Tag Archives: essays

Children’s birthday parties often start with squeals of delight and joyful anticipation but end in tears and swearing. From mum and dad, I hasten to add.

You see, us Generation X parents always want to do our best for our kids. Our mothers made us every single cake from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cake Cookbook when we were growing up and we feel responsible for ensuring our own kids have those same special memories of their birthdays.

So, yes, we can get carried away. Been there, done that, had the breakdown over the icing that wouldn’t set.

But this year I got smart. I managed to pull off a 5 year old party for 20 children with a fully home cooked menu without breaking a sweat, a nail or a plate over somebody’s head (usually, my unfortunate husband). A first for me.

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You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

Some food is just plain, well, sexy.

I’m talking about food that gets your blood pumping. That makes you sigh with pleasure.

So what is sexy food? In my (black) book, it’s food that is confident,sensual, special, tantalising, incredibly fresh, and seductive. But it can also be food that is charming, witty or clever – I’m thinking of some of our leadings chefs who devise meals to appeal to our senses of whimsy and humour as well as our tastebuds.

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From 2003-2006, my husband and I lived in Shanghai, China. We moved there on his job with a Danish engineering firm, but I also found a great job there and we enjoyed three exciting years. Here’s a photo of me on the Bund when we had just arrived.

Besides friends, one of the things I miss most about China is the food. The variety of food there was simply phenomenal – all kinds of regional Chinese cuisines and an ever growing number of foreign foods were at our doorstep; we ate from dodgy looking, hole in the wall type neighbourhood joints to the newest 5 star restaurants on the Bund. My German husband developed an obsession with thousand year old eggs and fearlessly tried everything his customers ordered for him at their company dinners. And when we were pulling yet another late night at work, we’d regroup by ordering food delivered from one of our favourite restaurants. It was an amazing life.

I’m due for another trip to Shanghai soon. Next time I go, this is the food that I will be sure to eat:

1. Xinjiang Lamb Skewers – cumin-fragranced juicy meat skewers seasoned with chilli and Szechuan peppercorns that numb the lips and mouth. Completely addictive.
2. Xiao Long Bao @ Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung is a very successful Taiwanese franchise that produces to-die-for dumplings. They also make a wonderful tofu and seaweed salad that goes superbly with their Xiao Long Bao (Shanghai dumplings filled with minced pork and a gelatinous ‘soup’ that explodes into your mouth).
3. Chilli Dumplings @ Crystal Jade, Xintiandi. Crystal Jade is an excellent Cantonese restaurant in the very foreign eating/shopping Xintiandi district. They do wonderful yum cha but it’s always crowded and wait times can be lengthy. Their chilli dumplings are fantastic.
4. Pork & Preserved Cabbage Noodle Soup. Best eaten at a local Shanghainese restaurant. I make this at home by stir frying garlic and minced pork, tipping in a can of preserved cabbage, and adding lots of water to make a soup. Serve over rice vermicelli with light soy sauce.
5. Drunken Chicken @ Ye Shanghai. Ye Shanghai is an upmarket Shanghainese restaurant with rather fabulous decor. When I was heavily pregnant with our daughter it was during a hot summer and I developed a fixation for drunken chicken – so cooling, delicately flavoured and protein rich.
6. Roasted sweet potatoes. In the freezing winters, peddlers roast sweet potatoes on metal drums on the street corners. They’re probably carcinogenic (they are usually burnt quite black on the outside) but they smell just wonderful and I love tearing them open to get at the golden flesh inside.
7. Garlicky string beans and mashed broad beans @ 1221. 1221 is a favourite expat Shanghainese restaurant (Bill Clinton once ate there). It was one of our standard restaurants to take visiting friends and family and we always ordered the same dishes. Their garlicky beans and cold mashed broad beans are insanely good.
8. Pavlova at M on the Bund. I know, I know. Pavlova is hardly traditional Chinese fare. But M on the Bund is such a classy restaurant. Created by an Australian chef, Michelle Garnaut (also of M on the Fringe in Hong Kong), M on the Bund is one of those establishment restaurants you just have to visit. The view is to die for and the food is pretty darn good, too. They also run an amazing literary festival that attracts the creme de la creme of the literary world.

My father was born in Penang, Malaysia, and his family later moved to Kuala Lumpur. Until I moved overseas, I used to visit Malaysia once a year with my family and food was always a major feature of these trips.

My Grandmother, my Popo, is an amazing cook. Her version of Asam Laksa (the sour, fish-based noodle soup) is famous amongst our friends, while her fried chicken and congee (thick with shredded chicken, fried onions and anchovies, roasted peanuts and white pepper) take ostensibly simple dishes and turn them into works of art.

When we’re not eating at Popo’s house, we’re out and about trying hawker stores for the best of Malaysian street food. It’s cheap, plentiful and incredibly tasty. We have our favourite eating places, and visit them each time, smiling when we see the same old familiar hawkers we saw the year before. Many of them specialise in only one dish and that is all they make, day after day and year after year. They’re the ultimate food specialists. You have to admire that dedication to quality and consistency.

Since we’ve had kids I’ve only been to Malaysia once, when my daughter had just started eating solids. We’re going again in a few weeks and I can’t wait to introduce my kids to Malaysia food. My daughter is now almost 5 years old, old enough to remember this trip, and my 18 month old son, robust enough for a week of eating all types of strange and wonderful food.

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