Lair of Flying Green Song Rabbits

I just recently found out (and apparently I was the last to know this -_-) that Poh from Masterchef has her own cooking show!!!

Now, I've always loved Poh. I was cheering for her all the way and as the competition got tighter and closer to the end I ended up liking her more for her vision in cooking; how she's not afraid to try new things (squid ink rice noodle cubes wtf, makes me want to try squid ink spaghetti) and because she always questions techniques and is curious about why things are the way they are. This almost certainly leads back to tradition, but at least now you know to never over-knead your unset roti dough.

So far she's made chiffon cake (have been hankering for a good cheese custard lemon chiffon pie recipe), roti which I've always wanted to try. I love spring onion pancake which is kind of like roti but more flavourful.

Before I discovered her show, I was already thinking about "embracing my roots". Some time ago, the fragility of my aging grandmother has made me realise that inside that little body is a plethora of cooking expertise and wisdom (along with sewing and gardening). If you guys didn't know, my grandma is Teochew and my grandpa is Hakka Chinese but both grew up in Indonesia so she knows many different types and styles of cooking. They have also lived in Shantou and Guangzhou where she was exposed to Cantonese cuisine, the main cuisine of my mother's upbringing. I am mostly interested in what little she knows of Indonesian food as it is quite close to Malaysian food. Additionally, my dad is Hainanese and his step-family is Vietnamese. So you see, I grew up eating all these different kinds of foods and all along I thought it was all Cantonese -_-

Even today I have trouble figuring out which dish is from where! I don't even think my grandma herself knows, she just picked it up along the way. I'm going to record some of these recipes and trace them back to where they came from (thankyou Wiki).

So anyway, I've been keeping up with watching Poh's Kitchen and learning a bit of history behind Asian food and techniques although she always has a guest chef so I guess it's more fusion. And by keeping up I mean time-shifting (woohoo! Advertising discourse!) from Wednesday airings xD

I'm going to try fit in some cooking during the semester since I have 2 days free. Today and last night I made spaghetti carbonara using this recipe, which is officially the BEST spaghetti carbonara I've ever had. It helps to do it properly! Tomorrow I'll bake cookies or a cake for my friend Elia's birthday.