Three years ago today (according to Google Memories) I walked into a random kopitiam (local coffee shop) in Malaysia and saw this sign - a stall selling wonton noodles, but using one of my own photos of my own wonton noodles that I used to sell here in Sydney, on their signage. Talk about a small world, eh? I'm not interested in suing anybody - and especially not small business owners who just want to get by - but it begs the question that often pops up in my head especially when I see home caterers here in Sydney using photos that don't belong to them, to promote their food menu - and that is, how well the dish represents what they're actually selling. In my case, since I don't eat pork, the "char siew" in the photo is actually made with chicken; the wontons are made with prawns. Would someone order their wonton noodles on this mistaken assumption that it's made with chicken char siew (I know the wonton filling is hard to make out)? I know I've been caught out in the past in basing my ordering on how the food looks in the photos (especially when dealing with hawker stalls manned by people who don't speak the same languages as me - many Malaysian stalls use foreign workers these days) - and being disappointed as a result. How do you feel about this?

The beef meatballs I made during our Open Kitchen Hour 2 yesterday were not as bouncy as I would have liked - I think it's probably because I 1) didn't freeze the mince for an hour beforehand 2) and because of that, I didn't blend it as finely as I was meant to. Then this morning we went to Ikea for some furniture shopping and Paul got a craving for Swedish meatballs; instead of eating there, we came home, fried up the beef balls, and served them up with some mashed potato (deliciously made by Paul) and some stir-fried choy sum, along with the crispy onions from yesterday and some lingonberry jam from Ikea. Oh yeah, and some gravy using cream and beef stock (from the cheap beef bones I've been talking about). Kinda worked!

Managed to purchase hicama (yam bean) in readiness for making Popiah. I used a small one to make another round of Pasambur. Jackie, you’ll be pleased to know that I used your recipe for the sauce as I prefer yours to Chef Chai’s.

For last night Cookalong I would love to have a go at making Popiah, but I have not got a cast iron pan so I could not make them yet. I made something different & totally non-Malaysian. I made “Apple Rose pastry! Every autumn a couple from our church will gift us their apple harvest & I will use some of their apples to make sweet treats like apple pie, apple crumble, apple tarts & etc for them to enjoy. This year I wanted to surprise them with something they would never expect — the “Apple Rose” pastry. As Jackie expertly crafted her crispy fried onions and the savoury beef balls, filling her kitchen with mouthwatering aromas, and Cathy carefully prepared the fish paste to stuff her aubergines, I was busy rolling out my puff pastry & cutting them out into long strips of 2inch width. I spread apricot jam onto each pastry strip and then lay on each strip with the tender apple slices. I then sprinkled cinnamon powder over the apples slices followed by folding the pastry over & rolled it up together with the apple slices in it to form a rose. I made a dozen of them & put them to bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes. I could not wait to gift them to our friends and bask in the delight of our friends’ reaction.

Hey folks, I've just sent out an email about this Masterclass; just a quick note that the link to join this session is different to the usual one we use for our MHP Zooms since there will be other non-MHP members taking part. Here's the link in case you missed it - Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83831860491?pwd=5wHam9zvbaYG7NYtssIEBkrnem6WPp.1 Meeting ID: 838 3186 0491 Passcode: 359522 When: Sydney, Australia Sat, 27 Sep 2025 at 8:00 am AEST London, United Kingdom Fri, 26 Sep 2025 at 11:00 pm BST Vancouver, Canada Fri, 26 Sep 2025 at 3:00 pm PDT