Two of the most precious Chinese cooking appliances has to be my 15-years old well-seasoned carbon steel wok and a 10-years old clay pot. Lately, I have been using my clay pot more than usual due to the cold winter weather and my pure lazily. It doesn’t require much effort to slow-cooked the food inside a clay pot, and it retains the heat exceptionally well even after the food is cooked.
I still remember the time when I’ve renovated an entire kitchen of a 1880s weatherboard house in Tasmania and installed an induction cooktop. My decision was swayed by a friend who vowed for the induction over gas, based on experience and style of cooking. As a consequence of installing the induction top, I spent a fair bit of money with new kitchen appliances to work on the induction tops, including a “Kylie Kwong” stainless steel flat bottom wok with a lid, costing me dearly in excess of AUD$450! That was back in 2005. It was expensive then.
“Tofu” is commonly known as bean curd in western countries. Widely loved by Chinese people, but loathed by most non-Chinese, especially the westerners, for its bland taste, unexciting and uninteresting to a person’s palate. This product has been produced for over 2,000 years during the Chinese’s Han dynasty. It is made from coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curd into blocks. It comes in various texture – silken, soft, firm or extra firm – use in the different style of Chinese cooking. Tofu is healthy – it’s low in calories and high in protein.
Thai food is one of the most well-known Southeast Asia cuisines in western countries. There are more than 3,000 Thai restaurants in Australia, 3 times more than the United States per capita of its population. Most of the Thai restaurants are located in Australia’s 2 largest cities – Sydney and Melbourne, from fine dining world-class restaurant to cafe style and street food takeaway.
Since I came back to Penang after living overseas for almost 25 years, I have started a new pilot project to see if it will take off and to decide if this is something I would enjoy doing. And, most importantly is to earn a living.
Our lovely guests, husband and wife team from Taipei, Taiwan enjoying a great time with their host, Victor Khoo. They started their day with Victor picking them up at 8:45 am from their hotel – Muntri Mew – in George Town. From there, they made their way to his local wet market in Tanjung Bungah, which took 25 minutes to drive. Along the way, Victor explained his plan for the day and discussed the differences between each dishes to cook.
Our wonderful millennial guests from United Kingdom enjoying a fun time with our host, Victor Khoo, visiting his local wet market and buying the ingredients for the class. They got to taste a few local breakfast – koay teow teng, char koay teow, lam mee, char siew bow and local coffee.
Back at Victor’s kitchen, they were guided by Victor to prepare the ingredients for each of the dishes. They made their own spice paste for the chicken and fish curry. The best part is when we all sat down to enjoy the meal together.
Have you ever use soy sauce in your cooking? and, ever wonder where it comes from or how it is made?
