East Meets West

In my cooking, I don't know where the east ends and the west begins, or vice versa. To me, cooking is so much more than just food, just ingredients. It's history and culture, and it's more than tradition - it's creating something new.

I'm not a painter. I can't paint, I can't work with colours and graphics very well beyond some sketching. However, in the kitchen, I feel like this is my pallette. I love putting spices together, being a chemist, or alchemist, creating something new every time I set out to create a meal.

Today I made something new. I threw things together and this just happened and it was *amazing*.

Mind you, that doesn't always happen. I have made many, many failed traditional, whole wheat, oil-based or animal-fat-based pastries that have failed miserably, and that is why I always proceed with  caution when attempting anything of the sort.

Are they samosas? Turnovers? I would say they're an amalgamation of so many things. The pastry is olive oil, but made in the style of Chinese flaky pastry and seasoned with cayenne and thyme, amongst other things.

Texture: Flaky Taste: Wonderful!

I made a traditional "Melton Mowbray" style English pork pie before, and I have the say the filling tastes very similar. This has a sweet, very porky filling, but it has soy sauce. I use soy sauce a lot, from everything from roast lamb to roast turkey to chicken stew. Odd, isn't it? Well, my "hearty country stew" has coriander as well!

I love working with the tropical flavours and spices we get here in sunny Malaysia from "screwpine" (Pandan) to the ubiquotious soy sauce. However, being an atypical Asian, I tend to exschew anything that has to do with soy! And I love everything potatoes and dairy... so... like I said, "East Meets West".

When it boils down to it, everything is "heavily seasoned"! There are at least 5 different types of spice in any dish and I season/salt very liberally.