January 19th, 2012
The festive season is almost upon us!
A time for eating and drinking and eating some more. A time for presents and new clothes and seeing your relatives and celebrations. A time for cleaning the house from top to bottom and eating nothing but leftovers for days on end.
(“Whaaaaat?” I can hear you say to yourselves. “This girl’s lost the plot. We just finished the festive season… didn’t we?”)
Well yes. And no. Not if you’re Chinese anyway.
So grab a lettuce for your local lion dancer and stuff some dollars (notes, not coins please) into a red packet because Chinese New Year comes Monday morning!
…continue reading dragon’s eggs (tang yuen)
February 22nd, 2011
Cravings. I get them all the time.
Which is fine if (like my sixteen-year-old-self) they were for reasonably accessible foods like yoghurt or beef jerky or strawberry flavoured milk.
And which is not so fine when what I’m really craving is strips of cold, sesame coated jellyfish tossed with slivers of cucumber and spring onion. The ubiquitous item in a first course of cold cuts at banquet halls across Malaysia. A not-so-common item on menus in suburban Sydney at half past ten in the morning on a 42 degree day.
…continue reading spicy cold chicken salad
January 14th, 2011
Oh-my-gosh-I’m-on-your-teevee!
Well, not really, unless you have your computer plugged into your television screen (in which case, I really am on your teevee).
It’s my very first video tutorial blog post, and in it, I’m making dumplings from scratch. That’s right, wrappers and all! Please excuse the kinks and hiccups – it’s weird talking to a little camera on a tripod. Hope you all like it and there’ll be many (many) more this year.
…continue reading steamed dumplings
November 30th, 2010
A moment of silence for the kitchen that was, if you please.
For it (with its high bench tops, wooden cabinet doors and worn linoleum flooring) is no more.
We’re most of the way through the process of installing a replacement. ”Most of the way” being my best estimate of its actual progress, seeing as the tricky stuff has all come to ahead and there does not appear to be much to show for a day’s work anymore.
So covered in a layer of fine dust are we.
…continue reading flaky malaysian curry puffs
August 2nd, 2010
It’s a well known fact that an onslaught of the dreaded lurgy calls for nothing less than a big bowl of chicken soup.
Full of nature’s own goodness. Delicious. Warming. And most of all, made with the kind of love that gladly suffers fingers smelling of garlic and chickeny juices long after the last bowl has been downed.
Cleansing. Energising. Heartening.
…continue reading hainanese chicken soup
