Belacan or shrimp paste is an essential ingredient in Malaysian cuisine. This pungent but delicious seafood produce is used in many popular traditional food in Malaysia such as nasi lemak and asam laksa. Belacan is raw and need to be cooked. At supermarket, you can also find those that are pre-toasted in sliced and powdered …
If the Germans are proud of their engineering, the Americans their rights, and the Japanese their efficiency and cleanliness – the Malaysians are most proud of their food. In Malaysia, food is available 24 hours a day (yes, even at 3 am!), almost everywhere. and very affordable. There is plenty of different cuisines to choose …
Top 10 Food To Eat In Malaysia (according to a Chef) Read More »
Since writing about How to choose good quality Gula Melaka a few years ago, I have received a lot of questions about where to get good ones. For my cooking class, I was searching high and low for high quality palm sugar in Kuala Lumpur for making Peanut Sauce of Satay and Sago Gula Melaka (Sago …
Where to buy good quality Gula Melaka (palm sugar) in Kuala Lumpur Read More »
Do you know that besides the four basic taste (i.e sweet, sour, salty, and bitter), there’s another flavour called umami? A Japanese scientist managed to extract a substance called glutamate from kombu seaweed and discovered that its combination with salt creates a ‘pleasant savoury taste’. That is how MSG was created and slowly permeates supermarkets, restaurants, and …
Dried Shrimp / Udang Kering Powder (‘Homemade MSG’) Read More »
At a dinner party, I made heaps of food including a huge pot of lala soup. The pot of soup was supposed to be something fast and easy to make, amongst other food that took more time e.g fried chicken. While cooking it took me no more than 10 minutes, cleaning the clams took a …
Q: Why you should soak grains (like rice) before cooking? Answer: Soaking grains making the grains more mineral-available and improve digestibility. I love eating healthy, carbs and all. As I believe in eating a balance meal, I watches the ‘gluten-free’ and ‘no carbs’ trend with immense incredulity. Is grains really that bad? After some research, …
Why you should soak grains (like rice) before cooking? Read More »
Q: How your gut bacteria might be making you fat & how to improve your gut flora In the recent years, while poring through articles and books on health, one topic keeps cropping up: gut health. Even in JewelPie’s last interview with Sara Ding, a health coach who advocates juicing, it was mentioned that the …
How your gut bacteria might be making you fat & how to improve your gut flora Read More »
Q: What kind of cooking oil is the healthiest, and what do you normally use? Answer: The healthiest cooking oil is unrefined, and contain little toxic ‘trans-fatty acid’. Monounsaturated oil is healthier. Unlike saturated fats, it does not cause cholesterol to accumulate. Mediterranean people consume abundance of olive oil (highest in monounsaturated fats), and despite eating …
What kind of cooking oil is the healthiest & what do you normally use? Read More »
Q: How is sea salt different from regular salt? Why does celebrity Chef like Jamie Oliver always recommends sea salt? Answer: Many chef values quality ingredients and is discerning in the produce that they use. Table salt is not recommended as has chemical aftertaste, and has strong salty flavour. Whereas sea salt is milder and …
Huge tuna at the Tsukiji Fish Market. Large predatory fishes at the top of the food chain are likely to accumulate more toxins. Q: What fish is most nutritious and less contaminated with mercury? I’ve recently returned from a trip to Penang, an island famous for its delicious food like char koay teow, asam laksa and …
What fish is most nutritious & less contaminated with mercury? Read More »
I was on the plane, sitting next to a Malaysian who just graduated from university and Australian lady who in her sixties is already a great-grandmother. As we spoke about myriad of things, our situations naturally reveal our age. When they found out that I was approaching thirty, the Australian was impressed “Asians always look much …
I’ve been making cold-pressed juices a few times a week. Somehow, drinking fresh juice made me think about the cleanliness and safety of them in a way that I never do in cooked food. As I have not decided to buy organic produce, I’m concern also about the pesticide residual in them. So I did …