ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

Fried Gourami (Ikan Sepat) found in padi (rice) fields Curried Cow's Pancreas Deep-fried Pipefish Some of dishes found in a nasi padang meal The unique and very healthy salad that goes with the nasi padang A rare dessert: Malay Rainbow cookies Singapore being a multi-racial society and a global city, I have access to all kinds of food from every corner of the world. I can have Indian cuisine for breakfast, Malay cuisine for lunch, Western steak and wine for dinner; and Chinese porridge for supper. But my favorite kind of food is the Malay Nasi Padang (rice eaten with a variety of meat, fish and vegetable). The variety of dishes concocted by nasi padang cooks is limitless, and here I showcase just a few. "Nasi" means rice, and "Padang"is a town on the island of Sumatra, where this kind of cuisine is said to have originated.  There are many variations of nasi padang according to their geographical locations in I...

Lunch: Yam Rice Lunch: Pig's Stomach with White Peppercorn Soup Lunch: Fried Fish and some kind of Squash or Gourd Dinner: Malay curried mutton, fried, egg, fish, vegetables with rice and Chili Would you believe that I have not cooked a meal at home in three years, ever since I came back from the United States? Though this sounds strange to Westerners and Americans, it is not uncommon to find working people in Hong Kong and Singapore who eat out for every meal-breakfast, lunch and dinner. One of the reasons is that people here and even more so in Hong Kong work long hours, and there is no time to cook. But the main reason is that eating out in Singapore and Hong Kong is relatively inexpensive. Inexpensive not only in the amount of dollars a meal costs, but inexpensive also in the sense of comparing the $ x time that need to be sacrificed if you need to cook at home. Time, that for some, could be spent earning more money or doing more business. If you don't count tasteless qu...

Of all the cuisines in the world that I have experienced, my favorite is the cuisine of the Indonesian islands. Indonesia is a vast archipelago of 17000 islands stretching 2000 miles and more from New Guinea to Sumatra, from Sulawesi to Kalimantan. The great diversity in people, language, culture brings forth great diversity in cuisine. Nasi Padang is steamed white rice accompanied by a variety of meat, fish and vegetable dishes. 'Nasi' means 'rice' in Indonesian and 'Padang' is a town on the island of Sumatra where this dish is said to have originated. The people of Sumatra, being part of a culturally distinct Riau archipelago are more akin to the Malays of Singapore and Malaysia than to the Javanese and Balinese next door . So Nasi Padang is also a common dish in Singapore and Malaysia. Unfortunately, the standard of Nasi Padang in Singapore has deteriorated so much, that I find most of the stalls serving almost inedible Nasi Padang. No more only sold by smal...