I’ve never watched reality cooking shows but I always imagined that MasterChef judges would be aloof and, frankly, a bit full of themselves. That was until I met Johari Edrus (aka Chef Jo), the main judge in the Malaysian version of the show. Chef Jo is a disarmingly humble and soft-spoken man, and he approaches…
I always tell new travellers to Malaysia that the best way to experience Malaysian food in all its glorious iterations and in air conditioned-comfort, is via the in-house restaurant buffets at international hotels. The variety is mind-boggling and the quality is usually top-notch. I had the chance to visit Federal Hotel Kuala Lumpur’s Kontiki Restaurant…
One of the measures of whether a restaurant’s food is good is whether it’s “authentic” — a term that’s a particular favourite of armchair food critics the world over. Now, as a former Malaysian restaurateur and professional cook, I’ve received my fair share of accolades and criticisms about my own food over the last 27 years. I…
Ken Burgin of popular food podcast, Profitable Hospitality, was the founder of the iconic and wildly successful Cafe Troppo on Glebe Point Road in Sydney before he ventured into food consulting. As it turns out, we have more in common than food entrepreneurship; we both studied at Sydney University and also, I’m pretty sure one…
(Disclosure: I received this device to review as a member of the Lenovo INsiders Program. All opinions are my own.) A few weeks ago, I was sent a Lenovo Smart Display to evaluate. Never having owned any smart devices before, I wasn’t sure what to expect and how much use I’d get out of it….
I first heard about spicy fried cashew nuts from the People With Disability advocate who helped me file Noah’s NDIS review (I’ll write all about the failings of the NDIS on a separate platform – if you have your own NDIS horror story to tell, get in touch!). Anyhow she mentioned that the highlight of…
You know a Malaysian product is good when even Malaysians rave about it. I’d heard about Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen’s famous sambal, but did not at first realise The Sambal Lady and I had a lot in common. First of all, Auria and I both went to the same high school back in Malaysia – Convent…
As an ex-Malaysian based in San Francisco, Tracy Goh of EatWithTracy.com has been introducing Americans to authentic Malaysian food since 2012 through her pop-up events. I love how she has her Instagram strategy really dialled in via beautiful photos and great engagement (basically everything I know I should be doing but don’t), and her propensity…
This was my second attempt at a vegan version of Kaya; the first time around, I used mashed taro (=> https://jackiem.com.au/2017/02/23/make-vegan-kaya-onde-onde/ ), which basically tasted like sweetened mashed taro. Nice, but you’re not fooling anyone who has any inkling of what kaya is like. This new recipe is adapted from one I found at MoreThanVeggies.sg;…
I love hearing about new Malaysian restaurants because I’m tired of people never having experienced Malaysian food or getting it confused for Thai, Indonesian or Mongolian (yep) cuisine. (Don’t even get me started on Crispy Rendang-gate.) Anyhow thanks to the champion networking skills of my long-time collaborator Alexx of MyBlueTea.com.au, I was invited to sample…