Stories and recipes from a Malaysian home kitchen
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…
I first ate iconic Thai dish goong ob woonsen (prawn glass noodles) 20 years ago at a restaurant in Thailand, while travelling with my mum and aunt. So long ago, yet I can still remember the taste like yesterday. The combination of juicy fresh prawns and saucy noodles in a spicy and fragrant peppery paste…
Traditionalists might wanna look away: this unapologetic hack on biang biang noodles might make you weep! I’ve long heard about biang biang noodles, a Xian classic dish comprising thick, hand-pulled noodles tossed in a dangerously spicy chilli oil sauce. I first tried it at Chocha Foodstore and was blown away by how flavourful, delicious and…
Sometimes called noodle salad, kerabu beehoon is a Nyonya dish of rice vermicelli and lots of fresh herbs and aromatics, tossed with a spicy sauce and zesty lime juice. Colourful and refreshing, it’s a delicious representation of Malaysia’s diverse culinary culture. While I’ve eaten this many times before, it took a weekend getaway at EQ…
If you’ve attended a Malaysian national school, you would have fond memories of mee goreng makcik kantin. Or as some of us call it, mee kosong. Because this type of fried noodles was really, literally “kosong” (empty): hardly any vegetables, no meat to speak of, not even egg, the cheapest of proteins. But somehow the…
Next to kai si hor fun, wat tan hor must be the most popular noodle dish in Ipoh. I’ve never received so many responses to my Instastories until I posted a picture of the wat tan hor I made last Friday! A rich eggy sauce poured over wok-charred rice noodles loaded with vegetables and…
How do you prevent fried beehoon from sticking to the wok? Ask any cook and that is probably their no 1 pet peeve when cooking fried beehoon, a simple and most delicious dish. Washing the wok after frying, however, is a pain of epic proportions. I usually soak the wok in hot water to “lift”…
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…
Making braised yee mee always makes me feel sentimental because it was the first dish my mum ever taught me to make. It’s her go-to solution for days when she can’t decide what to cook. Why? Because it’s easy, tasty, and a Malaysian kitchen always has the basic ingredients for a yummy yee mee. Time…
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…
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…
