Book Review: Coalition of the Savoury Spare Parts

Coalition of the Savoury Spare Parts is a new comic book published by COSH Studios (Comics of Singapore Histories). It's part of the series of comic books that mixes Singapore history into its storytelling. The others that I've reviewed are Final Resting Place and Guidebook to Nanyang Diplomacy.

Coalition of the Savoury Spare Parts? The title of this book is hilarious. It's actually inspired by the Chinese dish called Kway Chap, which consist the selling the spare parts, such as internal organs, of pigs.

The story is about how Lorr, a new intergalactic kitchen helper, has arrived to help Mdm Lam and secretly learn how to make Kway Chap. The sci-fi element only lasts for a few pages at the start where Lorr arrives from outer space on a special train. After that, it's a mix of fantasy especially when the kitchen god and the earth god (another deity) come in.

The story looks at how the Kway Chap is prepared and talks about he Kway Chap competition that Mdm Lam has been winning for years. But this year, Mdm Lam was kidnapped. And Lorr has to win the competition for her as well as rescue her from the kidnappers. Oh, there are some hawker centre politics thrown in as well.

It was quite an entertaining read. What I like was how they blend the hawker centre setting, the food stall owners and some traditions, such as kitchen gods, into the story. For those living in Singapore, we know these things because we visit hawker centres regularly, so it's like taking things that you already know and give them a slight twist.

This book is sold at Kinokuniya Singapore and Books Actually.