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I was inspired to cook this after trying something similar at Lai Lai Casual Dining, a Taiwanese restaurant in Singapore. It's Taiwanese style braised pork belly with a thick, sweet and salty gravy that is full of  umami flavours. If you're far away from family and feeling homesick, this comforting bowl of braised pork over steamed white rice is just what you need! I usually make a big pot of this and freeze the leftovers for days when I have no time to cook. Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice ("Lu Rou Fan") Ingredients 1kg (2 lbs) pork belly, skin-on 1 tbsp vegetable oil 8 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed 1 star anise 2 inch cinnamon stick 1/2 tsp five-spice powder 1/2 cup light soy sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee Superior Light Soy) 1 tsp thick dark soy sauce (I used Cheong Chan Thick Caramel) 1/3 cup chinese cooking wine 3 cups water 1/4 tsp pepper 2/3 cup crispy fried shallots (I used the prepacked store-bought ones) 3 tbsp (about the size of a ping pong ball) rock s...

One of the best cooking tips that I picked up from watching Take Home Chef was that when cooking salmon, you should always start with a cold pan, and never hot. That will give you perfectly crispy salmon skin. I tried this method and it totally worked! Crispy skin everytime, which is the main reason why we love to eat salmon , especially with sweet, salty and sticky teriyaki sauce. I usually make extra sauce and store it in the fridge, which comes in handy not only for grilled meats/seafood, but also for quick stir-fries, noodles or as a tasty drizzling sauce. Served with rice and some steamed vegetables, teriyaki salmon is a sure fire hit with the kids (and adults too)! We especially love the sauce on our rice! Crispy-Skin Salmon Teriyaki Ingredients 2 x 200g (7oz) salmon fillets, skin-on (preferably a thick and long rectangular piece) 1 tbsp vegetable oil Teriyaki Sauce: 5 tbsp Kikkoman soy sauce 5 tbsp sake 5 tbsp mirin...

This is a repost of an old favourite! This is an old favourite of mine since I was little. Typically served in chinese restaurants in BP, we would often order a plate or two of it at the end of the meal. It is a thin, flaky and crispy rectangular-shaped pancake that is usually filled with a thin layer of red bean or white lotus paste, and then cut into small rectangular bite-sized pieces. I decided to make this after browsing through a cookbook called "Dim Sum" where I came across a picture of an appetizing looking "Wo Paeng". I could just imagine the taste of it - sweet, crispy and oily. The recipe looked simple enough. However, the proportions and method of pan-frying it just didn't do it for me. I found another recipe on the web which looked like it would yield better results, and it did! Of course, it involved deep-frying the pancake to a golden crisp, just as I remembered it. I sprinkled some toasted pinenuts in the filling to add ...

There can never be too many recipes for chinese roast pork (or "siu yuk" as commonly known in Cantonese). Over the years, I have attempted various recipes and methods for achieving the perfect crackling - crispy and brittle enough that it doesn't break your teeth when you bite into it. It has always been a hit and miss for me. Either the skin doesn't fully crackle all over (leaving some parts soft and chewy), or the meat's dried out, or the crackling is burnt in some parts. But now, I have successfully made the almost-perfect roast pork, twice in a row. Woo-hoo! I must be doing something right there? There's nothing particularly difficult about making roast pork (except the part where you have to prick a zillion holes in the skin). You just need the right ingredients, the right technique and the right tools. Someone gave us a pork-skin-pricking tool for Christmas two years ago, which you see below. Roast pork fanatics who make their own at home might have thi...

I cooked "Lor Mee" (Singapore-style) this weekend and updated my earlier post with new photos. Lor mee simply refers to braised noodles, which typically uses thick yellow noodles served in a bowl with a thick flavoursome gravy (thickened with starch solution and/or egg). They are usually topped with sliced pork, deep-fried yam or other fritters, hard-boiled egg, fish cake or fresh seafood, and then served with a generous drizzle of black vinegar, chilli and minced garlic. I still have not had Lor Mee in Sydney, though I'm sure it would be available in one of the many Malaysian/Singaporean eateries that have been popping up in many places recently. I remember many years ago, there were only a couple of such eateries in the city, but now, there are just too many to keep track of. Of course, everyone claims to serve Malaysian/Singaporean cuisine, but whether they are authentic or not is something else.   I happened to find  a packet of nood...

 Wine matching with Thai cuisine     Almost everyone we've ever invited over for lunch would have tried Mr G's Hainanese chicken rice, at least once. Mr G being Mr TFWL, but I'll save on the keystrokes. In fact, we serve it so often that people have come to expect it from Mr and Mrs G's House of Chicken Rice . Okay, so there are a couple of reasons why it has become a staple on our "menu". Firstly, everyone eats chicken (unless you're vegetarian of course, which means you'd best be eating rice with cucumbers) and I think the neutral flavours agree with the general palate. I can't think of anyone who doesn't like chicken rice. Secondly, it's pretty much a one dish meal served with rice, and perhaps accompanied by a side dish of stir-fried vegetables, which makes preparation a breeze. Coincidentally (ahem...), it also suits my personal agenda, as it means that Mr G does all the cooking while I sit back and relax. No, of course no...

It was a bright and sunny Sunday morning. I was riding in the car when this song started playing on the radio:   Whatever I said, whatever I did I didn't mean it, I just want you back for good, (Want you back, want you back, want you back for good...)   Does that sound familiar? Well, Take That! Listening to the song evoked memories from my 21st birthday which I celebrated with my college friends. I still have photos from that day, when I had my first go at ice-skating and ended up with cuts and grazes from constantly breaking my fall with my bare hands. A couple of my friends had brought a guitar along and made a notable attempt to serenade me with " Back For Good ", which is why hearing the song again made me feel quite nostalgic. Like music, food can sometimes trigger feelings of nostalgia too. Back in my childhood days, before my cousins and I grew up and went our separate ways, we used to come together during festivit...

    Have you ever tried salmon with black bean sauce before? Honestly, I never knew salmon could be prepared this way until I found out from some friends that it is a common Chinese dish. I uusally cook salmon with either miso or teriyaki sauce, but with black beans? It actually turned out really good - sweet, salty, smoky (from the beans), with a hit of chilli in there. These flavours are just perfect with a bowl of steamed white rice, and it's all you really need for a satisfying meal. Of course, to make it complete, serve it with a plate of stir-fried asian greens like bok choy or snow pea sprouts. I used fermented black beans that came in a jar, and not the dried ones that come in a packet. You should be able to find them at the Asian supermarket at the aisle where all the sauces and jars of pastes are. I've never tried the dried version before, so I'm not sure if they are any different. The flavours should be similar though. If salmon with black b...

Mutter paneer is a popular North Indian dish consisting of paneer ( cottage cheese ) and peas (mutter) cooked in a spiced tomato-based gravy, and it tastes fantastic especially when eaten with boiled basmati rice. I enjoy the paneer for its "bitey" texture that can be described as almost "meaty", and all of this combined together makes a delicious meal that can be quite addictive. I must admit I wasn't really a fan of paneer nor vegetarian food right up till middle of last year when I had some friends visiting from India and we frequented a few Indian restaurants. What an eye-opener it was for me. Indian vegetarian cuisine wasn't just all about peas and lentils, but very much about spices, colours, textures and exotic flavours.   I first tried mutter paneer at Curry at the Rocks, and became an instant fan. I put it on my to-cook list immediately, and was thrilled at how my recipe for this turned out. It tasted really authentic (which Mr G ...

  One thing that often plagues me is that I can never get my sponge cakes to be soft and fluffy like the ones from the Chinese bakeries. There has to be some sort of special ingredient that gives the cake that ethereal texture, and for a long time, the answer has eluded me. I am generally not an advocate of instant cake mixes, as I find that they usually produce cakes with an unpleasant chemical aftertaste. This time however, I had to succumb to the fact that I am never going to achieve the perfect sponge unless I use a sponge cake mix of some sort. When I chanced upon this Hokkaido cake mix at a baking supplies store a few weeks ago, my gut (or more like my stomach) told me to grab a packet immediately. I then realised that I didn't have a recipe for the cake. Fortunately, when I approached the shop owner about it, she smiled and said "I'll give you the recipe" . She proceeded to pull out a thick folder bursting with recipe printouts of all sorts, and han...

I grew up in a culture where rice is a staple food, and almost every meal (that my mum cooked) would consist of boiled white rice served with a variety of meats, soups and vegetables . Mum's a fantastic cook who takes pride in the food she prepares for us, which is why I always look forward to her cooking whenever I go back to visit. I try to learn as much as I can from her, although in the much earlier years, before my foray into the kitchen, I was merely interested in consuming the end product and not so much how it was prepared.  I have, however, picked up many kitchen tips from her since then, which are truly invaluable and have probably saved me from countless pain and heartaches in the kitchen. Thanks Mum! With my family, I've followed the same tradition of serving rice for dinner (except for the occasional fast food or fish and chips on the weekends - kids, you know, gotta keep them happy). There are  endless types of dishes that go with rice, ranging from he...

  I wrote a post on Hainanese chicken rice sometime last year, though without the detailed recipe. Before I go on, let me just say that this recipe was provided courtesy of Mr G. If there's one thing he loves to cook and can cook well, it's chicken rice. The only part I play in the whole cooking process is preparing the chilli sauce and supervising the food styling. I'm only too happy to let him hold the reins on this one as he has cooked this umpteen times for the last few years, and has become quite an expert at it.   This style of chicken rice is based on what we used to enjoy back in Singapore , where the chicken rice is served with a ginger chilli sauce and a thick black sauce to drizzle over the rice. If there's one Singapore street food that is better than Malaysia, it's definitely chicken rice. I think the difference lies in the texture and fragrance of the rice and the silky smooth and tender pieces of chicken. I should also mention that it is bursting wit...

  Sans Rival is a rich, buttery and nutty cake (or dessert) made with crisp layers of cashewnut meringue and filled with French buttercream . Sounds decadent enough? It was Al from work who introduced me to this dessert, and as she didn't really know the exact name, she merely referred to it as Sandflower cake, or San something. I totally fell in love with it at first bite. The combination of silky buttercream, the light and crispy meringue and scattering of chopped cashews was just amazing. The next thing I did was to google Philippines, san, cashew and cake, and to my delight and excitement, I discovered the Sans Rival, which literally means "without rival", and it is indeed true to its name. After sifting through the various recipes available on the internet, I finally settled on this one below that comes from a Filipino cookbook. The original recipe uses rum in the buttercream, though I think I might omit...

    Asparagus and Prawn Stir-fry   Ingredients   1 tbsp vegetable/peanut oil 2 cloves garlic, sliced/chopped 200g prawns, peeled, deveined and tails intact 2 bundles asparagus, woody ends snapped off, halved crossways 2-3 bird's eye chillies, sliced   Sauce: 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp palm sugar (or to taste) 1 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce 3 tbsp water   Method   Heat oil in a wok on high heat. Add the garlic, followed by the prawns. Let the prawns cook on one side, then flip them over to cook the other side. When the prawns are almost cooked, remove and transfer them to a plate and leave the oil in the wok. Next, add the asparagus to the wok and fry for 30 seconds, then push them aside. Add the chillies and pour the sauce ingredients down the side of the wok into the centre and bring to a boil. Toss the prawns in with the asparagus and sauce, and stir-fry briefly until everything is w...