How to Make Sambal for Kangkung Belacan

I've shown you in my previous YouTube videos how to make your own chilli paste and how to prepare dried shrimp. In this next segment, I'm going to show you how to use these two ingredients in one recipe. Sambal Recipe INGREDIENTS: ¼ cup oil (I’m using Carotino) 1 cup dried shrimp, soaked, drained and lightly pounded ¾ cup chilli paste 1 » Read More

How to Make Chor Muang (Thai Royal Steamed Dumplings)

One of three rare Thai dishes traditionally served to the Thai royal family, Chor Muang is a steamed dumpling delicately formed into flowers using a pair of tweezers with serrated tips. The purple colour is obtained from the petals of what we call bunga telang in Malaysia; though you can achieve the same effect with food colouring. Chef Wassana is » Read More

How to Cook Sabah Sour Fish Stew (Ikan Ampap)

A simple yet delicious sour fish stew using snapper fillets; recipe and instruction by Chef Elroy of Shangri-La Tanjung Aru, Sabah. INGREDIENTS: 100 g Red snapper (fillet) 10 g Turmeric, fresh (crushed) 25 g Ginger, cleaned (crushed) 20 g Lemongrass, cleaned (quick-knock at the steam) 5 g Lime leaf 20 g Red chilli (seeded) 5 g Asam » Read More

Roti with Banana and Chocolate Sauce

Roti Canai dough is usually flipped, but in this version, Chef Kris rolled it into a thin pastry which is then filled with banana slices. This is one of the dishes from the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Wine Dinner I hosted recently. INGREDIENTS: Roti canai dough - 1 kg strong flour 1 tsp salt 2 egg whites 1 Tbsp ghee 1 Tbsp condensed milk 1 Tbsp » Read More

How to Cook Silken Noodles with Grilled Lobster (Kway Teow Siram)

Kway Teow Siram aka Silken Noodles is very easy to make at home - in this video, I used grilled lobster and tobiko to give it a luxurious twist for the wine dinner I was hosting at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru, Sabah. INGREDIENTS: 250g fresh rice noodles, wide-cut 2 tsp oil ½tsp soya sauce ½ tsp thick soy sauce ½ lobster in shell, brushed with » Read More

How to Cook Sabah Rice Wine Chicken (Ayam Lihing)

Ayam Lihing is a Kadazan Sabah dish that uses chicken and local rice wine; Chef Elroy from Shangri-La Tanjung Aru in Kota Kinabalu shows me how easy it is to prepare. This is the first in a series of 3 Kadazan Sabah dishes I learned during my recent trip to Borneo. One interesting point of difference I picked up which was confirmed by Chef Elroy » Read More

Chiang Mai Travel Diary – Part 2

We land at Chiang Mai and the isolation of this city, 700 kms north of Bangkok, is immediately palpable as we take in the high mountains and vast green fields that surround the airport. Heading to our hotel, I manage to communicate with ease with Shangri-La Chiang Mai’s limousine driver, and my concerns about language barriers is alleviated. » Read More

How to Make Chicken Lorbak (Loh Bak)

Lorbak (aka Loh Bak) is a delicious Nyonya meat roll from Penang that's served with two different types of sauces. Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort's Chef Chai showed me how this is made in this live cooking lesson held recently for guests of the hotel. INGREDIENTS: 1.2 kg Chicken thigh fillets, sliced into thin strips 200 g Turnip (yam bean » Read More

How to Cook Jackie M Prawns – Fish & Hunt Australia

Back in my Concord restaurant days one of the most popular menu items was my Butter Soft-shell Crab - a dish I made up based on various interpretations of the Malaysian butter sauce (not to be confused with the sauce in Indian butter chicken) craze that was taking over restaurant menus in Malaysia. I say “made up” because this “butter sauce” thing » Read More

How to Make Malaysian Prawn Stock

I’m constantly amazed at the popularity of pre-cooked or de-shelled prawns in seafood shops here in Australia, over and above the raw, shell-intact varieties. To me, if they’ve been pre-cooked, the shells (not to mention the meat) have lost most of their flavour, and if they’re peeled and treated (ie. what we Asians called “restaurant prawns”) you » Read More