Chinese Food Culture

January 9th, 2011 | Singaporean Recipes | 2 Comments

Køkken69 is a Singaporean food blog. Authored by Shirley, a chemist by day, Køkken69 is a gorgeous blog chocked full of delicious Asian dishes, pastry recipes, and travel tales as Shirley travels around the world. While Shirley says that she approaches every Recipe on her site like an experiment, I personally think that she is a talented  home cook, and a fantastic food photographer. Please welcome Køkken69 to Rasa Malaysia and learn more about the Singaporean version of Hokkien Mee!

It is too old fashioned to proclaim that I am honoured to be invited by super star food blogger, Bee to do a guest post for her immensely successful blog, Rasa Malaysia. Unfortunately, for my lack of eloquence, that is probably the best way to sum up my thrill and appreciation for this opportunity.

Excited as I might be, I was also plagued with a bugging concern over what else I can bring to a blog that is already so rich in content. I doubt that there is any Malaysian/ Singaporean dish that has not been featured on Rasa Malaysia already…

I was literally at the cusp of exasperation when I recall a dish which I have been told is not available in Malaysia. Fried Hokkien Mee, literally translates to mean noodles,fried Fujian style. Fujian (Hokkien) is a province in Southern China. Most of the Chinese residing in Malaysia and Singapore have roots originating from the Fujian province. Hence, Fujian/Hokkien cuisine and way of cooking tend to feature prominently in the local chinese food here.

Despite being close neighbours, Singapore and Malaysia frequently have their competitive moments. Some trivial, some not so… Both nations are fierce food lovers and there have been countless debates on who has better food and who should lay claim to ownership of a particular dish… There are, as far as I can recall 2 versions of Hokkien Mee in Malaysia. Hokkien Char mee from Kuala Lumpur is a fried yellow noodle dish braised in dark soya sauce. Penang Hokkien Prawn noodles is another yellow noodle dish served in a rich spicy and flavourful prawn broth. The Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee featured here, is a variant of the Penang Prawn Noodles.

A mixture of yellow noodles and thick rice vermicelli ,first fried with eggs until fragrant and braised in rich, flavourful prawn broth, the Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee is served semi-dry and garnished with prawns, squid, sliced pork belly, chives and eaten with Sambal chilli and a squirt of lime juice.Traditionally, for take out,Â�the Hokkien Mee would be wrapped in Opeh leaf. The Opeh leaf comes from the inner sheath of the bark of a Betel Nut tree. It could be nostalgia but I  have always felt that food wrapped in an Opeh leaf smells better.

This is not a very difficult dish to cook, however it is pertinent that you work with a good prawn stock. The prawn stock imparts the essence to the noodle and is the key ingredient that makes the bland-looking dish flavourful. The sambal and lime juice cuts through the richness of the dish to balance an otherwise heavy starchy dish.

I hope you enjoy this local Singaporean local dish as much as I have enjoyed cooking it for this guest post.

Vietnamese BBQ Shrimp Vermicelli or Bun Tom Heo Nuong is one of my favorite Vietnamese bun dishes. Should you have tried Vietnamese food, I am certain you are familiar with bun, or dry rice vermicelli in nuoc cham (fish sauce) and topped with either grilled pork (thit), BBQ shrimp, sugarcane shrimp (chao tom), cha gio, tau hu ky, or a combination of them. I love Vietnamese bun due to the fact it’s not only tasty, but really healthy as it’s not greasy and comes with all sorts of vegetables and herbs. Every single bite is refreshing and appetizing; a noodle dish that is both filling and satisfying…

Summer is in high gear now so I made some BBQ shrimp and turn them into this BBQ shrimp vermicelli. It is definitely quite quick to make. All you’ve to do is gather your fresh vegetables: cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, cilantro, and mint leaves. (It is possible to also add herbs including perilla and Asian basil leaves, should you like.) For the rice vermicelli, you can get them dry at Asian markets. Please take note you’ll require rice sticks, which are slightly “fatter” than rice vermicelli. The packaging has Vietnamese and it will say “Bun” and also the English label is “Rice Sticks.” For the fish sauce or nuoc cham, I have a good recipe that goes well with the vermicelli, as nicely as other Vietnamese recipes on this website.

If you love Asian noodles, this is a excellent dish to try. As I mentioned above, you can have a few toppings when you want—shrimp, pork, cha gio, tau hu ky, etc. Regardless of your option, it is absolutely pleasing to the palate.

July 17th, 2010 | | No Comments

Vietnamese BBQ  Shrimp Vermicelli or Bun Tom Heo Nuong is one of my favorite Vietnamese bun dishes. If you have tried Vietnamese food, I am sure you are familiar with bun, or dry rice vermicelli in nuoc cham (fish sauce) and topped with either grilled pork (thit), BBQ shrimp, sugarcane shrimp (chao tom), cha gio, tau hu ky, or a combination of them. I love Vietnamese bun because it’s not only tasty, but very healthy as it’s not greasy and comes with all sorts of vegetables and herbs. Every bite is refreshing and appetizing; a noodle dish that is both filling and satisfying…

Summer is in high gear now so I made some BBQ shrimp and turn them into this BBQ shrimp vermicelli. It’s really quite easy to make. All you have to do is gather your fresh vegetables:  cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, cilantro, and mint leaves. (You can also add herbs such as perilla and Asian basil leaves, if you like.) For the rice vermicelli, you can get them dry at Asian markets. Please take note you will need rice sticks, which are slightly “fatter” than rice vermicelli. The packaging has Vietnamese and it will say “Bun” and the English label is “Rice Sticks.” For the fish sauce or nuoc cham, I have a great recipe that goes well with the vermicelli, as well as other Vietnamese recipes on this site.

If you love Asian noodles, this is a great dish to try. As I mentioned above, you can have a few toppings if you want—shrimp, pork, cha gio, tau hu ky, etc. Regardless of your choice, it’s absolutely pleasing to the palate.

If you love Vietnamese food, do check out my collections of popular Vietnamese recipes.

If you might be a fan of Thai foods, it’s extremely probably that you adore Pad See Ew, or Thai-style fried flat rice noodles. A lot of readers have asked to the recipe, so nowadays, I have a Thai native Jam as being a guest writer. Dependent in Austin, Jam is usually a Thai cooking instructor and the brainchild behind Thai-fresh (a Thai cooking school with catering solutions) along with a delicious foodstuff weblog at Thai Cooking with Jam (you have to examine out all her Thai recipes!). Please welcome Jam to Rasa Malaysia as she shares her Pad See Ew Recipe with us. Nothing beats learning a brand new and authentic recipe from a native. Get pleasure from!

If you’ve got been to Thailand, you realize that this could be the ultimate street foods. Anyplace you go in Bangkok, anyone is offering Pad See Ew within half a mile. The recipe is simple. You are able to either make it with rice vermicelli or flat rice noodles as well as dry egg noodles. Dry egg noodles require to become precooked just like pasta noodles but carry very much shorter time, about 2 minutes. If that you are utilizing dry flat rice noodles, soak them in cold drinking water for above an hour until soft and strain. If you want, you possibly can blanch the noodles by dropping them in boiling water and quickly consider them out and run them below cold Вo.

Traditionally, we use Chinese broccoli or Gai Lan in this dish. You can also use bok choy, normal broccoli, cauliflower or carrots. We’ve applied Collard Greens as well and they may be good. They’re very equivalent to Chinese broccoli in truth, they’re inside the similar family. Collard Greens are a small bitterer than Chinese broccoli. Getting in Texas, Collard Greens are just everywhere this time from the year. I think kale would work too. Shop at your nearby farmers’ industry and encounter with diverse greens and vegetables…

You can find two methods to cook the eggs. If your stove is quite potent, you possibly can adhere to the recipe by cooking the eggs in the end but if that you are cooking on the less highly effective stove, I locate that cracking from the eggs immediately after the meat and scramble them just before adding the noodles is the greatest way.