About me

A simple introduction...

Hi, my name is Elaine and I am the brain behind A Series of Kitchen Experiments, a food blog founded purely out of my love for cookery and food. And I am Malaysian of Chinese ethnicity; I was born in Penang but my family moved to Kuala Lumpur since I was three but we go back to our hometown often. I continued my education in New Zealand before moving permanently to Montreal. Penang and Subang Jaya will always hold a special place in my heart.

I have no official culinary training nor have I attended any cooking classes where I have had to pay to learn how to use the stove. My kitchen beginnings was a humble one where I started as a reluctant volunteer in my grandmother's and mother's kitchen. Reluctance gave way to passion after years and here I am with my blog today. Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy cooking - it is a lifestyle that I have chosen to lead as a woman of the 21st century!

How it started...

Initially, I started this blog because I wanted to keep tabs of my recipes somewhere. Old fashion pen and paper wouldn't do because of my scrawly handwriting. I wanted to say something like "I want to save trees that's why I keep a blog" but that would be a tad dramatic.

I am used to cooking without measurements like my mother and grandmothers. My generations before me have always done it and food have always tasted just as good.

But. Always a But.

The trouble with me is that I tend to forget how much I eye-ball into a recipe. I lack that expertise whereby I can remember every eye-balling detail for each recipe I know. So every now and then when I make the same recipe(s) they taste rather inconsistent, though not in a bad way. After receiving feedback from family and friends, I've decided to be more precise with the ingredients of the recipes written on this blog; so that it would benefit my readers, and me. And I must admit, cooking with a recipe is convenient although I still prefer cooking without measuring devices. Got to stay true to my roots ;)

I cook inside my head first...

On another note, is it weird if I tell you I can taste the food I put together in my head before I cook it? It has always been a knack of mine and I'm always, almost right. Most of the many times. My cooking style can be quite hedonistic. I like rustic style, no fuss, satisfying large portions. I like food to be presented in all its glory, without any fussy dangling food items used to ornate a plate.

If I were to be a chef, I'd cook like Jamie Oliver, who is my biggest idol in the cooking world, second by Martin Picard, Lynn Crawford, David Adjey and maybe Gordon Ramsay when he's not being a big anal, potty mouth.

I am completely shocked at how many people who don't know how to cook. People kept taking convenience for granted by eating out, eating junk, eating frozen dinners, MSG and salt laden takeouts that they forget the most basic way to make food to care for themselves. If you're going to eat 3 times a day, you might as well spend the time and make what you put in body worthwhile, I think that makes a lot of sense. Yes, I will stop nagging now.

I suppose at the end of the day, I really hope this blog would inspire the cooking spirit in readers who drop by. It makes me very happy to know that someone tried out a recipe from my blog and loved it. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that my insignificant being in this great big universe can touch another person's life like that, it really makes my day!

I am not hard to please at all :)

I am also completely aware that I can be, evidently, quite verbose. Look at how long this post has become.

On a personal front...

I currently live with my fiance, whom I refer to as P sometimes, in the beautiful city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I have two cats, Aimee and Gizmo and I used to have three two dogs, Colby and Phoebe, who now lives with my parents in Malaysia.

Learning French is an everyday challenge for me. Besides the basic exchanges, I am still struggling on how to order in French. The best to my ability so far is "Madame, je voudrais commande deux morceaux poulet, sil vous plait" and hope to god that I get two pieces of chicken and not two pieces of god-knows-what. But thank god for Montreal, people here are indeed bilingual!

I don't cook enough Malaysian food. I really should get some of my favorite recipes on this blog.

So, anyway, welcome to A Series of Kitchen Experiments. It's always a pleasure to meet new people who ride the same joy boat as me. If you:

1)have any questions
2)have any queries
3)have any comments
4)have friendly feelings you want to share
5)have a love-note for me
6)have to reconnect with me because you think you saw/know me from somewhere

...just drop me an email. I promise I will reply as soon as I get my hands and tongue untied!


Email me



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