Favourite Malaysian and Asian recipes with time-saving hacks
Sang har meen brings back wonderful memories. Growing up, I would visit my relatives in Bukit Bintang whenever I came to Kuala Lumpur. The neighbourhood was a hotspot for sang har meen, a popular Chinese restaurant dish featuring giant river prawns atop a bed of crispy noodles swimming in a rich briny sauce. Yum!! The…
Before I dive into the mechanics of making braised turmeric chicken, allow me to digress a little. When I started sharing recipes on social media, I didn’t expect it to become such a rich learning resource, thanks to friends who comment. The recipe for this braised turmeric chicken is inspired by a FB post about…
Growing up in Ipoh, I got to know claypot chicken rice at a very young age. I still remember where I ate it: a roadside stall in Hugh Low Street. The uncle and aunty would monitor multiple claypots on stoves like hawks, holding fans to control the flame and lifting the lids occasionally to check…
Braised yee mee is one of my favourite 15-minute comfort meals — saucy, slurpy, and perfect for using up whatever vegetables and protein you already have at home. The first dish my mum ever taught me, it’s her go-to solution for days when she can’t decide what to cook. Why? Because it’s easy, tasty, and…
Every Chinese family has its own style of preparing steamed fish. This recipe is simple but has a special technique that my dad came up with himself. His “secret” is so simple that when I tell you, you’ll probably go, “What? That’s it?” Pre-fry the aromatics (sliced ginger and chopped garlic) before adding them to…
A savoury cake that Malaysians eat as a traditional snack, yam cake or woo thau koh is the ultimate flavour bomb. We’re right smack into the 2nd phase of the COVID19 MCO as I write this. Last week, I was getting bored of the usual Chinese dishes and pastas, and started fantasizing about some kopitiam…
Ooof, how I love loh mai fan or Chinese fried glutinous (sticky) rice! Unlike loh mai kai, which is steamed until soft, loh mai fan is stir-fried, giving the rice more bite and a deeper, savoury character. Made with Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, and aromatics, it’s an umami bomb that’s worth every bit…
Bittergourd, dried shrimp and fried beehoon? Sounds strange? Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, though. When this dish appeared at a table in a Chinese restaurant in Kuching a few years ago, I was skeptical as well. Seeing the look on my face, my Kuching host merely smiled and told me that it’s a…
Who doesn’t love pak cham kai? You know, the poached chicken used in Hainanese chicken rice. Gently cooked in water that’s been flavoured with aromatics, the meat turns out mouth meltingly tender while retaining its moist juiciness. Even fried chicken cannot compare. But I’ve never thought about making it. Looking at videos of making Hainanese…
Angel hair pasta tossed in scallion oil, dark and light soya sauce, boiled broccoli and prawn gyoza. Super simple, super yummy, and quite healthy 😊 What’s scallion oil, you ask? It’s the main star in cong yau meen or scallion oil noodles, which I first heard of when I watched The Wandering Earth, a Chinese…
Stewed potato, chicken and carrots in a gravy made from oyster sauce, soya sauce and one unexpected ingredient. So wholesome. A far cry from the early days of my cooking adventures, when I was all about “sexy” dishes like fried chicken, brownies and carbonara. Some say my age is showing. As I get older, I…
This isn’t the first time I’m making restaurant-style stir fried bittergourd with salted egg yolk, but this is the first time I am 100% satisfied with the results. In the past: Not enough sauce. Sauce too thick and crumbly (not saucy enough). Sauce too liquidy (too saucy). Bittergourd too gloopy. This time, I employed a…
