Eat Drink Asia

Jjapaguri, or ram-don, as it is known in the Academy award-winning movie Parasite, is a super easy and cheap dish that simply mixes two kinds of instant noodles together. In this episode of Eat Drink Asia, we look into the food references in the film and how a dish only known to Koreans quickly became something global audiences salivated over.

Vicky Cheng, chef and owner of one-Michelin-starred VEA tells us how to turn a humble pack of instant noodles to a glorious okonomiyaki — a classic Japanese pancake.

As popular and ubiquitous as curry is around the world, the word ‘curry’ doesn’t actually exist in India. In this episode we look into butter chicken – not curry – a dish that balances the smokiness of the meat and the silkiness of the sauce like no other. We traced it back to the grandson of the inventor of this iconic dish, who told us its origin story of hard work, resilience, and hope.

Sound effects from Klankbeeld, digifishmusic, SoundLover16 on Freesound.org.

This is a quick coconut fish stew recipe that will make you look like the chef of the house. It's shared by chef Palash Mitra, who helms the Michelin-starred restaurant New Punjab Club in Hong Kong.

How to make it:

Cut the fish into manageable pieces and season with salt, turmeric, crushed peppercorns, and curry leaves (optional).

Heat some coconut oil and add in mustard seeds, chopped shallots, tomatoes, and a bit of ginger.

Sautée till transparent and add the fish, lightly fry and…

Listen to top chefs in Hong Kong describe how they cook their favourite comfort dishes at home. Today's recipe from chef Barry Quek only requires three ingredients: instant noodles, an onion, and a hard cheese, like cheddar or parmesan.

How to make it:

Slice about half an onion into thin slices then heat oil in a pot and saute the onions until they turn light brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the seasoning packet from the instant noodles and stir for about a minute then add enough water to cook…

When it comes to fried chicken, almost every country has their own take on it.

The Philippines has Jollibee, South Africa has Nando’s, Japan has Karaage... but no country has made the competition more intense than South Korea.

So for today's episode, we are going to take a look at two equally iconic KFCs — Kentucky fried chicken and Korean fried chicken. How are they made? How did they influence each other? 

And we are looking further than that — to the Korean war, the first cookbook…

The dish was born in a time when Vietnamese weren’t even allowed access to wheat flour, making it hard to imagine the sandwich would become world famous.

American icon became popular during the war and managed to stick around.Your junk email is named after the canned meat, by the way.

We tried KFC’s spicy chicken mooncakes so you don’t have to.From the end of the Yuan Dynasty to modern Hong Kong, mooncakes have been the bearers of political messages.

Bernice Chan and Alkira Reinfrank analyse the cultural appropriation, and fascinating history, of Sichuan cuisine. They delve into the chemistry of the Sichuan pepper and unpack the components of a traditional meal.