Yee Chai Peng (Cantonese for “ear biscuits”) were these intriguing spiral-patterned, curved fried pastries from my childhood in Malaysia, which were crunchy, slightly sweet and yet savoury. The only ones I ever ate were factory-made; this wasn’t one of those things that you would find people making fresh at home or at their street stall - certainly » Read More
How to Make Perfect Roti Canai Dough
July 2, 2018 by
A Wok Around Asia Recipe By Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur When I got into this whole “food thing” back in the day, I had to learn how to make everything myself through trial and error, because hawkers in Malaysia were notoriously secretive about their craft. One of these recipes was for roti canai (roti prata if you’re Singaporean), and I’ve » Read More
How to Make KL Hokkien Mee With Homemade Noodles
June 19, 2018 by
On my most recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, I was reintroduced to a childhood favourite known in my hometown of Seremban simply as Hokkien Mee (Hokkien noodles). I bought it from a stall in Ampang run by Feh Loh (literally “Fat Guy” in Cantonese - that was what he called himself, I promise), asked for it to be made with no pork, and it ended up being » Read More
How to Make Homemade Rice & Tapioca Noodles
June 19, 2018 by
I like the idea of making my own noodles, though I don’t always have the time to do so. Here’s one which is pretty easy to make, especially if you happen to own a noodle mould (I picked mine up on Ebay for under $20 years ago), or a potato ricer (which I used to use for making cendol, though I can't for the life of me find it in my pantry » Read More
How to Make Coconut Candy
June 17, 2018 by
A Deepavali Favourite Using Natural Plant Extract Coconut candy is one of my favourite memories of Deepavali (aka Diwali, though not in Malaysia), the Indian Festival of Lights. During this public holiday, our Indian friends would hold “open houses” where they served up a culinary extravaganza to feed the friends from all ethnic backgrounds » Read More
How to Make Seremban Beef Noodles (Ngau Lam Fun)
June 12, 2018 by
This, folks, represents my culinary raison d'être - the world famous Seremban Beef Noodles, otherwise known (in Cantonese) as Ngau Lam Fun; one of countless childhood memories that finally lured me away from IT consultancy and into food full-time some 17 years ago. To expand on that a little, the reason I got into this “food thing” was partly to » Read More