Stories and recipes from a Malaysian home kitchen
No, this pistachio pesto pasta is not classic, but after trying this recipe, you might just prefer it to the original version with pine nuts! First, why pistachio for pesto? For this wild idea, I gotta thank my frugal inner housewife. I love a good pesto pasta, but the price of pine nuts has skyrocketed….
Our discovery of KUEH by Bibik’s Kitchen – a hidden gem serving some of Penang’s best nyonya heritage food – began with a frustrating search for old-fashioned kaya. To be exact, pleasing hubby’s craving for the kind of traditional kaya he grew up with in Penang. From famous brands to owner-operated cafes to roadside stalls,…
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I’m a latecomer to the pleasures of beef noodles. Specifically, the beef SOUP noodle type. Somehow, I just never ate a version anywhere that was good enough to impress me – they were all too watery, like reconstituted Bovril, and were measly in their helpings. I still enjoyed beef noodles though, but only the dry…
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Mum’s fried beehoon is “very simple only.” Come to think of it, that’s her standard answer whenever I ask her for the recipe of virtually any dish she cooks. She’s telling the truth. When she describes the process to me, it DOES sound simple. Ingredient lists are typically short. The steps, few. But somehow in…
Make chicken confit at home? No way in hell, man! Or at least – until yesterday. Now, I’ve seen chicken or duck confit in restaurant menus a number of times, in particular fancy restaurants. The price tag is usually hefty, which gave me the impression it must be super delicious AND super difficult to make….
Folks, meet my Chinese-style three-ingredient stir-fried cabbage that delivers loads of umami courtesy of …. miso! I know, miso is not an ingredient commonly used in Chinese kitchens. But the moment I tasted the result, I was like, why didn’t I think of that earlier?? If you make Chinese stir fries regularly, you probably rely…
This ADULT version of the traditional French toast uses a not-too-secret pantry ingredient …. parmesan! We all know how to do normal French toast. You take a slice of white bread, dip it in beaten egg, fry in hot fat, and voila. This one takes the same concept. Except I add a layer of grated…
A teriyaki chicken poke bowl is a thing of joy – and the perfect quarantine meal. First, what’s poke bowl … is it Japanese or Hawaiian? Poke is a regional American-based cuisine from Hawaii, heavily influenced by Japanese cuisine.The word “poke” means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian. In the original version, poke bowls feature…
Folks, meet Japanese garlic fried rice. Like all simple dishes, it only looks easy to perfect. I couldn’t believe that making fried rice could be so difficult, until I tried to recreate the dish at home. The results were not bad, but somehow my garlic fried rice lacked umami, or wok hei, or something. I…
I’m no stranger to onion jam. A sweet-sticky condiment of slow-cooked onions, it’s typically served with burgers in Western restaurants. In Asia, it’s sometimes just called “caramelised onions”. Is it nice? Yes, but nothing to get excited about. Until I ate a version made by a friend in Singapore, using her personal recipe. Holy smokes….
Ginger scallion chicken reminds me of dad ❤️Unlike mum and I, dad has a milder palate. He would go for dishes like this whereas Mum and I would order fiery, spicy stuff like curry fish and kung pow chicken. In fact, I used to think that ginger scallion chicken was boring!Not anymore though.I now appreciate…
This ridiculously simple sausage tomato pasta is so tasty I couldn’t believe it until I made it myself. I’ve seen variations of this floating around the internet. Jamie Oliver has made a version of it, among other people. But it wasn’t until I saw Catalina Tre’s gorgeous photo of her spicy sausage pasta that I…
My first encounter with pâté was thanks to the late Dr Frank Dourado, a popular general practitioner in Ipoh. Many years ago, my father went to his clinic on Brewster Road for consultation. Both gardening geeks, the two men got along like a house on fire, though their backgrounds were very different. Their friendship extended…
This delicious gulai labu is the combination of two brains – a friend, and my mum’s! How did that happen? Well, it all started when Madam R gifted us her gulai labu to eat for dinner a few days before Eid. Food gifting has become common during the COVID19 pandemic era, as a way of…
A lot of my friends asked me how I made dengaku nasu in an air fryer after I posted it in my Facebook and Instagram stories. Since I aim to please, I thought I’d roughly write up my experience 🙂 Some of you might be asking – what is dengaku nasu? It’s a traditional Japanese…
