Pork Rib Vindahloo

It was 7pm, Thursday. My husband and I were ravenous after exploring Old Goa. We were on our first trip exploring Goa and despite a weeklong adjustment to local time, our tummies were still operating two hours ahead in Singapore time. Pinto’s, a small family-run restaurant in the heart of Panaji, was where we’d planned…

Chettinad Pepper Chicken Masala (Kozhi Milagu Masala)

  “Necessity is the mother of all, if not most, inventions.” -Someone Nope. By no means did I invent this dish. The people of Chettinad from South India did. This necessity was more like desperation.On a said Sunday, at noon, we felt the need for a very South Indian fix. Not the so-called British Indian…

Seafood Mamak Mee Goreng

Wat’cha goreng about ? Mee Goreng translates simply as ‘Fried Noodles’ in Malay and Bahasa Indonesia. When the Chinese traders sailed to these shores, they introduced the wok and noodles. Soon after, came the myriad of street food dishes, which are still popular today in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. In Malaysia and Singapore, the more…

Singapore-style Curry Chicken Noodles

A rainy day, a food love story fuelled by greed and a sort of happy ending That fateful rainy day: It was a nondescript evening. We had no dinner plans as yet and because it had been raining all day, a bowl of chicken curry mee sounded like the perfect cure to an uneventful day….

Ayam Kalio (Lazy Man’s Chicken Rendang)

A quick internet search for ‘rendang’ will yield several thousands of recipes for rendang as this is a much loved dish in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Ancient maritime trade and shared histories have ensured that this dish crossed over from its West Sumatran origins to Malaysia and Singapore. It is not known when this dish…

Ultimate Seafood Pilaf

Aromatic basmati rice infused with a rich prawn stock and a vivacious scent of ceylon cinnamon, cloves and green cardamom all swaddle this luxurious take on a simple, mildly spiced pilaf. A pilaf is completely different from a biryani. The pilaf is a lightly spiced rice dish that is usually accompanied by gravy and other side…

Lamb Bhuna

In many non-vegetarian households, a lamb or goat dish is often found amongst a plethora of other decadent dishes on Deepavalli day. My family usually ate vegetarian breakfasts before heading out to the temple and in the evenings when we had guests over, we almost always had a lamb or goat curry with idli (steam…

Spicy Fish Head Curry

Look away if you’re squeamish about heads, eyes and odd food bits … Welcome to the delicious world of the tender, flakey flesh of a gorgeous fish head. Fish Head?! Let’s pause for a second and consider this – What do you think happens to the heads of the filleted fish in your supermarket aisles?…

Crispy Baked Chicken Wings in Mango Chili Sauce

  Just a warning …. Short recipe but long post. While the other half of the world is going nuts over the arrival of strawberries and rhubarb, in this part of the world things are looking up for mangoes, durians, longans, mangosteens, rambutans and many summer fruits that start appearing in the markets just about…

Making Sabudana Khichdi with Aunty Meena Newaskar (Melting Pot #2)

For the second feature of my blog series ‘Melting Pot’ , I’ve interviewed my childhood friends’ mother, Mrs Meena Newaskar, who was kind enough to share the recipe for her daughter’s (my friend Neeti) favourite – Sabudana Khichdi and how she learnt to create this popular breakfast and snack originating from Maharashtra. Sabudana, also known…