It was around 2008 maybe? My Concord restaurant was still in full swing, and I would take to the walking trails in the foreshore nearby during my downtime. I remember seeing all the wild bamboo along my path and having a moment of inspiration – what if I could ask the council for permission to…
My take on how the Thermocook and the Thermomix compare when it comes to cooking my (ie. Malaysian) food.
Two questions I get asked all the time when I run my market stall, are: Do you have a restaurant somewhere? Do you do other markets? If you’re one of those people who’ve asked me these questions and thought you caught a glimpse of an eyeroll from me in response, I want to reassure you…
As someone who’s run a Malaysian food business for decades, I’m always trying to strike a balance between maintaining “authentic” flavours while cutting down on time spent in the kitchen (thanks to labour costs and staff shortage issues). My friends at MyBlueTea.com.au recently sent me some samples of their natural pandan powder (made from pure…
In this Live broadcast on Chillies, I cover the different types of chillies used in Malaysian and Southeast Asian cooking, and explain their uses and preparation methods. I also reveal a good, cheap substitute that I’ve encountered in my recent trips to my local non-Asian fruit and vegetable shop, and how to “hack” the flavour…
I grew up in the part of Malaysia where this is known as “long yoke” (Cantonese & Hakka), and for a long time after coming to Australia, I had no idea what other people were talking about when they made reference to “bak kwa” (Hokkien) – more evidence of how gloriously splintered Malaysia can be…
(Originally published on The Huffington Post December 2017) I have a confession to make – I don’t spend a lot of time browsing through pretty pictures on Instagram; it’s just not how I consume content. No surprise then, that I missed the recent trend in blue butterfly (aka blue pea) flower-infused images of food and…
I was hesitant to call this a Soto since its defining characteristic is the use of compressed rice squares (ketupat) simmered in soup, and with the whole low-carb thing, I’m severely restricting my rice consumption. Instead, I added some coconut powder (I would have used coconut cream or coconut milk but I didn’t have any…
In this Live Asian Kitchen you will hear me say repeatedly how much I disliked cauliflower, and how much contempt I held for the attempts at cauliflower fried rice I’d seen online. They looked like gooey couscous or risotto, and bore no resemblance to fried rice as I know it. I thus came into to…
If you’ve followed my Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts for any length of time, you would know that the term sambal belacan” (shrimp paste sambal) covers a number of different chilli dips – there’s raw sambal belacan which consists of pounding chillies with toasted shrimp paste, some seasoning plus a dash of fresh lime juice…