straight to the recipe
Sometimes you just want to cook. So the recipe always comes first at Born to Feast. The stories are still here, but only if you feel like staying a little longer.
about born to feast
a kitchen between cultures
Born to Feast is where recipes travel, ingredients change, and flavours from many places meet in one extremely messy kitchen.
the story
food for the homesick and the curious.
When I first moved to Norway, I was shocked by how hard it was to find the punchy Asian flavours I’ve taken for granted growing up in Malaysia. The grocery stores were ill-equipped for my tastebuds, and I made hundreds of calls home asking my mom how to recreate the comfort foods I missed.
To her great annoyance, I needed exact measurements and very detailed instructions, while she cooks by the agak-agak philosophy: approximate is good enough.
Thankfully, in the decade since I moved here, Norway (and especially Stavanger) has changed. Asian restaurants have multiplied, ingredients are easier to find, and we have the international community to thank for that.
During that time, I had also learned how to translate my mom’s agak-agak cooking into proper measurements of my own. And to adapt those recipes to the ingredients and flavors I have access to here. Some stayed traditional, many became something new.
This is a recipe notebook for the people cooking between places: Asians abroad who miss the food that raised them, and Norwegians discovering the sauces, noodles, rice dishes, broths, snacks, and stews that make Asian cooking feel so generous.
no gatekeeping
kitchen rules.
i love a good hack
You can make rendang from scratch, or you can make it from a pack. At Born to Feast, both ways belong in the kitchen, especially when you are cooking far from where the recipe began.
respect for flavour
Being Malaysian means I grew up with big, bold flavours, and that naturally shapes how I cook. I do what I can to bring those flavours to life, even when the ingredients change.
why i'm doing this
for the love of food.
When I first showed the site to my friends, they gave me a reality check: nobody reads recipe blogs anymore. They ask AI instead.
I'll admit, that made me spiral a bit. Why was I doing this when it's pointless anyway? Am I too late in the game? Is this all a waste of time?
But their comment was rooted in something else - the assumption that everything we do should be tied to a financial upside, or an outcome. That if it doesn't generate money or solve a problem, it's not worth doing.
Art for Art’s Sake
Should artists no longer create art because AI can do it 100x faster? Should we abandon our hobbies because they don't bring in revenue? What about the joy they bring? What about that feeling of finally being able to pour yourself into something that has been such a fundamental part of your identity your whole life?
I believe that food blogs by passionate creators still have a place in today's AI-fied world. There's room for people to showcase their dedication to their craft and share what brings them joy. And that goes for all creators - writers, photographers, hobby horses - anyone pouring themselves into something they love.
So I'm making this food blog. My little passion project. Maybe the audience will be small. Maybe it won't make money. But I love it, and so I'm doing it anyway.