SINGAPORE — Even while some of us shamelessly anticipate a highly plausible How To Serve Up A Real Tease cookbook from international burlesque queen Dita Von Teese, closer to home a new release on the life of 1950s queen of the sultry art, “Asia’s undisputed” Rose Chan, hits the stands.

In No Bed Of Roses (The Rose Chan Story), her trusted confidante and author Cecil Rajendra leads the reader through the accomplished ballroom dancer-turn exotic entertainer’s struggles and triumphs, notably her way around colonial decency laws of the time, right up to a losing battle with cancer at the age of 62.

Interestingly, Chan was also said to be a passionate cook, a fact not lost in this atypical biographical account. From a recipe for fried brinjal (eggplant) served “hot, hot!” to a classic assam ikan (tamarind fish curry), which Chan shared also works nicely with admittedly one of her favourite vegetables; “… you can cut a large terung (eggplant) into two-inch long pieces and slip it in …”

The 26 recipes aren’t exactly gourmet, and according to the author might not have been precise or “culinary correct” to begin with. But the inclusive selection of ten “risque recipes” at the end of chapter three is cleverly inserted. They are, nonetheless, nostalgic of the influential era, when a product like Ve-tsin was both a sexual upper and a flavour enhancer. DON MENDOZA

No Bed Of Roses — The Rose Chan Story (S$23) will be available at major bookstores in July.