A Source of Inspiration

Drawn from a horse whisperer's inspiration

I can identify with one episode of Kylie Kwong’s “Cooking with Heart & Soul”. She’d gotten her mum to demonstrate how she cooks Hokkien noodles after showing her new version, obviously drawing inspiration from the elderly lady’s recipe and personalizing it with her “Kyliessential” signature style. 

I’ve done that with my mum’s Chinese-style deep fried chicken, even though it’s delicious as it is. For one, to make the dish healthier, I’ve swapped the wok for the oven. For another, I’ve aromatized the dish with generous helpings of zesty young ginger and molten amber honey. Succulent sweet and tangy chook is the result. Whether it’s succulent or crispy depends on which of two ways I bake the bird.

Similarly, I’ve transformed the German time-honoured black forest cake into a hip and trendy chocolate cherry one by twigging the texture of the chocolaty sponge and being philanthropic with the dark chocolate shavings and juicy pitted cherries. But I’ve kept the spirit of making it true: it still takes as lovingly long.

And while I still cook the Pacific oysters as an American stew, guests wouldn’t think it as one when I serve it. Each cream-bursting plump oyster comes sitting on its shell; cooling it down quickly to make the dining experience not only more pleasurable in the hot tropics, but more refined as well.