souperchefanna

We are turning 14! Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” Reading this reminds me of my interview with FM93.8 ‘live’ 14 years ago, when I was asked what my aspirations were. It was to be “The Starbucks of Soups”, to be the global benchmark for […]

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My souperinspiration: Chicken Cacciatore with Portobello and Sage  Pollo alla cacciatore is a traditional Italian hunter-style stew. This was inspired by my trip to Italy in 2012, travelling through the rolling hills of Tuscany. The hunters of Southern Italy would eat this at the end of a long, bitterly cold November day and I suspect it […]

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My souperinspiration: A Florentine Midsummer Night’s Beef Stew In Italy, especially in Florence, the feast of St. John the Baptist has been celebrated from the medieval times, certainly in the Renaissance. Festivals last for 3 days from the 21st to 24th June, a period marked as midsummer, a celebration of the summer solstice. There will […]

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Souperchefanna Travels | Celebrate Thailand “Every trip, whether you board a plane or travel vicariously….., should have an element of surprise and discovery. What new foods have you fallen in love with while traveling?” says author Emma Christensen. Her beautiful words are a constant reminder for me to celebrate all experiences, to rekindle old love […]

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Souperinspiration | Tom yum crab bitsque I find inspiration from my travels. Of course, I read travel and food blogs for inspiration too. Tom yum goong with its pungent and zesty feast of flavours with every slurp is a soup I truly enjoyed when in Bangkok on a recent trip in October 2015. It is […]

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Souperinspiration | Khao soi chicken curry Andy Ricker, founder of Pok Pok in Portland said it well in a 2011 New York Times piece that khao soi is “exotic without being weird and, most important, completely delicious.” It’s the kind of dish everybody can love. We used to have a khao soi noodle dish in […]

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Souperinspiration | Vegan green curry with quinoa In 2011, seven of Thailand’s popular dishes made it to the list of the “World’s 50 Most Delicious Foods (Readers’ Pick)”— a worldwide online poll of 35,000 people by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country. Green curry came in 19th and […]

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My souperinspiration: Chicken Broccoli with Red Rice Stew The inspiration for chicken broccoli with red rice stew comes from a frequently cooked dish during my University days: Stir fried broccoli with chicken, mushroom and tomatoes served over rice. It was a one-dish meal but it provided a lot of sustenance and comfort. Most importantly, it […]

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My souperinspiration Miso The protein-rich fermented soybean paste called miso is one of the world’s great flavour foundations adding a savory quality called umami to all sorts of dishes, including soups, salad dressings, vegetables, stews and marinades. According to the The Oxford Companion to Food, miso was first developed in China and the first written […]

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My souperinspiration Mizutaki In Japan, once it starts getting chilly outside, it’s that time of year again when comfort food means a good old-fashioned nabe, or Japanese hot pot. Mizutaki is one of the classic nabemono, communal stews which have long been a hallmark of home cooking in Japan. The term nabe refers to the vessel itself, […]

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My souperinspiration Miso On this trip to Japan, in Matsumoto City, we met Hayashi san, the president and master shinshu miso maker at Marusho Jozo. Through our conversations, I found out he is 80 years old. But the man, does not look a day past 65 years old. The complexion of his skin, its tautness […]

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My Souper Inspiration Festivalo Karaimo World (1-1 Gofuku-cho, Kagoshima City (Tenmonkan) Karaimo (“potatoes from China”; “Kara” refers to China, “Imo” is the Japanese word for potatoes) or satsumaimo is Japanese for sweet potato. Hah, the understated vegetable that has been tagged as poor man’s food in Asia. Well, no one would have guessed that this […]

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