Happee Monkee

The power of suggestion should never be underestimated. This dish was inspired by a friend’s continuous post on Facebook about her obsession for chili pan mee. Although I have never tasted the spicy version, I know the original flavour well enough. Pan mee is a fresh noodle dish in Malaysia. In Hokkien, we call it, mee [...]

I have a huuuuuuuuuuggggeee weakness for ayam masak merah, which is chicken coated in a rich, tomato and honey sauce. Culturally in Malaysia, it is a Malay dish and they certainly do it very, very well. Whenever my parents dragged us to a Malay wedding, the only thing I look forward to is this dish [...]

My mom used to make these for us when we were kids. Of course back then we didn’t use salmon (too pricey), mom would scrape the flesh off the bones of a fish and combine it with an egg and potatoes to make fish cakes. Being a working mother, she didn’t really have time to [...]

Making taro cake reminds me of when the women-folk in my family come together and chatter. My grandmother would be there, along with my mother’s sisters, and together they would do whatever women do best in a group – gossip. Someone would always bring up the past, and they would reminiscent of good and tough [...]

These days (weeks, months) the first thing I do when I wake up is check my email and sign into Facebook. I don’t even get up to go to the bathroom or have breakfast; I just reach out for my laptop. I’ve come to realize that it’s an addiction. If I’m not at work, I [...]

This paste is just as useful in Chinese cooking as sambal (chili paste in Malaysian cooking) or tomato paste in Italian cooking. You can put this on fish or poultry, rice and noodle; and then invent new ways to use it. Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tumblr it Tweet [...]

You know it’s really funny how apologetic people feel when they haven’t been updating their blog. For instance, whenever I haven’t blogged for let’s say a week or more, I start feeling a deep sense of guilt. As though I have let people down. And with some certainty, feel that they will never.ever. return to [...]

I enjoy Melbourne for various reasons: the weather, when it is agreeable, is very pleasant; the people are generally friendly; the food is fresh and abundant. Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tumblr it Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Bookmark in Browser [...]

“Promise me something when you decide to write a cookbook.” “What?” I looked at G curiously. The idea that he’s so confident that I’d write a book and that he’s making a request has got me. Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tumblr it Tweet about it Subscribe to the [...]

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 [...]