We just returned from Malaysia where we spent our short vacation at our hometowns of Kuala Lumpur and Penang. It was real fun to get together with relatives and old friends, as well as pampering our tummies with our favourite local cuisines. But, sad to say, the quality for some of them had deteriorated and didn’t quite keep up to our expectation. Meanwhile, the food prices were marked higher than...

  Chicken tikka masala (CTM) is a mild Indian curry dish of bite-sized chicken chunks (tikka) marinated and cooked in a tandoor oven, then added to a spicy sauce (masala). This is one dish I must order whenever I dine in an Indian restaurant. It has such a perfect blend of spices and flavour that goes well with either naans or rice.   After reading more about this dish, I was quite surprised to learn...

Beside apples, oranges are the most common imported fruit that my mom usually used to buy for the family when I was a child. But, I disliked oranges then, as more often than not they weren’t sweet but rather sour. I thought I was the only one who had this bias against oranges until I discovered that my hubby also disliked oranges. Maybe, we might also have influenced our son who also didn’t show much interest...

My son was playfully nicknamed “Chapati” (Chapathi) by my Indian friend, Mrs R because of his chubby face. Hearing her constantly calling out for my son’s “nickname” has led me wanting to learn how to make chappati from her. After some discussions, she suggested teaching me her kid-friendly paratha instead. So, you may ask what’s the difference between chappati and paratha. A...

I discovered moong dal (mung bean, 绿豆) through my Indian friend who introduced me to Indian cuisine some time ago. The husk of moong dal is green in colour, but the bean itself is yellow after de-husking.  It is commonly used by Chinese in making dessert (such as green bean soup and sweetened green bean paste). Amongst all the beans and lentils, split moong dal is the easiest to cook as it do not need pre-soaking...

I like to thank  Ligia Menezes, a Brazilian journalist for selecting my photo for her recent article featuring masala chai. Her article, written in Portuguese language, was published in VivaMais magazine (N1) at end May 2009 and is about how to lose weight by drinking masala chai. If you are interested to find out more about her article, you can use this Google translate tool for translation. (N1: VivaMais...

  According to Wikipedia, masala chai is a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. There is no universal recipe or method used for preparing masala chai. It varies among each household based on their taste and preferences.   Nevertheless, all masala chai are basically made up of four components: tea, sweetener, milk and spices....

Lentil is a good source of protein but I had never seen it in the Chinese cuisine. Thus, I had decided to cook a non-spicy version of dhal for my family especially my son to try it out. With much help from an Indian friend, recipes from the internet and many personal attempts, I had finally derived at the following recipe. Ingredients: 200g pumpkin (cut into chunks) 50g yellow lentils (moong dal)- washed and...

Cooking this one-meal dish is not as difficult as I thought after cooking for several times. Thanks to the advices and guidance from an Indian mother whom I met in my son’s playschool and the recipes and cooking tips from here. Below is the modified recipe I used: Ingredients: 120g Basmati rice (long grained rice) 240g water 1 medium size onion (red, sliced thinly) ¼ cup green peas (frozen) ¼ cup french...