Category Archives: Malaysian

Recipe for Bubur Cha Cha

No, “bubur cha cha” isn’t a type of dance. It’s a sweet, coconut-based soup that we enjoy quite often here in Malaysia. But the recipe is a bit different from our Honeydew Sago Dessert recipe, our Indonesian Es Teler recipe, or the cendol that we enjoyed back in Penang. Bubur cha cha is a Nyonya dish made with different types of sweet potatoes and yam (or Chinese taro). To the sweet potatoes, you add a little pearl tapioca for a textural counterpoint.

Bubur Cha Cha

Bubur Cha Cha

In Hawaii, you could find something similar in Vietnamese restaurants except that their versions were more pudding-like with more tapioca pearls than sweet potatoes. And I believe in the Philippines, they add bananas to their version.

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Assam Curry Chicken Recipe

An easy and delicious, one-pot chicken curry meal that will tantalize your tastebuds.

Assam Curry Chicken

Recently at our Friday fellowship, we celebrated a birthday by having a potluck. Most times, on our regular Friday nights, we end the night with some food but mostly it’s bought food like kolo mee, cakes and snacks. But whenever we have a celebration potluck, we all try to bring something home-cooked. It’s a good time of sharing and also a good time of discovering new foods.

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Penang Family Recipe: Pan Fried Phong Pneah

We discovered a delicious Penang family recipe that was almost forgotten.

Pan Fried Phong P'neah

Whenever we go back to Penang, I always make sure that I come home with some goodies. One of the most popular things to take away from Penang (and no, unfortunately, we can’t pack their char koay teow, or Asam Laksa) is the biscuits evidenced by the number of people on our flight back to Kuching hand-carrying boxes and boxes of these wonderful pastries.

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Daikon cooked in spicy coconut milk (Lobak putih masak lemak)

An amazingly simple and delicious new way to cook daikon radish.

daikon in spicy coconut milk

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I use an ingredient in certain ways and I can’t get past those styles of cooking to move on to other things. Yeah, let’s just call it non-creativity. I get like that some days (ok, most days now that I’m working). This is why I love browsing through cookbooks or going to try new restaurants. I get inspired that way.

Recently, I got inspired by a Malay colleague. She had brought lunch from home that her mom had made for her. Being the curious foodie that I am, I went over to her cubicle and asked what she was having for lunch. She said, “Lobak putih masak lemak” (daikon cooked in coconut milk) and showed me her dish.

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