Since I hit puberty, my mother started making for me two types of drink: a very bitter medicinal soup called ‘Pat ChanTong’ (八珍汤) and Red Dates Tonic (紅棗水). Though I hated the former, I could tolerate the latter. My mother made it almost every week. As I was more interested in other sweet beverages (e.g …
Do you know the sour, spicy, and rather pungent soup served in small metal bowl when you have banana leaf rice? It’s called rasam. It wasn’t love at first taste. I didn’t learn to like it until a few years back. The spice can be a little too much to handle. But then, what we …
Easy Malaysian Rasam (Indian Soup) – 10 Ingredients Read More »
“Who eats vegetables for breakfast?” he asked when I help myself with ratatouille during breakfast in a hotel at Paris recently. “The French?” I replied. “Weird” said he. This is another dish I make to include more vegetables into my love one’s diet. How do you convince a boy who loves steaks and ignore vegetables to …
Easy Chinese Chives Pancake – 3 main ingredients Read More »
As my family is of Hakka descent, we love making typical Hakka dishes like Yong Tau Foo and Hakka Stuffed Oyster. I remember we have Yong Tau Foo almost every week! My father would buy huge tenggiri (mackerel) from Pudu market, and my mother will be scrapping the meat with a spoon and bouncing the fish …
Steam Tofu With Fish Paste & Oyster Sauce – 10 min Read More »
I first tasted sardine paratel at a cafe which offers modern local cuisine. One of their most popular sandwich is toasted bread with sardine paratel fillings. The common canned sardine is made so much more interesting with spices; browned onions, fragrant curry leaves, and hot chillies. This is an incredibly easy dish when you’re in …
If there’s one dish that I am crazy about, it must be asam laksa. This noodle has all combination of flavours: sour, spicy, sweet, salty, and umami. The thick broth made from local spices, tamarind, and fish flakes is divine. My love for asam laksa is beyond normal. When I was a kid, my father used to cook …
For years I’ve been persuading my busy friends to occasionally make home-cooked food to nourish themselves. I know it’s hard – most of them are young professionals with no time, skills, or interest to cook. But learning to cook for yourself (even if once in a while) is very important. It makes you more aware …
When I eat out, it is mostly to hang out with friends; food is secondary. We’ll try new restaurants (normally hipster-ish) and talk more than we eat. When I do go out for lunch to fill my stomach, I almost always choose Japanese food. The Japanese restaurant in Selangor Club Bukit Kiara is my go-to lunch …
Chawanmushi (Japanese Steamed Egg) – 5 ingredients Read More »
One of my constant battle in eating well is consuming enough leafy vegetables; Malaysian food is severely lacking in greens. In Vietnam, each dish comes with a huge plate of local vegetables and herbs. In Japan and Korea, where presentation of food is very important, meals are mostly accompanied with colourful vegetables. When I came …
Japanese Spinach Salad (Ohitashi) – 4 ingredients + 5 min Read More »
Japanese cuisine has a special place in my heart. At sixteen, I went on a student exchange programme to a little town in Ishikawa called Komatsu (小松市). Then, the ignorant teenager that I was thought the Japanese only raw food like sushi and sashimi, both which I didn’t learn to love yet. But my host …
Japanese Stock (Dashi With Kombu & Bonito Flakes) – 3 ingredients Read More »
Image credit: Sammie Tan of Grey Rabbit Studio A comfort soup with ‘cooling’ properties, perfect for the hot weather. Slow cooking this soup will soften the mature melon, and extract the maximum umami flavour from the dried seafood, and the natural sweetness of the dates. The result is a concentrated and delicious soup. This Chinese …
One weekend, after hiking and intense squat exercise at a hill near where I live, I found myself in a hipster cafe. This modern cafe is furnished with wooden fittings, offers smoothie bowls, cold-pressed juice, and other superfood-laden dishes. My exercise buddies and I thought: how can we ruin hours of exercise with unhealthy food? So this …
Pink Pittaya Smoothie Bowl – 5 ingredients + 5 min Read More »