PLANTASIA
Pamelia Chia elevates a chorus of Asian voices to conversations about vegetarianism, plant-based diets and sustainability
Hello!
It’s been a while. I return with a delightful conversation with
, author of PLANTASIA: A Vegetarian Cookbook Through Asia released in Australia this month.You’ll know Pamelia from her previous book Wet Market to Table, which celebrates the most intriguing gems from Singapore’s wet markets and showcases their unique flavours, textures and colours in 80 easy-to-follow recipes for the home cook (or a Singaporean food enthusiast/wet-market rookie like me).
I highly recommend Pamelia’s lively takes on her instagram SGPNoodles where she unashamedly chronicles the ups, downs and messiness that comes with preserving, exploring and learning how to cook Singaporean favourites (like tempeh, chicken rice and kueh).
Follow that up with a deep dive into her newsletter (aptly called Singapore Noodles) which explores the stories, people behind Singapore’s rich culinary traditions.
(I’ll reserve my fawning over Pamelia’s writing and mission for the next edition of this newsletter!)
Otherwise, I hope you’re well - or, as well as one can be as the looming chaos of the festive season, Q4 deadlines and mandatory Christmas parties suck every minute of daylight from us and beats us into a frenzy of gift giving, meal sharing and endless metronome of whatsapp group notifications, leaving a well-fed husk of one’s self behind.
-Ange
Pamelia Chia on PLANTASIA, bringing Asian voices to conversations around vegetarianism, and Christmas party successes
Pamelia Chia - author, chef and dedicated pioneer who’s keeping Singapore’s culinary traditions alive and invigorating them for generations to come.
What excited you about writing PLANTASIA? Was there anything that surprised you?
What excited me was learning about Asian techniques that I had not known about prior to writing this book, and recognising common threads in Asian cuisines. Bryan Koh, whose work delves into the food of the Philippines, for example, taught me to char grated coconut in a hot wok and extract milk from it. Smokey and light brown like a cappuccino, the coconut milk adds so much complexity to any vegetable braised in it. Similarly, a recipe for urab kacang from Wayan Kresna Yasa, Balinese chef and author of Paon, involves charring a chunk of fresh coconut, then grating it and mixing it with blanched vegetables.
Sunny Lee, a Korean chef based in Los Angeles, shares that she mixes soybean powder (konggaru or kinako) with doenjang, rubs it onto squash chunks and roasts them until they are deeply caramelised. Up until that point, soybean powder had been confined to the realm of desserts in my mind and that conversation really opened my mind in the way that I thought about roasted legume powders.
It is surprising to me that many of these techniques and ingredients have not yet been spotlighted in mainstream food media, and I’m both exhilarated and grateful that my book is able to provide some level of representation of our food cultures and cuisines.
In your introduction you mention that "Learning about Asia's diverse food cultures and cuisines has immensely improved my [your] relationship with vegetables". What is your top tip for readers who want to start improving their relationship with vegetables and incorporating vegetables into their diets?
My top tip would be to have balance as your guiding philosophy in the kitchen. Despite having written a vegetarian cookbook, I’m not a full-time vegetarian. I still enjoy the pleasures of animal protein and products from time to time, but what has changed since writing PLANTASIA is that I’m way more mindful in striving for balance when preparing meals.
My conversation with Gayan Pieris, chef at Many Little Bar & Dining, for PLANTASIA has really left a mark on me. He shared that the way that a Western-style meal is composed is that you have the animal protein as the star and the other components on the plate - the potatoes and boiled potatoes - are there to fill you up. But, in Sri Lanka, traditionally, the star is the rice, and the meat and vegetable dishes are the supporting actors. This means that the meat dishes are no more important than the vegetable dishes, and you could have a perfectly substantial meal without the need for meat. This is also true of traditional meal structures in other parts of Asia, such as Korea, Japan, and India.
Now, when I cook with meat, I think of it more as a seasoning or a flavour enhancer, and use it sparingly, rather than featuring it as the highlight on my plate. While eating less meat initially felt at odds with my Asian heritage, with this understanding, I’ve come to understand that it is in fact compatible with the way that Asians have been eating for a long time.
It is surprising to me that many of these techniques and ingredients have not yet been spotlighted in mainstream food media, and I’m both exhilarated and grateful that my book is able to provide some level of representation of our food cultures and cuisines.
What was your favourite recipe to develop or receive?
I have a soft spot for the charred brussel sprouts with grapefruit and yuba in the book. I was asked to contribute a dish to my mother-in-law’s Christmas party one year and wanted to prepare a vegetable dish that both the younger ones and the older, more traditional guests could enjoy. There’s no lack of good, plentiful and affordable Japanese food in Singapore, and many of us are familiar with the flavours of sushi ginger, Kewpie mayonnaise, soy sauce, and nori - these are combined to form a dressing for the roasted brussels sprouts. Instead of your usual croutons made out of bread, I wanted to incorporate a textural element that feels local and thought of tofu sticks. These are typically used in dessert soups or added to braises, but I realised that when you deep-fry them gently, they blister and puff like a chicharron. For freshness and acidity, some grapefruit segments are added.
The dish went down a storm. The older guests loved the familiar aroma of tau kee (tofu sticks) and were amazed that such a traditional ingredient could be used in a “salad”. A cousin of my husband declared his love for the dish even though he typically hates brussels sprouts. To me, the response to the dish summed up what I hope to achieve with this book - to expose people to the deliciousness of vegetables, and to do so in a way that feels relevant to us as Asians. Not everything has to be a Western-style salad.
How's your book tour going? Any highlights?
I’ve just concluded my book tour in Singapore and will be celebrating the book in Paris and the Netherlands next. It’s really incredible - as a writer, much of the work happens in solitude for years, and so I was really thrilled to meet readers of my work.
What was also special was sharing the stage with some of my book contributors. I did an event with Hairil Sukaime, a descendant of tempeh artisans in Singapore, and he prepared the tempeh entirely from scratch.
At the event, we sliced it up, cooked it, and served it with the sambal kicap in the book. It blew people’s minds, and even the chefs in the audience were amazed because it was so unlike commercial tempeh, being nuttier and complex in flavour. Unlike what many recipes on the Internet suggest, properly made tempeh doesn’t need strong gochujang marinades or maple syrup coating to make it taste good.
At the end of the night, Hairil gave out packets of yeast to encourage participants to prepare tempeh at home and two people have already successfully done so. I saw the event as a profound experience of cultural context being given to this very trendy ingredient and an acknowledgement and continuation of tempeh legacy and artisanship in Singapore.
To me, the response to the dish summed up what I hope to achieve with this book - to expose people to the deliciousness of vegetables, and to do so in a way that feels relevant to us as Asians. Not everything has to be a Western-style salad.
What is one lasting message that you want readers to take from PLANTASIA?
That what is shared in PLANTASIA is just the tip of the iceberg of what Asia has to offer. Because global conversations surrounding vegetarianism and plant-forward cooking tend to be dominated by white voices, and because Asia is not known for vegetable dishes, we don’t realise that there is such culinary ingenuity to tap on from Asia for anyone who wants to eat more vegetables. I hope that PLANTASIA generates a thirst to want to dive deeper into the diversity and richness of Asian cuisines, beyond your usual beef pho, sisig, Korean fried chicken, or chilli crab.
What’s next?
What’s next is hopefully more writing and a third book! But for now, I’m just soaking it all up. I would love to thank distributors and bookstores around the world that have given PLANTASIA a chance. I know that the economics can be harder to make work for an independent work compared to a traditionally published cookbook and I’m so green in the business of publishing, so I’m so grateful that these partners have been so gracious, patient, and generous with me.
And to my readers, thank you so much for cooking from the book and being so vocal about your love for the book. I hope that this will be the start of a wonderful adventure with vegetables for you!
So where can I get my copy?
If you’re in Australia, you can purchase your copy of PLANTASIA here:
Dymocks (Collins St, TBC online)
If you’re in the Netherlands, Singapore or elsewhere, check the stocklists here.
A huge thank you to Pamelia Chia and Books at Manic for a copy of PLANTASIA.
Got an interesting book, essay or publication coming up? Reach out at @vegemitecongee - I’d love to have a read!