My journey of cooking Asian food in Ireland.

This delicious stir-fried egg noodle made from SuperValu ingredients.

I moved to Ireland 9 years ago and started to crave Asian food. It's not only the food but also the flavour of home, of memory and of course good food. My taste buds kept screaming every day. I was busy with my 3 kids, they were under 5 and I didn't have much time to go for complicated recipes and sourcing ingredients as I learned from living in Vietnam and Malaysia. I could only make a trip to Dunnes, Tesco or SuperValu for family shopping and I found some basic ingredients they have there: rice, noodles, fish sauce, soy sauce. The challenge is vegetables, not many choices but basic one like carrots, cauliflowers, broccoli, baby sweetcorn, cabbage. Good things they have are fresh herbs: lemongrass, chili, lime, coriander, mint, basil, ginger which are the key ingredients for an Asian meals. I start to try my new way of cooking using those basic ingredients to keep the authentic flavour of Vietnamese, Thai or any Asian dishes I had before. It took time to change, improvise the recipes and at the end I no longer need to search for Asian ingredients in Asian shops even I still visit them sometimes for my strong cravings.

Ireland has changed a lot since I moved here, it's getting more diverse starting with food. Young Irish people start to travel a lot and come home with the new palate of the food where they have been to. The food business is starting to invest in the Asian food market to fill in that need. You can see some Irish companies start their new ventures for Asian food like Spice of life, Thai Gold, Mr Bell. You now can make that authentic Thai curry dish to sushi, Vietnamese spring rolls, Singapore noodles from most supermarkets in Ireland. Lots of exotic tropical fruits have started to arrive and people eager to try. I always check out the fruits section and they never fail to surprise me. There are fresh young coconuts, dragon fruits, granadilla, lychee, mangosteen, star fruits, etc.

Cooking Asian food has never been better.

Thai Gold brand founded in Wexford in 2005 by James Brady, Normal Ruddock and his wife Penn. This is my favourite brand so far. 

Spice of life is a 100% Irish owned company from West Cork

Blue dragon brand from England is the most popular. I find their products very decent.

Mr Bell in English Market, food provider specialize in Thai and Oriental Food, Herbs and Spices.