How Peranakan heritage inspired Ripple Root to create the Tatler Dining Guide 2024 cover

What is your favourite local dish and why?
Liquan Liew: Bak chor mee, because it is uniquely Singaporean.  Every time I'm away, I crave that special mix of savoury and vinegary aromas that can only be found in a bowl of bak chor mee. Also, it will always be mee kia for me.

Estella Ng: I personally love satay, popiah, and mee jiang kueh (peanut pancake). Snacks can always double as mains for me!

How would you describe your relationship with local food?
Liew: Local cuisine is super comforting, but I'm also conscious of the fact that it is often prepared with a high amount of salt and oil. Hence, I consider local food a treat, and I will “treat” myself to local food.

Ng:  Nothing beats buying kopi or teh from your regular hawker uncle. They know my order exactly, and they'll ask how my day is going. It’s this personalised experience that makes buying a cup of local coffee so unique yet comforting. 

How has food brought you closer together? 
Liew: We have spent a lot of time together, either hanging out or making art, over the last ten years. So of course we have shared countless meals together, and we also love a good wine session. Over the years, we've learnt so much about each other's eating habits, such as Liquan's homogenous palate and distaste for cream, and Estella's need to always mix sweet and savoury together (like eating desserts with the main dish), and her habit of waiting for ice cream to melt because she thinks it tastes better that way. 

Tell us more about the inspirations and references behind your cover. 
Ng: We used to work till late at Estella's parents' place near Labrador Park, so we would often dapao food from Pasir Panjang Food Centre, which is famous for its char kway teow, sambal stingray, BBQ chicken wings, and satay. All of these dishes have been woven into the cover art for the guide—forever immortalising this core food memory of ours.

How did you work together to design the cover? 
Liew: We imagined it as a top-down view of a beautiful porcelain dish, and the two of us are the phoenixes having a wine-and-dine. Swirling around us are our favourite local delights. We took turns painting our favourite dishes and responding to each other's strokes, just like a game of tag. And everything was hand-painted in one setting, as per our usual practice. Of course, each of us had a glass of wine in one hand to keep things fun and light.

The cover is inspired by Peranakan design. As part-Peranakans, why did you think it was important to showcase your Peranakan identity? 
Ng: We love paying homage to our heritage and love being inspired by batik motifs and Southeast Asian ornamentation and patterning, which we put our own whimsical spin on. It's especially apt because Peranakans are known for our love for food, family, and hosting. Just think of tok panjang, the Peranakan term for a feast of dishes laid out on a “long table”.  We love having everyone gathered around the dining table, where laughter, fun, and good food abound.

What other “easter eggs” should we look out for in the cover? 
Liew: See if you can spot the siew mai, you tiao (fried dough sticks) dipping into tau huay (beancurd pudding), and that bottle of red wine! 

What is the most important thing you wanted to convey in your design? 
Ng: Food is nothing without the pleasure of sharing it with someone!