This thesis traces the culinary history and evolution of Singaporean Teochew food after more than 150 years of migration. Through ethnographical field trips to Singaporea nd Chaoshan, and a secondary literature review of sociology, history, and anthropological fields, the paper investigates if and how Singaporean Teochew food has evolved vis-à-vis Chinese Teochew food. It introduces a framework for understanding this evolution, separating Singaporean Teochew dishes into localised, meaning dishes that have undergone small adaptations informed by the new environment; and hybridised, meaning dishes that have undergone substantive adaptations from their Chinese Teochew roots. The paper finds that Singaporean Teochew food has changed in a variety of ways, informed by intra-cultural pressures, inter-cultural pressures, ecological factors, and political reasons. Further, it finds that the historical context of Chinese immigration to Singapore is a salient factor in shaping the culinary consciousness and path dependencies that inform the development of Singaporean Teochew food.

This article looks at how Romans had diets similar in nutritional function and aesthetic form to modern cosmopolitan societies. Most citizens had regular access to a well-balanced diet containing a variety of foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and grain, cooked with exotic spices such as Indian black pepper that was regularly affordable to the masses. The difference between the culinary condition of the classes was rather, in form than in function, similar to contemporary post-industrial revolution class societies. Here, elites distinguished themselves through the aesthetic value of food, rather than function.