Thinly sliced daun kayu or cassava shoots cooked in tempoyak is a classic Negeri Sembilan dish.

Revive dry, stale okra by deep-frying it until crunchy and supremely snack-able.

A dry sambal that’s fragrantly delicious, perfect for eating endlessly with rice.

A Nyonya classic that uses sweet potato and its leaves in one luxurious dish.

Cold smooth tofu topped with crunchy aromatics makes for a quick lunch when you don’t want to turn on the stove.

A deeply savoury curry found in many South Indian and Ceylonese homes.

Give tofu some extra love with a healthy dose of warm spices and plenty of complementary textures.

There isn’t much that tempoyak can’t improve, and cooking it with mushrooms both complement and enhance the overall umami of both ingredients.

Sambals don’t need to be complicated. Just three ingredients can give you a soy sauce sambal so good, you’ll want for no other condiment.

Adaptable for many different meals across many different cuisines, this onion-garlic oil is a condiment you’ll keep coming back to.

The onion-garlic oil provides a lightning-fast way to get flavourful vegetables on the table for dinner.

While sambal goreng can easily feed a crowd during Raya festivities, it can also be made all year round as a clean-out-the-fridge treat.

With a few genius hacks, this infinitely snackable recipe will satisfy appetites from every diet.

A nourishing everyday soup doesn’t always need meat bones and long cooking.

If you’re tired of stir-frying, blanching or steaming bok choy, try braising it instead in coconut milk.

A wholesome one-bowl meal for special occasions or just because, packed with flavourful spices and hefty vegetables.

Yes, local leafy greens can be turned into a luxurious soup with just a little bit of imagination.

A quick vegetable stir-fry with the classic savoury spices of an Indian kitchen.

A spicy and savoury vegetable side for the dinner table, with budu as the star.

A herby sambal to accompany daily meals, especially when paired with fried meats and more ulam.

Cooking cucumbers isn’t a novel method. This excellent Nyonya recipe shows us a tangy application for weeknight meals.

Make this simple vegetable side dish without even turning on the stove.

Zhuzh up your everyday tomato soup with spices and raisins for a flavoursome lunch.

A smoky eggplant salad to accompany a variety of meals, from rice to steaks, or as a part of an appetiser platter.

Clear an afternoon to make a stack of these snacks for a party, kept as an emergency stash, or given to the neighbours.

Swap out the usual stir-fry aromatics for fragrant and crunchy almond flakes instead.

A base Eurasian sambal for many dishes such as prawn or ikan sambal, and sambal petai.

This dish is a common staple on Diana’s family dining table, as her mom would buy terung Dayak whenever they were in season.

Rather than raw, this kerabu includes cooked elements that result in something like a masak lemak.

When joy is scarce, we find every reason to celebrate. Make this yee sang any time of the year.

A subtly spiced and hearty side dish, unfussy enough for a weeknight. 

Umbut sawit is the young shoot or heart of the oil palm tree. Plentiful in Borneo from the plantations, resourceful locals have found that it makes for a terrific ingredient.

Leela’s late mother was the family’s ‘culinary comforter’, and taught her how to make this vegetable dish. Complex in flavour, this recipe takes no shortcuts.

This is quite possibly the best version of kangkung belacan we’ve tried—spicy, briny and still-crunchy.