Malaysia Kitchen

Interview with Bee Yinn Low

1. In a nutshell, tell us who you are, where you are from, and what you do.

I am a cookbook author, recipe developer, and content publisher at Rasa Malaysia: http://rasamalaysia.com. I am from Penang, Malaysia.

Rasa Malaysia is a cooking blog with over 400 easy Asian recipes that you can make at home. The website focuses on Malaysian, Chinese, and other Asian recipes.

I started Rasa Malaysia because I wanted to educate the world about Malaysian cuisine. I also wanted to document my family’s recipes—dishes that I ate while growing up.

I came from Penang, Malaysia. Penang is the street food mecca of Malaysia (if not Asia). It offers the best, authentic, original and most delicious street food around. I’m blessed that I was born and raised in Penang because I was exposed to a plethora of spices, taste structures, cooking techniques, and flavors since I was little.

5. What were your favorite home-cooked dishes?

My favorite home-cooked dishes are seafood dishes that my late mother prepared. Penang is an island so we get the freshest seafood—fish, shrimp, shellfish, squid, crab, etc. It’s awesome!

My biggest inspiration is my late mother; she was the designated cook in the family. I have been documenting all the dishes she made for us on Rasa Malaysia. It’s nostalgic as the foods bring back a lot of fond memories about my childhood days and my mother.

Cook with your heart and don’t be afraid to experiment. Also, use your taste buds to perfect the recipe. Cooking is an art, so be creative, and more importantly, always have fun in the kitchen.

I love the complex flavors of Malaysian cuisine. The taste structure is deeper than any other cuisine I know; there are layer upon layer of tastes and flavors in each bite.

Malaysian food is predominantly the combination of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cuisines. It’s precisely the fusion of techniques, ingredients, and flavors of the three main ethnicities of Malaysia, Hence eating Malaysian food is like putting three different countries on the same table: Malay peninsula, China, and India. It can’t get better than that.

10. Tell us about three Malaysian ingredients that you use most often.

Belacan, shallots, and chilies – which I use to make sambal, the building block of Malaysian cuisine.

11. Malaysia is known for having amazing street food.  What are your favorites?  Do you recreate any of them at home, and are any available on your website(s)?

Penang Assam Laksa is my ultimate favorite. It’s the number 7 most delicious food by CNN. It’s unique and iconic to only Malaysia. I also love Char Koay Teow, which is Chinese-style fried flat noodles, ikan panggang (grilled fish wrapped with banana leave and served with sambal), and satay. There are many versions of satay in Southeast Asia, but THE BEST satay is Malaysian satay, prepared and sold by Malay satay vendors. Period.

12. How has your previous professional experience helped in your current career with Rasa Malaysia?

I was in marketing, online and social media, business development, product management in my past life. So I have a well-rounded professional experience to help me enterprise Rasa Malaysia. It’s great.

13. Tell us about one of your other websites - Nyonya Food.  What is “nyonya”, when did you start it, and why?

I started Nyonya Food in mid 2009 as an extension of Rasa Malaysia. Nyonya Food is a part of Malaysian cuisine (and you think that we only have Chinese, Malay and Indian food fused together!). Nyonya are basically female descendants of Chinese immigrants who came to Malaysia. The early immigrants married local women and as a result, a new sub-culture formed with its own cuisine, tradition, and culture. My late grandmother was a Nyonya so Nyonya Food is meant to document all the Nyonya recipes I had growing up. I haven’t updated the site because I wanted to save the family recipes for a potential Malaysian and Nyonya cookbook.

14. One thing I noticed right away about Rasa Malaysia and Nyonya Food are the amazing photos that you shoot yourself.   Give us your take on how important food presentation is, beyond taste and ingredients.

The secret ingredient to great food photography is lighting, a DSLR camera and a 50mm lens. And the secret ingredient to the success of a food / recipe site is great food photography. If you can’t attract viewers via photos, no one will attempt your recipes.

15. We have several Malaysian restaurants here in LA/OC…  From your experience with Rasa Malaysia, what advice would you give to Malaysian restaurateurs who wish to expand their customer base and spread the word about Malaysian cuisine?

The problem with the Malaysian restaurants here in the LA/OC area, and actually in the US is that they are trying to include too many items on the menu. As I mentioned, Malaysian food is a combination of 3 major cuisines, and trying to include everything on the menu will only confuse diners, as most American diners don’t know much about Malaysia, let alone its cuisines. So for starters, I would simplify their menu to the most popular dishes that cater go Americans. Forget about the really complex dishes and dishes that appeal only to Malaysians (after all, there are not that many Malaysians here in the US). Give them the foods that are sure to please and win their stomach. The strategy is to establish the fact that Malaysian is the next IT ethnic (Asian) cuisine through 10 iconic Malaysian dishes. Thai food made it in the US through two dishes pretty much: Pad Thai and Tom Yum Goong…so sell Roti Canai, Malaysian Satay, Char Kuey Teow, Pie Tee, etc. and the rest will follow.

16. Rasa Malaysia and your 1^st cookbook are obviously doing very well… what’s next for you?