ABOUT ME


Jar Of Salt evolved from my first blog,  I Super Love Life, a personal journal of things that piqued my interest.  It just so happens that I always find myself constantly making food, talking about food and around people who know food.  Because of this, it has inevitably evolved into an artful food blog and thus the Jar of Salt was born.

Oh, why Jar of Salt?  I collect sea salts for cooking from different countries and of different sea origins.

Early on, I learned to appreciate all forms of food, thanks to a spinster grand-aunt and my mom who consider cooking not as a chore or hobby, but just a way of life.  And my life right now is in Singapore.

WHEN I BEGAN COOKING

It was spaghetti day when mother and daughter had a fierce argument over choice of shoes for school, leaving me in tears. Because of this, I was told my choice dish wouldn’t be prepared anymore as punishment. Hungry but persevering, I decided to cook it myself without my mom’s knowledge (and to her bewilderment). And this was when I started cooking detailed dishes (as I only knew french fries and scrambled eggs using chopsticks prior to this!).

I was in 4th grade.

RANDOM BITS

1. En Su Tinta (boiled squid in ink) was a favorite when I was 5. I enjoyed regional Filipino dishes like cohol sa gata (snails in coconut milk), lettuce salads in vinaigrette and tasted my first maguro maki at 8.

2. Dressed awkwardly in my mom’s suit, I went to my first cocktails and ate a variety of sushi and sashimi in Tokyo when I was 10.

3. I reverted to preparing dishes the old-fashioned way (no MSG, no artificial mixes) experimenting with different cuisines, ingredients (Singapore has an expansive selection of both Western and Asian stuff!!!), flavors and vegetarian recipes from friends of different parts of the globe.

4.  I stopped using a microwave in 1996 (when ours conked out), the only canned things in my cupboard are milk, olives and tuna and I was able to cook all sorts of stuff for several years using only one knife and one pan.

5.  Also, I would like a bottle of magic solution to obliterate all the mold and mildew on earth.

Oh, by the way — I am not a chef!  All I am is an artist and writer made of generations of culinary family traditions. That’s it.  Food, in my opinion, consists in this:

Celebrating the people and sincerity behind the dish, creating memories, upholding food traditions and old-fashioned ingredients that bring us back to a happy time and place with every whiff, every bite.

About these ads

41 thoughts on “ABOUT ME”

    • I’ve just gotten back to the blog after a VERY long while but thanks so much for passing on the award! I am most grateful for the vote of confidence :) What an awesome way to start the new year.

      Reply

  6. Wow, you collect sea salts from all over the world! How do you come by the sea salts? Also, do the salts taste markedly different? I’d assume they do, but I haven’t sampled a wide range of sea salts.

    Reply

    • First, let me say that teaching ESL rocks!!! So much fun :) You’re so lucky to be teaching in Japan! Oh and love the blog :)

      Okay, and to answer your questions:

      1. I buy them when I travel AND most importantly, I seem to have very thoughtful and generous friends who remember me when they come across unique salts. So they bring it back as a present from their own adventures (too sweet!) One of them actually sent it through mail :)

      2. Yes, some salts are more intense than others. Really. And some lend their textures (like large flakes vs. granulated), changing the flavors of meats with each bite. Others are infused i.e. lavender, truffle while others are smoked — these have very strong aromas that can definitely alter the taste of your food :)

      Some natural sea salts can taste the same but somehow I feel better using them knowing they’re not artificially iodized :)

      Reply

    • Thanks so much! And yes, we’re definitely not missing out on not having a microwave oven. It also takes up too much space! Since the 90s, I’ve pretty much maximized the stove for cooking (of course), reheating food, warming bread, making popcorn, etc :)

      Reply

  8. Hi, thank you for visiting my blog and liking my post :D I really enjoyed what I have read on your blog so far, really fun. I also love what you said about food at the bottom of your ‘about’ page :)

    Reply

  11. You have done such a good job on your blog so I am sending you the Very Inspiring Blog Award.
    The Rules of Acceptance:
    Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post
    Share 7 things about yourself
    Nominate 15 or so bloggers you admire
    Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know

    Reply

  12. My reply to you didn’t make sense. The link will go to my post and that gives you the instructions for what you have to do. It was all pretty straight forward but the only thing I didn’t know how to do was to get the award posted onto my home page. So I just posted the award onto my post. Good luck with it and a big Congrats to you :)

    Reply

    • Thanks so much, VinylChef :) The drive behind my kitchen adventures is to celebrate family, culture and all those who taught me how to cook in their own kitchens :) And yes — sriracha sauce rocks!

      Reply

Share your thoughts

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s