Food Luminaries. What a delight and honour to catch up with Tony Tan @tonytan53 and Lauraine Jacobs @laurainejacobs. Tony is an old friend, well-known maestro chef and writer of Asian food, based in Melbourne. But he is also “ka ke lang”, a fellow Malaysian. Tony is here for Auckland Writers Festival: on Thursday he cooks from his book Hong Kong Food City, with a selection of menus of the city’s low & high cuisine, at Nic Watt’s Masu. On Friday, Tony joins Kasey & Karena Bird and Ima Cuisine’s Yael Shochat for Entrées at Hunua Room, Aotea Centre. Our food personalities will talk about food as an entrée to a place, a pathway to their culture. I bet Tony will have you in stitches when it’s his turn to cast insight on the food and culture he knows intimately. Raine Deer took up my suggestion that it’s best to take Tony to the best Malaysian Restuarant in the West and meet Aunty Rita. And to introduce Lauraine’s daughter Katie to the some Nyonya dishes. Aunty Rita @rita.lai.5059 didn’t disappoint with the dishes we chose, on her recommendation: • Ling collar vermicelli soup. • Curry Kapitan - a weekend special - it was the biggest hit. • Three Kingdom vegetables, with XO sauce. • Assam fish curry with deep-fried gurnard fillets. • Coconut butter prawns It’s Mother’s Day and Bunga Raya has been run ragged with lunch and dinner parties. But to be turn turn out top meals of such complex ingredients and taste is testament to how good Bunga Raya is. Maestro Tony approves. Aunty Rita has a good old natter with him in Cantonese. And I had Hong Kong Food City personally signed. #tonytan #hongkongfoodcity #aucklandwritersfestival2019 #bungarayarestaurant #newlynn #lingcollarsvermicellisoup #chickencurrykapitan #coconutbutterprawn (at Bunga Raya Restaurant) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxYmoFVlFb3/?igshid=1u8dr99xdsy86