East Meets East

The Far East is an epicenter of glorious cuisine, from Chinese, Thai and Japanese to Vietnamese, Korean and Malay. It is known for an abundance of exotic ingredients and cooking styles. Even local traditions of eating can be found within each cuisine, such as dim sum in Chinese cooking and the special Nyonya food in Malaysia that fuses Chinese and Malay with a hint of Indonesian and Thai influence too.

And this is not ‘new’ news, people seem to have forgotten that the fusion of Chinese cooking with the rest of Asia has existed for many centuries. Many make a distinction between Chinese cooking and the rest of Asia but there are clear similarities, for example, the use of soy in Japan and China, while noodles feature throughout most of Asia, including Myanmar (Burma), Japan, Thailand and Vietnam (noodles originated in China). Even cooking techniques, such as stir frying, are common to many of these lands.