May is Asian Heritage Month...

Every Wednesday for the last three seasons, I have been celebrating Asian cuisines with seniors in my TDSB Learn4life cooking program. And we officially get to do it this May with Asian Heritage Month.

I always start a new term introducing flavours from my Chinese background. Our Spring term began with Beijing ja jiang mein and spicy smashed cucumbers. The hearty ground pork cooked in garlic, ginger and ground bean sauce taste delicious over wheat wide sliced noodles that are slippery, smooth and silky. And with the colourful crunch of carrots, cucumbers and red peppers, it makes it that more delightful!

Awww... this blondie son lol loves his slurpelicious soba noodles! Reenacting this noodle pull look seven years later with my homemade dipping sauce version 🇯🇵🍜!

Week Two, we did four dishes- Zaru Soba (translates to basket soba as this style is typically served in a weaved basket) and three salads 🥗- wakame seaweed in vinaigrette, creamy shredded crab with cucumbers, and homemade toasted sesame dressing over iceberg lettuce, tomato, egg and wakame. Nice refreshingly cool healthy salads to bring spring indoors 🌱☀️!

And my kids were all over it, perfect timing for lunch with them at home for online school!

It's a good day when it's a mortar & pestle day 🌶🌱! A likely must in lovely Lao Cuisine 🇱🇦!

Started off May Asian Heritage Month with the intoxicating Southeast Asian flavours of Laos!

Steamed sticky rice is an absolute must! Cooked in a bamboo steamer lined with a banana leaf, rice is not only to serve the meal with but it acts as cutlery in itself as you pick up a ball of sticky rice between your fingers and scoop up your food with it. We had laap, Laos national dish- using any protein but we had it done with steak, tossed with fish sauce, lime juice, shallots, rau ram and mint herbs. Roasted rice crushed is the key for that nutty taste!

And mok pa (steamed fish in banana leaf parcels) is so fragrant and herbaceously delicious with garlic, shallots, lemongrass, galangal, chilies pounded into a paste then mixed with chopped white fish, dill, green onions and Thai basil /rau ram! Padaek is a chunky fermented fish sauce which is key to Lao food but we subbed with 1/2 fish sauce and 1/2 anchovy paste! An egg and roasted rice powder binds everything together and once steamed, the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness is sublime 🤤!

Today was Vietnamese stir-fry lemongrass pork noodle salad (bun thit xao) is a gorgeous bowl that interplay colours, textures and tastes. Cooked fragrant pork shoulder and beansprouts atop soft vermicelli with a heap of crunch from homemade radish and carrot pickles, cucumbers and an onslaught of fresh 🌱🌱🌱 with a ladle of aromatic nuoc cham seasoned fish sauce. A delight for the senses!

Finished with a Vietnamese crab & asparagus soup (sup mang tay cua). The elegance lay in the white on white on white 🥣. Crab meat, white asparagus, quail eggs, clear broth and egg white (I used whole egg) drizzle. This sophisticated thick soup is customarily served at Vietnamese weddings and holidays.

Lots of leftover herbs for lots more meals in the horizon to not waste the freshness! This includes our 🇹🇭 Thai cuisine cooking class next week using Thai basil as the star ingredient!

That's not all, I have been cooking up Asian cuisines with TDSB newcomer youths in my after school cook along program every Tuesday. More on that next post also with a special two day event with youths to have a deep dive conversation on Asian culture and contribution with the awareness of anti-Asian racism while making dumplings 🥟 and noodles 🍜!

Stay tuned 🤗🌸!