I'm Ling and I love food. Hence Foodie Ling was born. It started in 2011 when someone suggested we ate out a lot and that I had a "golden tongue". I wouldn't quite agree to that but I do enjoy food, good food and I love trying all sorts of cuisines which is why I tend to go to a different place each time so I began sharing my dining experiences and enjoyed it as much as reading about others' experiences.
I decided to start Foodie Ling to do write-ups and reviews on places I've been to and what I've eaten. I found it rewarding to see my views and followers growing so I kept it up. It wasn't long before I started posting some of my own recipes as well as cookbook triumphs to share with the world.
Early 2012 I decided I really enjoy writing this blog and sharing food journeys with people so I revamped my blog to give it a fresh look. Currently I review mostly Adelaide restaurants and eateries with occasional posts of places I've come across while travelling be it interstate or overseas. I hope one day this will evolve into a food hub. I have more recently been published in Gram Magazine Adelaide (about food and food culture) so it's pretty exciting times.
Who am I?
Food is fashionable now and everyone has the opportunity to become a fantastic cook with craze created by shows like Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules. While that is all well and amazing, I have long loved food. I have acquired new tastes for new flavours along the way but still loving the old favourites. In saying that, I don't only eat fine foods with perfect flavour balance. I still have beans on toast and bad stir-fries just to clean my fridge out. I'm easy to feed, just not easy to get a good review out of.
I am of Chinese-Malaysian descent and moved to Adelaide, South Australia in February 2005. I come from Petaling Jaya, Selangor in Malaysia which is a city in itself about 30 minutes outside Kuala Lumpur. Growing up in Malaysia, food really was the centre of our lives. There was a huge variety of everything due to our multi-cultural society. We even had the best Americana style diner franchises straight from the USA. It's not easy to find a dish that Malaysians haven't had before.
I am a full time pharmacist with a unique work roster including nights and weekends so I don't tend to cook much. I'm home 3 nights a week for dinner, otherwise, I get home at 9.30pm or later. My partner seems to enjoy this opportunity to eat sandwiches and frozen pizzas for dinner.
As fore-mentioned, this blog is a project that I hope to continually develop. I do enjoy my work and it has allowed me to do some things I want and given me opportunites but I love the excitement associated with food. The endless possibilities. I blog in between my job, meeting continuing education requirements, housekeeping, shopping and helping with my partner's business.
In my spare time, if any, I play iPhone/Android app games with my friends, dawdle on Facebook, chase TV series, enter competitions, make scrapbooks and crafty stuff, read, grow vegetables and herbs and play with my cutest baby boy - Wicket the feisty Maltese-Shih Tzu.
Ling as a cook
Because of my Chinese-Malaysian background, I love richly flavoured foods. Not necessarily heavy, just full of flavour from spices and herbs. This often results in a very long time in the kitchen making dinner from what feels like 100 ingredients. The shopping part is even worse. I cook as much Asian food as Western food and thoroughly enjoy Italian food. My favourite cuisines are Malaysian, Thai, Italian and French desserts.
In Malaysia, there's a saying that the best food is found in the streets and in homes. Don't underestimate the ability of all the mums and aunties - they don't always have a recipe either. Our cooking is very much "follow your instinct". I can't tell you how many tea spoons to put in. I just feel this much will be right. I am not very good at following recipes. Sometimes it works wonders, other times it turns into disaster. I also get bored easily - another reason I won't make a great chef. I admire their persistence and discipline in practising and tweaking recipes until they are perfect and making it time and again.
Anyways, who knows where this blog will take me. As long as I enjoy food, I will continue writing about it.
