From The Straits Times    |


Selena, you were the eldest of three girls before Roy was born. What was it like having a boy in the family?
Selena: I wrote a poem for my school’s newsletter when he was born. The first line went: “My brother, Roy, is a bundle of joy!”

Does that mean you were especially protective of him?
Roy: More like bossy! When I was seven, Selena tried teaching me how to swim – by pulling me up by the hair and ordering me to breathe, before dropping my head back into the water.
Selena: No wonder you don’t like swimming. That’s terrible. I’m sorry. But why didn’t you know how to swim?
Roy: See what I mean by bossy? Selena is the only one I still call “Jie” (elder sister), because she used to be quite fierce. That said, the five of us (sisters Rosemary and Jessica, plus youngest brother Ray) are very close.

What’s the secret to your close bond?
Selena: Our parents made us do practically everything together, like music lessons – Rosemary on the organ, Jessica, Roy and I on the piano, while Ray learnt the violin.
Roy: We share a love for music and food. My sisters, especially Selena, used to cook for me when I was younger.
Selena: All the siblings can sing. For our parents’ 40th wedding anniversary three years ago, we recorded an album of our favourite hits, with our parents and in-laws.

Did Selena’s influence have anything to do with you becoming a musician?
Roy: Not really, but my first guitar was Selena’s – she’d wanted to learn but gave it up. I knew I wanted to play the blues when I was 12…
Selena: How did you know what the blues were? You were 12!
Roy: I heard Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire. I asked my piano teacher if she could teach me how to play the blues – she said she couldn’t but could teach me Richard Clayderman instead (laughs). So I quit piano, and taught myself the guitar.
Selena: Roy’s a talented musician; he released an album when he was 17. Now, he plays in a band called Of Leos And Virgos, at the Prince Of Wales pub along Boat Quay.

Have you performed together?
Roy: I accompanied her on the guitar when she did her solo concert (Selena Tan: One Singular Sensation) at the Esplanade, and most recently, at Pink Dot 2014.

Who’s the bigger foodie?
Roy: I have no qualms about queuing for up to 1 hours for food. Once, I had a craving for Kuala Lumpur Hokkien mee, so a friend and I drove all the way there – only to find the stall closed! I had to settle for mee goreng instead.
Selena: I would go to London for roast duck. It has to be from the Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant in Bayswater. The duck is extra-juicy and fatty; the sauce is amazing too.
Roy: Selena once brought home four roast ducks. We were supposed to gather at Mum’s place to eat them. But we decided to visit Gardens By The Bay, so she joined us there after she landed. We went to Satay By The Bay and asked one of the zi char stalls to heat the duck up for us! (Laughs)

What are some memorable meals you’ve shared?
Roy: Mum and Dad took us on our first family holiday to the United States in 1988. That was the first time we had Sichuan soup at an American-Chinese restaurant. We loved it so much, Selena took it upon herself to recreate the soup when we got home.
Selena: Every day after school, I’d go to the supermarket to pick up the ingredients and experiment. There was no Internet then, so I had to rely on my memory of how it tasted.
Roy: It’s one of my first and favourite dishes cooked by Selena. I also enjoy our weekly breakfasts together, after I drop my son off at school. When we find something we like, we can eat it every day for months.
Selena: Our current favourites are Eng Watt Street’s bak chor mee, and the prawn noodles and kway chap from Pepys Road.

How would you rate each other’s cooking?
Selena: It’s a nine for Roy. Like my mum, he can tell what’s in a dish or what’s missing from it, just by taste. I’m not so good at that.
Roy: Selena hardly cooks now, but based on her Sichuan soup, I’ll give her a nine too (laughs). I was quite impressed by how she managed to recreate the flavours after only a few tries – it tasted exactly like what we had at the restaurant.

This article was originally published in Simply Her December 2014.