Back to Simple Basic Cooking.

Greetings from Sydney. We have just returned from a short "balek kampong" trip to Singapore and we were amazed to find such a great varities of fusion food between eastern and western food available to us. We did enjoy these new food versions but what we missed were simple traditional foods that filled us with memories of the tradition kitchens, with its preparations for special feast days and the ritual of everyday family meals.

We are awared that food preparations and cooking stlyes have evolved with the hectic lifestyle and needs of the younger generation. But unless we the silverHairs passed it to them (on the presumption that they wanted to learn) these traditional food and cooking secrets will be lost and slipped beyond the realm of recall.

My wife is currently compiling a collection of simple home cookings and recipes that are normally handled down from parents to children through the generations by word of mouth. We are writing this post to ask for your help and share with us your family cooking secrets so that we can preserve the true flavour of the original food for the young ones to keep.

23 thoughts on “Back to Simple Basic Cooking.”

  2. Hi Caroline

    No problem. Many friends especially those residing overseas are very interested with this collection and giving their support. We hope that the outcome will be interesting and useful for everyone. We will get you posted through our blog.

  4. Hello Philip,

    Back in my kampong days, we would catch mud-crabs, prawns, fish and sotong from the mangrove swamp. Till today, I still cook seafood using these simple, no-ingredient kampong recipes:

    CRABS
    Add a few tablespoons of salt in a basin of water.
    Soak/wash fresh crabs (leave them whole)in the basin.
    Put the crabs in a kuali and add 1/2 cup of water.
    Cover & bring to the boil for 15 minutes.
    Scoop the crabs from the kauli and serve.
    Eat the crabs with cut chillies, light soya sauce & lime.

    PRAWNS
    We caught & sold live prawns at the Kangar fish market. The smaller prawns and those without shells will be cooked in this manner:
    Wash the fresh prawns and put them in the kuali.
    Sprinkle some salt over the prawns.
    Cover & cook the prawns in high heat for 7-10 mins.
    Sccop up the prawns and eat them with plain porridge.
    Dip the prawns in sliced chilli & thick black soya sauce

    FISH
    Clean & remove the fish stomach but leave the scales intact.
    Fill half the kuali with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to the boil.
    Put the fish into the boiling water and continue to cook under high heat.
    When the fish eye turns white, turn off the fire and scoop the fish onto a plate.
    Remove the scales from the fish like turning a page.
    Eat the fish with cut chillies, garlic and light soya sauce.

    SOTONG
    Remove/wash whatever is in the sotong but leave skin intact.
    Fill half the kuali with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to the boil.
    Put sotong into the boiling water and continue to cook under high heat.
    When sotong eye turns white, turn off the fire and scoop the sotong onto a plate.
    Eat the squid with plum sauce and plain hot porridge.

  5. Hi Shirley,
    We are overwhelm with emails from London to Japan responding to our request for family secret recipes and cooking stlyes of our traditional food. We say thank you, especially to those who share the same sentiment with us. Because of our multi cultural heritage, we have recieved Nonya, Malay, Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew,Hainan(4 claiming that their Mum’s Hainan Chichen Rice is the best and not forgetting the selection of accompaniments to go along the dish.) Please bear with us for a moment so that they could be sorted out and categorically listed under their individual grouping.

    Hi Marylee,
    Thank you for your support and contributions. We must get you and Mary Tan to be co-contributors to our blog. Thanks again to both of you. Please email me wongcp8@hotmail.com for my blog site.

  9. Hello Philip,

    Mary Tan (Mrs) and Mary Lee(maiden) is the same person. Yesterday I sent via email 1/2 dozen recipes to you and SHC members in Perth.

  12. Hi Friends,
    Specialty recipe for the young will be mothers before conceiving, the first month of confinement and the immediate six months of nourishment to provide breast fed milk and restoration of vitality.
    Anyone game?

  13. Hi Vivien,
    We hope that this will be a fruitful endeavour for all to share. We are inundated with emails of recipes and “jealously guarded family secret recipes”. We did’nt know the what the ‘internet’ can do to us until now. The stalemate is we are relying on our Teen son as we are not very computer savy. Please bear with us. We want to thank all of you who sent notes of encouragemnet and good wishes. We realy need it.
    Cheers

  16. Hi Anne,
    Yes, of course.Please wait until my wife has completed the compilation of the traditional food recipes. Because of our rich culinary inheritance from the different cultural groups, it may take a while to finish, as she is still working on some of its originality and variations of the recipe.
    In the meantime, please visit our blog and we need feedbacks and support.

    Cheers,

    Philip.

  18. Hi Anne,
    Thanks for visiting. You noticed that we have gone to
    very basic food recipe. People are requesting how to make homemade kiam chye instead of buying artificially dyed stuff they get in the market these days.I have shown how it can be easily “la naturel” made at home without fuss. Marylee of Perth has emailed us with a long list of yummy traditional food recipes. We have yet to sort that out. A good example is the Kong Bak with Kong Bak Pao (bun) used to be served at weddings and wakes. But we need to have the recipe for making the wrapper(bun) to go with the kong bak. Can anyone help? Unless the younger ones are happy to eat it with bread rolls. If that is the case,then it is appropriate to call Kong Bak Roll. (laugh)

    Cheers.

  22. Hi Ella,
    We have been inundated with requests for the traditional food compilation and trying to figure out what is the best way to deliver the goods. It seems the best solution is to start another blog, once we are able to categorised the food recipes into their appropriate groups such as nonya, hakka, teochew etc… In the meantime please visit our blog as we have posted some basic and homemade foodstuff such as kiam chye, salted egg, Lup cheong, etc.
    Cheers
    Phil

  23. Happy Mother’s Day to all Mums.
    Just posting an update to my my makan blog. The is the lastest entry about homemade Bee Tai Bak.In the past, Bee Tai Bak aka Low Si Fun (mouse noodle) has been sent to the sin bin for starting food scares in Malaysia. For many years, the use of lye water and similar alkaline and even toxic chemicals like borax, “Pang sah” has been a controversial subject in the manufacturing of Bee Tai Bak.
    Cheers,
    Phil

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