#ChineseFoodiesofIG: Jian and Brian of Naked Asian Grocer

Naked Asian Grocer

This is part of an ongoing series of interviews I’m doing with my favourite Chinese foodies that I follow on Instagram. Come and follow the #ChineseFoodiesofIG hashtag on Instagram and leave a comment showing your support for these talented folk!

Where are you from? Where are you really from?

Brian and I currently live in Melbourne, Australia but we both grew up in Penang, Malaysia.

What does home taste like?

Home is a beautiful, melting pot of three main culture groups - the Chinese, Malays and Indians. So our food naturally resembles that. A fusion of multiculturalism, absorbing different flavours and practices then evolving to create something else distinctively Malaysian. One good example is laksa. Rumour has it that when Chinese merchants arrived in Malaysia (back when it was called Malaya), they intermarried with local Malays. These interracial marriages formed the Peranakan subculture, who my great-grandma and grandma were part of. That's when we incorporated Malaysian ingredients such as coconut milk or tamarind into noodle soups to become laksa.

What’s in your fridge/naked pantry?

In our pantry, we'd always have red dates, honey dates and goji berries for soups; dried shrimp, dried anchovies, dried scallops and mushrooms to add into stir-fries; belachan (fermented shrimp paste) and sambal because we are Malaysians. Brian loves spicy food so we'd always have some form of chilli - fresh, chilli oil or chilli sauce.

Share a food memory:

There are so many, but our favourite definitely would be heading back to Malaysia for Lunar New Year. We'd gather with the extended family to enjoy a feast our grandmas would cook. Imagine a large table filled with steaming bowls of vinegar pork trotter, braised mushroom and broccoli, lor bak (five spice meat rolls), curry chicken, roast pork, pig stomach pepper soup, chai boey (mustard green stew) and my personal favourite, joo hoo char (shredded turnip with cuttlefish). There'll be kids running around, aunties helping grandma prepare and serve the food, uncles having a serious chat somewhere in the back with some beer while our cousins playing mahjong. But before we dig in, we'd have yee sang, or Prosperity Toss. A large bowl, almost the size of the table, filled with various shredded vegetables, raw fish, peanuts and crackers would be placed in the middle of the table. A plum sauce is drizzled on and chopsticks handed out to everyone. When everyone is ready, we'd simultaneously toss and mix the ingredients while wishing everyone a prosperous new year. The idea is that the higher you "toss" and the louder you shout, the more prosperous you'd get. So as you can imagine, it gets really loud and incredibly messy but we love it!

The secret Chinese ingredient is:

Definitely oyster sauce. Often overshadowed by its soy sauce cousin. But we think that it's equally as versatile and adds a punch of flavour into dishes. 

Who's your Chinese food legend?

Our parents back in Malaysia. To this day, we are still ringing home for recipes.

Dream dinner party guests:

Right now, I'd do anything to have dinner with my family. Living abroad can be tough, especially in times like this. But Brian wants to invite his childhood crush, Natalie Portman - so we'll see :)

A Chinese recipe everyone should learn:

Braised pork belly in soy sauce. It's one of the easiest dishes to cook, and is favourite with everyone we have cooked for.

What does Chinese food mean to you?

Chinese food is a manifestation of our heritage and background; it's nostalgic and comforting, it is the way our families show love. Growing up, my grandpa used to sell Hokkien Mee or Har Mee (prawn noodles) at a hawker centre. Until today, when we are back home, he will insist on cooking it for us - even though he is almost 90.