I'm Going Home

Here are some food thoughts I'm excited about as I pack for my annual visit home. What's home? My passport says Singapore. But in practice, it's the entire region of South and Southeast Asia that I miss and think of as home. I've lived in, and eaten in, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Myanmar; and spent substantial amounts of time in other countries in the region.

I'm interested in food culture, food ways, migration, food access, the impact of our colonial past, new food trends, enduring traditions, what people eat and don't and why.

I'll be in Singapore, then Surabaya, and I can't wait because (1) I love tropical weather (2) I love the food from these two cities.

Things you can expect in the coming weeks:

• Breakfast in Singapore
• The excellent Chinese food of Surabaya
• Spotlight on Indonesian coffee
• The Yemeni food of Singapore and Malaysia
• Indonesian food you're unlikely to see in a restaurant in the West
• The changing meaning of 'Chinese food' in Singapore
• Coffee shop talk: kopi and teh culture
• Hawker centre, food court, kopitiam, restaurant: what are the differences?
• The best Malay food in Singapore
• Vegan Malay, Korean, Japanese food and where to get them in Singapore
• Fast Food Delights in Southeast Asia
• Southeast Asian Fusion Cuisines You've Probably Never Heard Of
• Little India, Little Burma: where to go and what to eat

Along the way, I'll meet interesting people. I plan to interview some distant family members who run food stalls. I hope to discuss some historical family recipes with people. I want to talk to my friends, who between them know more than I can ever hope to know.

Hopefully, I'll be able to share a sense of what 'food' and 'home' feel like to me: delicious, warm, and happy, and when I return to the Bay Area I'll be able to reconfigure this space to also showcase Asian, Mexican and other immigrant foods in a similarly meaningful way.