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 …
If soup is my comfort food, curry is a treat. Soup soothes my soul but curry stirs excitement. What kind of spices is in the curry? Are there potatoes in it? Will it be too spicy? The thing with curries is that you’ll never know until you take a bite. I have long searched for …
People often say: never trust a thin cook. Well, you can trust that a thin cook cooks food that keeps you slim. My palate naturally gravitates to light and healthier food. I’ll choose asam laksa over char koay teow, and kuih bingka over pisang goreng. When I cook, I tend to cook lighter food – even if …
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 …
This miso soup is without tofu or spring onions – two fresh ingredients that I don’t always have at home. It’s made with three basic ingredients – homemade dashi stock, miso paste and wakame. You could use dashi granules, but I always like to make my own stock. Understandably, in a typical Malaysian kitchen, we …
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 …
During my growing years, sometimes I eat up to two bowls of rice for dinner. Despite my mother preparing lavish meals with at least four different dishes (excluding Chinese soup), my siblings and I will still be hungry near bedtime. We will then voice our plight to our parents. I guess it’s not easy to raise …
Easy Malaysian Fried Hokkien Mee Noodles – 10 ingredients Read More »
Crispy pork lard has a bad reputation of clogging arteries hence shortening one’s life. But I am raised in a family which has a good relationship with food – no matter how ‘unhealthy’ some food are claimed to be. We happily eat everything moderately. In my family, we consume crispy pork lard cautiously and in …
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 »