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 » Read More
How to Make Vegan Tropical Ice Popsicles
August 13, 2018 by
Vegan Tropical Ice Popsicles - A super easy recipe that even kids can attempt; I’m using coconut cream (although in the video I only had coconut milk) and natural plant extract food colouring courtesy of My Blue Tea. Watch the video here >> Vegan Ice Popsicles INGREDIENTS: 400ml coconut cream ⅓ cup shredded coconut 5-6 TBSP » Read More
How to Make Vegan Blue Smoothie Bowl
July 5, 2018 by
I generally frown on any recipe that’s tagged as “healthy” or “vegan” because my brain translates those words respectively as “fad” and “taste-free”. However, this smoothie bowl is pretty tasty in spite of being healthy and vegan, so definitely give it a try if you have some fruit sitting around at home. The coconut milk/cream bit comes into » 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 Easy Blue Pea Flower Ice Cream
June 5, 2018 by
I got into this “food thing” because of my determination to recreate the food of my Malaysian childhood, so it’s always a bit frustrating when my efforts are hampered by the non-availability of critical ingredients in Australia. For 20 years, one such ingredient was something called bunga telang, aka blue pea or blue butterfly flower, which gives a » Read More
The Blue Flower Party That Almost Wasn’t
March 29, 2018 by
“Can you talk?” Phone in one hand, luggage and baby Noah in the other, I typed those words and hit Send from the immigration line at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Almost immediately my Note 8 started ringing in response. All around me were signs that said “No Phone Use Allowed”, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I » Read More
How to Cook Chicken Bak Kut Teh (Chik Kut Teh)
February 21, 2018 by
I’ve had an aversion to pork since I was a kid, so I have no recollection of ever having eaten Bak Kut Teh (BKT), which is traditionally made using pork spare ribs. The smell of BKT is quite unmistakable however, and hard to avoid if you grew up in Malaysia or Singapore. Since I knew how it’s meant to smell, I felt vaguely confident going into this » Read More
Blue Flower Power And The Case For Cultural Appropriation
February 8, 2018 by
(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 drink on social media. » Read More
How to Make Colourful Onde-Onde
December 28, 2017 by
In this Live Asian Kitchen, I wanted to experiment with some new natural colouring products sent to me by My Blue Tea, namely Rosella and Matcha. Using those colours along with the company's flagship product, the Blue Butterfly (bunga telang) powder, I managed to get some lovely colourful effects in this batch of onde-onde (also known as klepon in » Read More