Fusion Food + New Blog Layout

Hi everyone!

For those that have known me before my transformation to somebody quite decent, you might remember that I was a wreck and a careless and carefree girl who avoided the colour pink. Well karma paid me off and here I am with a revamped look of the one by two kitchen blog, and guess what - entirely in pink! I've also changed the name from a mere the one by two kitchen name to the one by two kitchen blog.

The reason why I change the colour to pink is because all of a sudden I fell in love with the softness of the colour and the feeling that it brought to my blog upon trying on new templates. As the one by two kitchen promotes good, healthy, and easy food recipes, I always feel compelled to continuously promote my blog to greater audiences. Personally, I also believe that girls my age have to be exposed to the world of cooking (because it's a great activity and you can feel self-sufficient and womanly too :) yay!), and thus I'm hoping to make my blog more attractive to female audiences. It'd be great if you all can share the link to my blog! Just copy and paste the following link: http://onebytwokitchen.blogspot.com to your Facebook, Twitter or any sharing options.

While I was cooking my dinner this evening (Quorn Chicken Tikka Masala Spaghetti), I thought to myself on how I really like fusion cooking. Well I'd be honest with you! I used to hate fusion food when dining at posh restaurants, I always thought that the 'authentic' recipe is always the best. However, as a university student, I found that making a totally authentic dish is expensive and complicated, and a large amount of excess ingredients might go down to waste! As somebody who's studying to build a more sustainable and environment friendly world, I cannot withstand the thought of 'wasting' stuffs off!

Salmon teriyaki with spaghetti: inspired by Pasta de Waruku

While I was in Indonesia I never really liked the restaurant 'Pasta de Waruku' which is a fusion Japanese restaurant with Japanese dishes combined with various pastas. However, I really like the concept of combining salmon teriyaki and spaghetti. I never can really digest creamy and cheesy spaghetti (unlike my sister Rachel who can eat several plates at once!) However I love whole wheat spaghetti, not only because of its Al Dente texture but also because of its health benefits! If you know SBD diet quite well, you will know that whole wheat and wholegrains are recommended in Phase 2 and 3 to fulfil your daily carbohydrate requirement! Thus - instinctively to me, this recipe came out to my head and I made one of my first notable fusion cooking. I love everything about this dish - the teriyaki broth, the whole wheat pasta, the salmon and the onion, as well as the healthy spinach! The dish above was created at the original one by two kitchen approximately a year ago.

Steamed salmon and mushroom teriyaki with cheese topping

My second try of fusion dish was to combine cheese and teriyaki. I made this dish a year ago, and it was because I was so inspired about steamed dish because of its health benefits (maintaining the vitamins and minerals of green leaves, for example). This dish is more for SBD Phase 1 since there is no main carbohydrate ingredients (unless you count some grams of the teriyaki sauce). Who can imagine that steamed cheese can melt in a perfect way when combined with teriyaki? I made the dish often and can't wait to make it again this year.

Steamed morning sandwich

Now here comes the curious one! Steamed morning sandwich! My good friend Bila always wondered and pondered about this dish to me. I did not have a steamer last year, so I used all possible means to steam my food (continuing my heavy obsession of steaming food). Basically the sandwich was made up of two slices of wholegrain bread, wafer ham, tomatoes and a slice of Gouda cheese (my favourite). I had to use my sifter to steam, but hey! It worked! The best thing about this sandwich was that the texture of the wholegrain bread became quite chewy and moist in the nicest way. What a way to start your day with something rather fusion-istic style!

Last but not least - is today's dinner. Quorn chicken tikka masala spaghetti. I personally didn't make the Tikka Masala paste but bought it from a supermarket (Loyd Grossman's Hot Tikka Masala). Instead of using the whole jar, I used around one-quarter of the paste with half a cup of water to create a Quorn chicken stir-fry, then mix in the wholewheat spaghetti. Nicely done as shown below.

Quorn Chicken Tikka Masala Spaghetti

So there you go, chefs! I know quite a lot of good fusion restaurants across the countries that I have lived or visited. In America, I'm sure it's more down to the Japanese-American fusion (as well as in Indonesia), while in London you can find quirky but delicious restaurants serving fusion food. But why not make one yourself? I shall post one of the recipes soon for you to impress yourself and your guests!

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.