What’s your working music? I’m usually a classical music and jazz person but I find I work really well with Lady Gaga especially when I’m doing something visual like photo-editing or mucking about on my Etsy shop. However, when I’m writing,  I’d prefer quieter, unsung music like bossa nova. Words, I often find, do not work well with words. I need all my concentration and prowess to form words. I keep my distractions at the minimal and that helps me to focus a lot better.

When I was in Sweden, I was part of a fabulous Etsy group called European Street Team (EST). It was the very first team I’d joined and it was full of friendly people. I met so many lovely people and one of the shops I took noticed of was Miss Babacilu. Her style is so soft and feminine, dreamy and romantic – it’s like the jewellery version of my photos! So, without further ado, I’ll like to introduce the very talented, and gorgeous Ioana, the creator of Miss Babacilu.

I’m Ioana, the miss behind Miss Babacilu. Based in Bucharest, Romania, Miss Babacilu is a brand of costume jewelry with a touch of preciousness, elegance, romance and delicacy.

I’m a self-taught bead and wire wraper, jewelry designer and blogger. I tried lots things (photography, for instance) and my mind always thought about creative things. I graduated Political Science and I’m curently studying for my MA, though in a subject that has nothing to do with this, but has a lot to do with the world, as I like to say.

But let me tell you more about Miss B. She’s somehow me, or a great part of myself and my imagination. She is an elegant young lady, sipping tea in late mornings and afternoons from her fantastical hand-painted china sets. She is a charming presence, a good-mannered young lady and a romantic. You will always find her with a book in her hand or dreaming about glamorous fabrics, lace and ruffles, flowers and all the amazing things that nature and life itself gave us.

Miss B has evolved from my passion for fashion, jewelry, manners and protocol and of course tea. It’s also the result of my urge of making things with my hands, following the paths inspiration made me drew on tissues and papers. I’m happy to be able to design and actually make accessories that stand for elegance, strength, delicacy and femininity.

You can see more of Miss B’s beautiful work here:

// Shop // Other Shop// Facebook // Twitter //

When I was back in KL recently, I noticed many hawker stalls had Cambodians, Indonesians and/or other nationalities cooks cooking Malaysian dishes. If I may say so, the platter – taste, texture, smell – were not how I remember it to be. The local flavours have become somewhat almost foreign in itself. I have nothing against foreign cooks however, I am just bitterly disappointed how Char Keow Teow just doesn’t seem to taste like Char Keow Teow.

As a Malaysian, I pride myself of knowing my food. In fact, food… good food is part of our heritage. We have been blessed with so many array of flavours; Indian, Malay, Baba + Nonya, Chinese… etc. One of the things I made sure I did was to introduce G’s family (who are Australian) to Malaysian food. A food tour in Malaysia isn’t a choice, it is compulsory. A keen observation made by G’s aunt, at the end of her two weeks sojourn, was that Malaysian lives to eat and eats to live. She’s not far from the truth.

However, it did take me three years to be away from home to really appreciate home. As the years passed, I’ve realised that generations of recipes would be lost if not for some effort to document them. Which is the whole point of this project.

Several months ago I emailed some Malaysian food bloggers asking if they’d be interested in contributing a recipe (or two) to my latest project called ‘From My Mother’s Kitchen’.

I personally wanted to try all these recipes so I could learn them myself (the ‘teach a man to fish’ strategy) and in the process preserving it to share with other Malaysians and people who are genuinely interested in Malaysian cuisine.

The very first entry to the project is Audrey from Audrey Cooks with her Braised Pork in Soy Sauce and Rock Sugar recipe. This dish is one of my favourite, with the pork sautéeing in its fat and then slowly left to simmer to reduce the liquid, the pork caramelises and becomes incredibly tender. My friend Lyn was just asking me for the recipe the other day so, it is a timely coincidence that I have it with me.

*Please note that this is an adapted version as I could not find certain ingredients in this sort space of time. For the original recipe, please go here.

Braised Pork Ribs with Soy Sauce (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 600  grams of pork ribs (cut into 3 cm chunks)
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 4 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 5 cloves of garlic
• a generous drizzle of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of Chinese five spiced powder
• 60 gm rock sugar (crushed)
• 250 ml hot water
• 4 peeled hard boiled eggs

Method:

• Marinade pork ribs in half the soya sauces for two hours in the fridge.
• Heat up a non-stick saucepan and drizzle in olive oil.
• Fry garlic cloves for 1 minute. Add spices and fry for another minute.
• Put in the ribs and stir till the ribs are slightly brown, lower heat, then add in the remaining soya sauces. rock sugar and water.
• Stir until sugar dissolved, simmer for 20 minutes on low heat uncovered and stirring from time to time.  This is to let some liquid evaporate thus creating a thicker gravy.
• Cover with a lid and simmer for another 40 – 50 minutes. Checking frequently to avoid gravy from totally drying up and burning the contents. If gravy is rapidly drying up, add a little more hot water and stir.
• When almost ready, put in eggs and stir until well coated with gravy.
• Ribs are ready when thoroughly cooked through, meat is tender, ribs well coated with thick gravy.
• Serve with steamed fragrant white rice.

Thanks Audrey for your fantastic recipe. Just so you know, I’m having it for dinner tonight and G’s already liking it.

XOXO,
Mable

P.S.: If you like the sound of the project, and have more Malaysian food blogger friends you think that will be keen to join in, please feel free to let them know. I will be most grateful for any help I can get.