Sarah Tiong swapped her day job as a lawyer for competing on MasterChef Australia, becoming a finalist twice, no less, in 2017 and 2020.
She grew up eating the Malaysian food her mother – born in East Malaysia, who moved to Sydney in her teens – remembered and recreated for her family. Throw in Tiong’s own memories of street food eaten on the roadside during trips to Cambodia and Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, and you can see the threads of each woven through this recipe collection.
Here’s what we think of her debut cookbook…
The book: Sweet, Savory, Spicy by Sarah Tiong
Who will love it? Those with a taste for bright flavours, heat and spice, as well as those who love getting the barbecue out – there’s a whole section on grilling (for starters, the Malaysian barbecued chicken with coconut and turmeric sounds significantly better than the usual BBQ fare of burgers and sausages). It also offers a way to travel to Southeast Asia via dinner – you don’t just have to dream about perfectly nutty, moreish satay chicken, you can make Tiong’s version.
What is it trying to get us cooking? Fresh, fragrant and punchy Southeast Asian dishes – the kinds of meals you’d likely find hawked on the streets of Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao and Thailand. Think grilled beef wrapped in betel leaves, laced with lemongrass; Nyona spicy tamarind fish curry; crispy spring rolls and papaya salad, prawn toast, and fried rice and noodle dishes topped with golden eggs. There’s comforting Hokkein noodles, and proper Thai pork larb, as well as super sweet puddings like banana fritters, pandan crepes and sweet potato dumplings.
How easy is it to use? Very. While there’s often multiple elements to each dish – say, a basting sauce to douse your porks rib in, or a flavoured oil to whisk up alongside your noodles, they’re straightforward, and add serious impact, so adding one extra step is worth getting another bowl out for. Also, Tiong makes lots of serving suggestions (brilliantly a ‘cold beer’ occasionally gets a shout), so you can immediately see the table laid out in your mind, before you even start chopping.
The best recipe is… The street food sauces section is full of condiments (from sambals and chilli dips, to a creamy Malaysian peanut sauce) that we would easily eat by the bowlful. But standout dishes include the Vietnamese pork skewers and the grilled whole fish with a fiery sambal.
The recipe we’re most likely to post on Instagram is… The Singaporean chilli mud crab – a whole crab, claws and all, emerges from a thick red spicy stew. It looks epic.
The dish we’re least likely to try is… Well, we’d fully attempt the Malaysian turmeric lace pancakes, but it may take multiple attempts to perfect them – they look like delicate, cylindrical works of art.
Overall rating: 8/10 – the recipes make you instantly hungry, induce a craving for limes and chillies, and are accessible, fun, and exciting.
Sweet, Savory, Spicy by Sarah Tiong is published by Page Street Publishing Co. 2020, priced £19.99. Photography Ben Cole.
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