Blog
Le Taillevent
Taillevent is listed in the book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”. Pour moi, the ultimate Ms. Check-Off, I had to dine there some day. Life is short. Taillevent means “cut the wind” and the nickname “Le Taillevent” referred to Guillaume Tirel. He was born in 1310...
Zanzibar
Enough of procrastinating. It is time to blog once again and the topic of “Curry” fits right in to beat the wintry cold in the northern hemisphere. I have been meaning to write about spices since my visit to Zanzibar back in July. “You really want to visit the...
In Search of Portugal, in Macau
I have yet to make it to Portugal. And when I do, I will probably say that there are so many things there that remind me of Macau. It will be just the same way I felt when I saw Paris for the first time and innocently quipped, in awe and astonishment, that those...
A Night at Nonya Bong
I woke up on New Year’s Day trying to figure out what task it was that I was reminded to do. Aha! Jeffrey had texted me that slots would open up on Jan 1. He runs Nonya Bong - a popular Peranakan private dining that requires you to book months in advance. I had...
My Interpreted Rendang
My rendang recipe is non-conventional. Here is a disclaimer, I am not Indonesian. That said, my cousin has just added an essay in the second print of my updated cookbook, where he states that Peranakans are actually descended from the indigenous Indonesians, during a...
Ginger
For intellectual relaxation, I am reading a book by a royal renegade. Ginger is the clue. For me, ginger is a culinary ingredient that holds vivid memories. Years ago, my mother and older sisters regularly engaged an Indonesian masseuse to our home for lazy afternoon...
Sharon’s Version of Chicken Rice
My recipe is an amalgamation of many experiments over time. I incorporated my brother-in-law's tip of stuffing the cavity with ginger and then using that ginger for the sauce. A Hainanese man I once conversed with, mentioned that his family rendered the chicken fat to...
Aunties
The word "Auntie" in a Peranakan family comes in many variations. In the traditional family that I grew up in, it was rude to literally call an older female Nonya relative "Auntie". Different aunts had different titles, following the traditional Chinese categorization...
Behind my Agak Agak write up
My husband went through a phase of wearing sweatpants everywhere, like George Costanza in Seinfeld. I told him that he could not wear it to our anniversary dinner at Jean-Georges, the upscale French restaurant. As luck would have it, we ran into the actor Mark...
Sweet and Sour Pork
Here are a couple of updates to the originally printed recipe below. The serving size of 12 assumes that you are making this for a buffet with lots of other side dishes.
Almond Jelly with Lychees in Syrup
I am old-fashioned and still prefer to use the raffia-like agar-agar strips. Also, make sure to get a good quality almond extract. Try it first, otherwise your jelly may end up tasting very chemical. [My latest suggestion - to be more health conscious, you can half...
Mortar and Pestle
The typical mortar and pestle used by Nonyas is the one pictured in the middle. In my previous blog, I had written about Koh Poh Beng Neo, my grandaunt who had taught me how to pound in the right sequence. She had described to me that potential mothers-in-law went...