Begining Days

My culinary journey started from the house I was born. Being a 2nd generation Chinese born in India, things were different. We had stir fries with yellow dal  or sometimes congee with Indian style mashed potatoes for breakfast. But  whatever the combination was it was homemade and we relished it and still miss those old days when my mom used to cook. I have watched my father make lap cheong (Cantonese sausages) or lap yuk ( Chinese dehydrated pork with dark soy, rice wine and sugar) during Sundays. In most of Chinese families the men cooked if it was a special occasion. The case was the same in our family also. I heard from my father that my Grand Father ( A-Yeh) used to make his own fresh noodles and ham choi ( preserved mustard greens) at home. I was not that lucky to meet him as he died when my father was still in his teens. But my father carried forward the legacy and cooked most of the things which my A-Yeh taught him. My father cooked lat chiu kai ( chicken with green chillies...a lot), Sweet & Sour Fish (not the same one which you get in restaurants) and many more (I will definitely share those recipes in my blog).

We called ourselves Indian Chinese though few spoke Cantonese. It died out as most preferred local language than to speak in Cantonese. But the eating habits still remained the same and was passed on the other generation. The interesting part was that some started cooking with the local ingredients and meat and came out with more ideas on doing the same dishes though the technique remained the same. Chinese people mostly preferred either stir fry or steamed and less of baking and roasting. One of my favorite style of cooking adapted from my family is the Pot Roasting ( we do the famous Charsiu Pork in the same technique at home.) I used to freak on charsiu when it was made at home. Actually everybody liked this preparation. My mom used to cook this dish in bulk and stored it inside fridge for many days. She will slice the pork and use for fried rice, stir-fries, congee or just slice into thick pieces. Thinking about all this dishes make my mouth watered. So whenever i felt like cooking at home i do the same recipe used by my parents. Things were also the same before a

I became a professional chef. But things took more interesting turns as i was doing lot of South East Asian cooking. That means i was playing around with chillies, lime, different kinds of ginger, palm sugar, fish sauce and shrimp paste ( all different flavors - spicy, sour, sharp, sweet and saltiness). Most unusual as Cantonese food was more on lighter flavors and a very balanced seasonings.