A paw full of spice makes everything nice
Years ago I decided to expand my culinary horizons by attending a Pakistani cooking class. At that time, I knew nothing about Indian and Pakistani cuisine. I wasn’t even a big fan of it back then. However, if an opportunity arises to expand your horizons, take it. Never turn down the chance to learn. The…
Rogan Josh is a delicious mutton or lamb curry: the name literally means ‘stewed in butter’. No wonder I love it so much. I can’t think of anything that I wouldn’t like if it was slow cooked in butter. Especially if that something was tender bits of lamb with spices. The entire dish is…
Have you ever eaten something that made you question why you don’teat that exact same thing everyday? A food that is so tasty, so layered in flavor, succulent, juicy, salty and just a little sweet that you want to eat it again and again? Something in which there are no more leftovers. You might even…
China is a great place for food. Cumin dusted lamb and noodles in the West, spicy cuisine from Szechuan province, fried delicacies in Yunnan, dumplings in the North…I could go on but I get too hungry to finish the list. However, if your taste runs more to the sweet than savory, you might want…
Story goes that when Chinese immigrants settled in Malaysia, they married locals who learned to cook Chinese recipes but put their own twist on them by using local ingredients. Hence, Peranakan cuisine (aka Nyonna cuisine) was born and still remains a delicious staple in Malaysia today. One of the more…
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: no one does vegetarian food better than the Indians. The way they carefully and lovingly work with vegetables and spice is genius. I always judge a new Indian restaurant by it’s vegetarian Thali. Why do I order that specific dish (or…
If you are what you eat, than I am a mess of pork belly. This fatty pork remains my Achilles heal of food weaknesses. Granted I don’t eat it as much as I want but, when I do, it has to be cooked to perfection. Now, in my humble opinion, no (vast)…
Some of the best food in China can be found in Xinjiang province, located in Western China and typically halal and more reminiscent of middle Eastern cuisine than of anything you would recognize from your local takeaway. Popular dishes of this region are spiced barbequed lamb, hand pulled…
I first learned how to make karaage (kara a gee) chicken in a Japanese cooking class whilst living in Beijing. That was where I learned that coating things in cornstarch and frying until crispy was inspired by Chinese cooking to which I say, thank you China. For me, karaage chicken is…
Before I had my beautiful daughter, life was carefree! Sure, I’ll have another beer. Why not stay out late on a Saturday night? Hey, let’s go away for the weekend! I had so many opportunities to spend my extra money and extra time. Especially when I became sick. If I felt ill,…
I could go on and on about how salty, sweet, crunchy, satisfying and generally great this stir-fry can be in a long story. Or I can just get down to the reasons why I love this recipe so much: It’s easy It’s quick It’s healthy It’s cheap to make If,…
My happy place is under a beach umbrella on Ang Bang Beach near Hoi An, Vietnam. The sand is soft and white and the water is warm. Locals rent out lounge chairs complete with umbrella and deliver cold drinks and homemade food straight to you from their own fridges…
Sometimes I am lazy. Sometimes I don’t want to make a big thing for dinner. Sometimes I just want to throw a bunch of stuff in a wok, fry it up and eat it on the couch in front of the TV. I don’t want to spend lot of…
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – no one cooks better vegetarian and vegan food than countries in Asia. Some of my favorite foods are vegetarian and vegan: Karela chips from India, traditional Bibimbap from South Korea, tofu of all kinds, and of course, any vegetarian Indian…
Mother’s Day is coming up and I can’t help but to think about the things my mom taught me when I was young. One piece of advice that has stood out in my mind over the years is how to cook pork. ‘You gotta cook pork low and slow. It’s…
For a long time I didn’t know what Mulligatawny was. What was this soup that my husband kept asking me to make? So, I did a little research and found that this dish is yet another British hybrid of an Indian recipe only this time made with added beef, thickeners…
Sweet, salty and spicy ginger and garlic fried chicken will make you reconsider the healing properties of fried chicken
` I never was a pancake girl. Give me eggs, bacon and toast. That’s what I liked as a kid. I chose the savoury over the sweet everytime. So, as you can imagine, nothing bummed me out as a kid more than waking up to a stack of pancakes…
My grandmother was never known for her cooking. Instead, she was known for her passion for cleaning, her scarves and the costume jewelry that she wore with the confidence and style of a 1940’s movie star. Also her welcoming smile, gregarious laugh and many other amazing things that make us all miss…
Living in polluted Beijing and teaching preschool meant that I was often sick throughout the years I was there. After all, if you’ve got a classroom filled with 3 year olds with sticky hands and runny noses coughing and sneezing on you, you’re bound to be frequently ill. Should the occasion arise when I did…