The Crisped, the Baked, the Spiralled: Curry Puffs and Their History

Award-winning writer Christopher Tan talks how the Indian samosa led to the curry puffs we know today, as well as the different types of curry puffs – baked, spiralled, made with mutton fat and fillings like otak-otak and taro.

Christopher Tan is a food writer, culinary instructor and photographer. His articles, columns, recipes and photographs have appeared in many publications, including Singapore’s Sunday Times and Straits Times, The Peak magazine, and America’s Saveur magazine. He has authored and co-authored many cookbooks, most recently Nerdbaker 2: Tales from the Yeast Indies (2024).

What Christopher Talked About01:56 – What a curry puff is02:24 – Types A, B, C curry puffs05:35 – How Christopher became fascinated with curry puffs12:06 – Curry puff vs samosa vs Cornish pasty16:17 – Portuguese empanadas and Southeast Asian connections21:46 – The earliest curry puff recipe in Singapore29:10 – Why modern curry puffs rarely use pork31:14 – The three curry puffs made for From Book to Cook33:20 – Traditional fats used in layered pastry40:39 – Why spiral curry puffs stay crispy44:21 – Christopher’s research process for developing recipes47:51 – How the curry puff scene has changed since the 1920s53:58 – Curry puffs are…

Transcript and ResourcesRead the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/podcast-the-crisped-the-baked-the-spiralled-curry-puffs-and-their-historyWatch Christopher make the curry puffs: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/video-curry-puffs

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This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Christopher for coming on the show.

Produced by the National Library Singapore, the BiblioAsia Podcast tells stories about Singapore history.