(New Book) The [Other] / [Same Different] Vegetable

sheere — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 04:30:53 +0000

I have been wondering about the names of vegetables for a while. I cook, buy groceries and speak their names in Mandarin, English and sometimes Malay. I have noticed that a fruit’s or vegetable’s name can mean different, sometimes contradicting things in different languages. Tomato is a “Caucasian brinjal” to the Hokkien. 白菜 (“white vegetable”) is a “Chinese cabbage” to English speakers. Soursop is a “Dutch durian” to the Malay speakers. Investigating these and other names reveals colonial legacies and cultural biases. We may or may not hold these prejudices today, but we imply them when we say our vegetables’ names.

From the chapter “Which is the other? A tale of two celeries.”

Marketing labels add adjectives to the names of fruits and vegetables, influencing how we think about them too. “Sweet”, “airflown”, “Japanese”, “premium” and many more have been used to create distinctions among the same types of vegetables, mostly to raise their value. While one could use science to dispute these distinctions, I recently found out that taxonomy itself isn’t free from commercial influences. Decisions to lump or split plants depended on what colonial botanists considered was valuable for trade. This gave me the idea to create a new taxonomy for commercial vegetables, to highlight the ludicrosity of labelling languages while also acknowledging the capitalistic motivations of the 18th-century classification system.

And so I published a small book. Side A features seven stories about fruit and vegetable names and the implications of their use today. Each story comes with an illustration by Sokkuan Tye that cleverly conveys the absurdity and humour that I may or may not have properly delivered through words. Side B covers my experiment with the new vegetable taxonomy and my critique of four types of labels that mystify rather than clarify the plants we eat. Almost Useful designed the book, using typography to help differentiate the vegetables discussed.

The book is available here.

(Not so) New Book!

sheere — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 10:28:26 +0000

When Cooking was a Crime

“Chamber pots as cooking pots. Blankets as fuel. Cooking was no easy task for those in prison. Moreover, it was illegal. But that did not stop male inmates in Singapore’s prisons and Drug Rehabilitation Centres (DRCs) during the 1970s and 1980s. Driven by the desires for a hot meal and a sense of freedom, they invented ways and means to “masak” with the little resources they had.

When Cooking Was A Crime offers a rare glimpse into the flavours of prison life based on the memories of eight former inmates. Through photographic recreations and interviews, it explores how food and cooking took on new meanings and tastes for those living behind bars.”

Research and Text by Sheere Ng
Photography by Don Wong
Design by Practice Theory
Published by In Plain Words

Stockists
Singapore: In Plain Words / Basheer Graphic Books / Kinokuniya / Objectifs / Temporary Unit
South Korea: The Book Society
Thailand: Books & Belonging
USA: Inga Bookshop / Kitchen Arts and Letters / Draw Down Books / Hennessey + Ingalls

Books – Sheere Ng

(New Book) The [Other] / [Same Different] Vegetable

(Not so) New Book!