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Bachelor-style Fried Macaroni
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The first time I made Khairul Aming’s “bachelor-style” fried macaroni was during Ramadan last year. As expected, suhoor is an important meal we need to have, yet most would feel too groggy to eat a full spread of complicated dishes. I needed meal ideas where all we needed to do was shovel the food…
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Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia
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I had a jar of leftover sun-dried tomatoes in the fridge, and needed an excuse to use them up. A pasta dish, or some form of bread were both possible ideas, but recently I felt motivated to revisit making focaccia. After a few failures and misses, I’ve been a little circumspect with no-knead bread…
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Fried Bee Hoon: Canteen Aunty Version
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There was a time when my mom had a fried bee hoon (rice vermicelli noodles) craze. Every morning for months, she would have it for breakfast. After Kak’mbang retired I had to learn to make it myself and, thanks to this wonderful video by Che Nom, I learned the proper technique to do it.
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Chicken Char Siu (Halal Air Fryer Version)
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Many of my favorite Chinese dishes call for char siu. Yes, of course original char siu is made of pork and therefore a no-go for me. Thankfully, in Malaysia halal versions using chicken char siu are easily accessible. The nationwide lockdown caused by the COVID pandemic was a major catalyst for me to learn…
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Million Dollar Spaghetti
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It was Ramadan, and I was scrolling through Instagram for food ideas, when I happened upon this ridiculously indulgent-looking recipe for Million Dollar Spaghetti by the Instagram account, Create a Plate with Dina. While this looks a tad too much for iftar, I immediately decided to make this for Eid celebrations.
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Palestinian Chicken Soup: Batata Ala Adamha
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During one of those days in Ramadan, I came across a video by @cheffjjskitchen on Instagram. It was of a really wonderful looking Palestinian chicken soup/stew, called batata ala adamha. Chef Moosa mentioned that this was a Palestinian dish, but from the comments it seems like a dish quite popular throughout the Middle East.
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Jalapeno and Cheddar Pierogi
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My husband Faizal mentioned Costco used to sell frozen pierogi – specifically jalapeno cheddar pierogi – which he recalled being quite yummy. Took us a while to finally identify the brand, @peterandpatspierogies. They don’t seem to be sold anywhere in the States nowadays, so the next best thing was to try and make it myself.…
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Spaghetti with Hot Dogs
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It was mid-week, and we were running low on groceries in the fridge. Our grocery run wasn’t until a few more days, but I still needed to figure out the day’s lunch prep. Rummaging through my freezer dan veggie drawers, I found a small pack of beef sausages, carrots, and a couple of tomatoes…
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Chicken Curry Pau
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As we all know, bao or baozi are steamed buns originating from China. Perhaps through cultural transfer and assimilation over centuries via trade and migration, in Malaysia we have a local variant of steamed buns, called pau. Malaysian pau are quite distinctly local, with either sweet or savory fillings such as coconut jam, red…
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Kampung Fried Rice (Village-style Fried Rice)
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I used to work in an office building which had a cafeteria on the 3rd floor. Before my days of intermittent fasting, my colleagues and I would quickly stop by the 3rd floor to get our daily breakfast to go and eat together in the office pantry. One of my favorite breakfast items is…