2011 Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

“The Moon Represents My Heart” © Copyright. CRC Jianian Publishing/BMI (admin. by EverGreen Copyrights). All rights reserved. Used by permission.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition of this book as follows:

Tan, Cheryl Lu-Lien.
   A tiger in the kitchen : a memoir of food and family / Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan.
      p. cm.
   Summary: “A book about the author’s quest to recreate the dishes of her native Singapore during one Lunar Calendar year, as a way to connect food and family with her sense of home”— Provided by publisher.
   ISBN 978-1-4013-4128-2 (pbk.)
   1. Cooking, Singaporean—Anecdotes. 2. Tan, Cheryl Lu-lien. I. Title.

TX724.5.S55T36 2011
641.595957—dc22

2010035210

eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-9656-5

Hyperion books are available for special promotions and premiums. For details contact the HarperCollins Special Markets Department in the New York office at 212-207-7528, fax 212-207-7222, or email [email protected].

Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover photograph by Ricardo Demurez / Arcangel Images

First eBook Edition

Original paperback edition printed in the United States of America.

www.HyperionBooks.com