The Food Canon

Baking?

The first recipe I ever tried making was Pandan Chiffon cake. I was about 13 then. I was an early adolescent about to discover the world. And I thought the world of Chiffon cakes was worth a shot. It was the latest craze in town then along with - if some of you can still remember - the so 70's Black Forest cake.

Guess what became of my Chiffon? It never saw the light of day. It did not rise. I tried to salvage it but it turned into some kind of pandan kuih. It was totally inedible..an outright failure.

I have learnt since then that baking needs a certain precision and methodical discipline. The density, viscosity, temperature, texture, salinity, timing etc all have to be accurate. Even the kind and size of baking trays matter. You need to know what you are doing.

I have said that I will blog some other variations of claypot rice recipes. I have cooked Rice Wine Chicken before and I thought it should work well as an idea for claypot chicken rice.

And it did.

Rice wine and ginger go very well together. And with some good fresh chicken and spring onions, it's hard to go wrong with this.

M'sian version of Indian Rojak: before the julienned veg and sauce are added

It is June vacation and I was in Melaka and Petaling Jaya (West Malaysia) recently.

Either my taste buds are changing or I did not try hard enough. But I have found it difficult to find something that is worthwhile blogging - or bragging - about. After all, I still have Malaysian roots.

That said, there were some sweet moments that are worth mentioning.