What is the spiciest dish you’ve ever eaten? I’ll bet you’re thinking only of fiery hot red chillies. Yet, other things than chillies can blast off the top of your head. Japanese wasabi paste comes to mind. Korean cuisine has a yellow mustard that’s ear-burning too. I was once invited to a Korean banquet where…
Exactly five years ago, I made my way to Hong Kong. It was my first trip to South East Asia and I was wide-eyed with wonder. The veritable forest of tall buildings, the neon brightness that threatened to outshine the sun, the sheer variety of Chinese food, from roadside dai pai dongs (street-side stalls) to…
The phrase “spoilt for choice” takes on an altogether different connotation for three weeks every April in Singapore. That is when the World Gourmet Summit is on, with 73 events packed into 21 days. I was there for a modest two days and could not make up my mind whether to attend a gala lunch…
Budget travellers to Singapore head happily to the thousands of hawkers centres in that city-state. Two people can have a filling meal of noodles, soup, Hainanese chicken rice or something called roti pratha, and still have change left over from Singapore $ 5. Hawkers’ centres provide variety. In the interests of fairplay, owners of a…
I seem to be in a minority of one. My belief is that chawanmushi, hormok and dab chingri are all related to one another. Everyone else that I have spoken to about my pet theory has heaped scorn on me and told me not to be a fool. ‘Everyone’ includes chefs from the Far East,…
Salon International de l’Alimentation, better known as SIAL, just concluded in Villepinte, Paris. No matter where you looked, you couldn’t have missed the Indian contingent, and I’m not referring to exhibitors like Satnam Overseas. We were a motley bunch of executive chefs and F & B Managers, importers and food writers, looking at what France…