In 2017, According to the Economist Intelligence Unit report, “Tackling Obesity in Asean”, Malaysians were the most obese in Southeast Asia. However, obesity has always been a persistent issue amongst Malaysians even before then, despite the efforts of many who have been encouraging Malaysians to lose weight.
A firm believer in the axiom of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates: “Let food be your medicine and medicine be thy food,” acclaimed author Tunku Halim wrote “So Fat-lah!” in 2016 to inspire Malaysians to eat and live healthier. This time, he has teamed up with food lover and Le Cordon Bleu Paris graduate Christina Hiew to write The “So Fat-lah!” Cookbook, expanding on the ideas in his previous book.
This cookbook can be considered a companion to “So Fat-lah!”, transforming most of the advice in the latter into real food. It contains more than 45 recipes that comprise mainly local and Western dishes and snacks, carefully crafted and curated with Christina’s experiences from the French culinary academy and cooking in local supper clubs. Readers will only find recipes that are low in fat and sugar, which will compliment a healthier lifestyle.
Of course, readers are encouraged to eat more fruits and vegetables. The authors have included creative ways to make your own salads, so you won’t ever get tired of them. Spicing things up are 10 recipes for healthy salad dressings, and they’ve included some alternatives to soft drinks and the like to help you kick your soda habit.
Tunku Halim and Christina hope that their book will inspire Malaysians to eat out less and cook at home more by showing how easy and fun it can be to cook healthy meals. “Many of us say that we don’t have the time to cook or declare that eating at the stalls is cheaper. But if there’s a will, there’s always a way. If we want to lose weight, we should make an effort to cook at home.”
The “So Fat-lah!” Cookbook can be found in all good bookstores for RM32.90.