Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore
SynopsisPlot
Singaporean cuisine, as we know it today, has come from a long history of adjusting and adapting and doing things ‘to taste’. In Agak Agak, Shu Han Lee encapsulates this approach to cooking by sharing delicious recipes that bring punchy Singaporean flavors to simple home cooking, whilst encouraging you to use these recipes as inspiration to create other dishes. Try classic and modern recipes such as Kaya Toast with Half-Boiled Eggs, Nasi Goreng, 8-hour Ox Cheek Rendang, Green Beans with Turmeric and Toasted Coconut, Chilli Crab Spaghetti, Mum’s Steamed Pumpkin Rice, Pandan Swiss Roll and Black Sticky Rice Pudding with Rhubarb, amongst others.
Story
About this book
Agak Agak is a Singaporean cookbook by Shu Han Lee built around the idea that cooking can stay flexible and personal. The Malay phrase agak agak means to estimate or to judge by eye, and it describes how many home cooks have long worked: adjusting seasonings, swapping ingredients, and trusting instinct rather than strict measurements. Lee uses this principle as the spine of the book, presenting recipes as starting points instead of fixed instructions.
The collection spans both familiar Singaporean dishes and newer creations shaped by the same flavors. Recipes include kaya toast with half-boiled eggs, nasi goreng, an eight-hour ox cheek rendang, green beans with turmeric and toasted coconut, and chilli crab spaghetti. Sweets such as pandan Swiss roll and black sticky rice pudding with rhubarb sit alongside savory staples. Some dishes, like the steamed pumpkin rice credited to the author's mother, carry a domestic history alongside their ingredients.
Singapore's food culture draws on Malay, Chinese, Indian, and other traditions, and its everyday cooking reflects generations of adaptation. Lee's approach mirrors that wider pattern, encouraging home cooks to treat each recipe as a framework they can reshape with whatever is available or preferred.
