23: Holding onto our cultural identities while living overseas | Tony Tan, writer of Hong Kong Food City and culinary teacher

Tony Tan: “My idea is to create a school of Asian culinary excellence. In other words, I really want to showcase the best of Asia. Even though I’m living here in Australia, a big part of my soul belongs to Asia. Every time I go back to Singapore and Malaysia, I feel that I’m home, but this is also home. But being in those Asian homes, I feel like I belong because of the foods that I smell. Just walking down the street, all those familiar smells. Whether it is someone making jian bing or you zha kway, you can smell the oil, you can see the risen dough, you see the auntie or uncle popping it into the oil… it is such a visual delight.”Tan, a leading voice in Asian cuisine in Australia, culinary teacher and writer of Hong Kong Food City, shares about taking on the mantle of representing Asian food in Australia, plus: *Defining authenticity* *Favourite places in Melbourne to get a taste of home* *Asian ingredients that Westerners might be resistant to* *Western stereotypes of Asian food* *The beauty of Cantonese cooking* *Ways to introduce unconventional flavours and textures to Westerners* *The importance of actively preserving your heritage while abroad* *Tony’s must-eats in Singapore and Malaysia*