Australian Nutrition Consultant Sonia Osborne shares her healthy eating philosophy to take your body and your tastebuds to a happy place.

What is your personal healthy eating philosophy?

Embrace whole real foods that are as close to what nature intended as possible. Think plant foods, complimented by protein, good fats and moderate amounts of unprocessed, starchy carbs.

What drew you to working in nutrition?

I have always been fascinated by nutrition, from the moment we studied it in school. My passion for nutrition has also flourished from my own health journey. Undiagnosed gluten intolerance meant I had years of digestive issues, migraines and anxiety from a young age. All of my learnings and study has now enabled to me to be a healer.

How do you help expats make good food choices?

I often ask people to drop the wording “good”, “bad”, “low carb” and so on, and just start eating foods that nourish them. They then start to lean towards more whole foods, versus processed options. I also embrace “progress not perfection” to help create new lifestyle patterns as opposed to a short-term diet. We look at their current eating habits, wellness needs, and start ‘swapping’ for more nutritious choices, like substituting a chocolate bar for a handful of nuts and an apple.

What are the biggest challenges of eating well in Singapore?

The majority of food you buy in Singapore is imported, so freshness and cost can be challenging. It can also be tricky to find a one-stop shop. Rather, you have to visit numerous places to get all that you need. It can be a little challenging at first, but once you find your rhythm and a routine it will be become easier.

What are your tips for sourcing good quality meats?

There are many great outlets and on-line delivery services for imported grass-fed meats that are hormone and antibiotic-free. Some expat favourites include Hubers, Swiss Butchery, The Butcher, Ryan’s Grocery, Oh Deli, The Fish Wives and many more. Purely on-line providers can sometimes offer better prices and convenience, including Sasha’s Fine Foods, Straits Market, The Meat Club and NZ Fresh.

How can expats find good quality seafood?

There are some great outlets for wild caught and ethically farmed seafood. The Fish Wives, Sasha’s Fine Foods, Straits Market, The Alaskan Guys, Oh Deli and others offer good choices. You can also seek-out a trustworthy fish monger at a wet-market who may be able to point out the wild-caught options.

Where is the best place for expats to buy good fruit and veg?

The wet markets can be wonderful for fresh produce. They can often be very fresh and more affordable than the supermarkets. If you start to go regularly you will start the know the stands that look fresh. I also recommend that you ask for the “country of origin” and ideally avoid produce from China. Always separate the fruit from the vegetables to make them last longer – if you put them together they will ripen faster. There are also some fabulous on-line offerings like Open Taste.

What are your favourite more exotic local, Asian fruits and veg?

There are many local fruits and vegetables that you can benefit from. Dragon fruit are rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and loaded with fibre. Okra are also a source of Vitamins B and C, plus a fabulous pre-biotic for digestive health.

What are your tips for healthy eating at a hawker centre?
Choose steamed or lightly stir fried options, rather than deep fried or thick sauces. Steamed fish with stir fried greens is always a good choice. Water or iced, unsweetened tea is best.

Is it worth buying organic food in Singapore?

I personally recommend buying organic produce for those items declared as the “Dirty Dozen” which have the highest pesticides. Use a quality fruit and vegetable wash to minimise your exposure to harmful chemicals, such as ETL’s No. 9 – All Purpose Green Formula.

Do you have favourite healthy cafes in Singapore?

Carrot Sticks and Cravings, Rebel Food Kitchen, Grain Traders and many more!

What are your tips for healthy family eating? How do you eat/feed your own family at home?

Embrace vegetables! My family isn’t vegetarian but the majority of every meal is vegetables. They are vital for wellness.

soniaosborne.com.au

Love mixing food and travel? Check out our travel guide to Penang’s inventive eateries, street eats, cooking schools and fine-dining restaurants.

There’s no doubt Penang is one of Asia’s hottest gourmet escapes. Alongside funky street art, stylish hotels and a World Heritage Listed old town, visitors can indulge in some of South East Asia’s best street food, a booming café culture and a fine food and wine scene.

Arrivals hall

The island of Penang is located on the north-western coast of Malaysia, easily accessed by ferry from Butterworth, or by crossing a 13.5 kilometre bridge that links to the mainland. After travelling overland by train from KL and taking the wind swept ferry with a full load of cars, we’re more than ready to check into our rooms at Seven Terraces hotel in George Town (www.georgetownheritage.com) – a carefully restored row of Anglo-Chinese terrace houses. It’s impossible not to feel relaxed as soon as you enter the serene central courtyard and open the door to stately rooms, featuring dark polished woods, rich ruby fabrics and every mod con. The hotel’s stunning pool area is well shaded and made for lounging in the heat of the day with a newspaper or book. As luck would have it, it’s also where a complimentary afternoon tea of neon-coloured Kueh sweets is about to be served. Don’t mind if we do . . .

Top tandoori

Once we’ve nibbled on the pretty glutinous rice creations, cooled off with a swim and had an afternoon siesta, it’s time to search for our first meal, and we’re certainly spoilt for choice. Every cuisine imaginable is available here –from Indian to Nonya, Chinese, seafood and hawker fare. It’s hard to know where to look as we wind through the busy streets and laneways in search of North Indian restaurant Kashmir (105 Jalan Penang). This gorgeous heritage zone is crammed with historic shop-houses, famous street artworks, gilded temples, Neoclassical churches, mosques and opulent mansions. Known as one of Penang’s best Indian restaurants Kashmir doesn’t disappoint – the famed tandoori chicken is smoky and succulent, with excellent crispy naan to dip into a fiery vindaloo.

Street art tour

In the cool of the morning we head out on a private walking tour with experienced local guide, Joann Khaw, from George Town Heritage Walks (016-440 6823). Joann starts with an overview of the history of Penang, then takes a leisurely pace around the streets, stopping to reveal more about the architecture, art, food and bars and traditional local produce like perfumes, oils and spices. Joann makes a point to step off the tourist trail and after just a few hours with her we feel like we’ve really cracked the surface of George Town and discovered its true heartbeat and history. Food is also on the menu and we satiate mid-morning hunger pangs with a just-out-of-the-oven flaky egg tart and refreshing street side fruit juice. Vibrant fusion café China House (153 & 155 Beach Street, 183B Victoria Street George Town) is our lunch stop. This compound of three interlinked heritage buildings includes a café, restaurant, art gallery, shop and bakery. The menu is Western, with an Asian/Middle Eastern twist, but plenty of people just come for coffee and cake. It’s hard not to press your face against the glass display of towering cheesecakes, layer cakes, tarts and brownies. In the end, I resist the siren song of cake for a special bento box with small, perfectly balanced portions of meatballs, crisp apple and pomegranate salad, rice and enoki mushrooms. The bento bites revolve according to what’s in season.

Tropical Spice Garden

On our third day we visit the Tropical Spice Garden Cooking School (tropicalspicegarden.com), located on the tranquil white sandy beaches of Batu Ferrangi, about a 20-minute drive from George Town. Before hitting the kitchen, we meet up with a guide who takes us on a tour through lush, landscaped jungle gardens, set over eight spectacular acres. Along with spotting a snake coiled in a tree, we taste from the spice terraces, drink a lemongrass herbal tea in the heart of the jungle and wander through 500 species of tropical flora and fauna. Even without the cooking class, this would make a lovely outing. At the top of the hill lies a small, purpose-built cooking school, where we’re faced with our own cooking station and a menu we’ll later devour for lunch. Our patient and calm teacher, Jamie, is a classically trained French chef, but she taps into her family favourites with recipes for coconut rice, Chicken Rendang and Buah Melaka (Onde-onde).We quickly learn how to milk a coconut and use local flavours like pandan, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and candlenut. It’s not long before we’re sitting down to plates of rich rendang, coconut rice and gooey green balls of Buah Melaka, filled with a burst of sweet palm sugar.

Saving the best to last

On our last night we decide to visit Seven Terraces’s highly rated in-house restaurant, Kebaya (kebaya.com.my), which fuses “traditional Malaysian flavour profiles with Vietnamese lightness, Thai spiciness, and traditional French cooking styles.” Enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail in the refined, colonial-style adjoining bar, and then head to your table for a four-course menu: To Begin, Protein, Greens and Dessert. Envelopes of betel nut leaf arrive filled with toasted coconut, shrimps, lime, cashew and Norwegian salmon roe, followed by 72-hour sous vide Australian beef shoulder, glazed with tamarind and gula melaka and finished with egg custard, spiked with pandan essence and served with sugar snaps. Confession time; we came back another night for a late night supper of warm chocolate fondants and vanilla ice-cream! Aren’t holidays all about the food?

Artichoke Head Chef Bjorn Shen talks to Pip Harry about his new gig as a judge on MasterChef Singapore.

Singapore has a huge foodie culture, what do you think the contestants will bring to the MasterChef kitchen?

Home cooking prowess and a diverse culinary arsenal spanning across multiple cultures. On top of that, I wish to see ‘spark’; something in contestants that makes them step outside their comfort zones and in turn, grow. No one grows when they stay within their comfort zone.

What sort of a judge do you hope to be? Tough or a big softie?

I’m just going to be myself. In real life, I am patient and communicative. I always start by giving full benefit of the doubt, and try to truly understand why someone has chosen to do something. I can be tough when someone is arrogant or chooses to get defensive: but once they let me get through to them, I’m a big softie.

Who is your favourite Aussie MasterChef judge – Gary, George or Matt?

George (Calombaris) tickles me the most with his cheesy puns and low-spice tolerance.

What is the dynamic of the Singapore MasterChef judges?

Audra (Morrice) is the warm one. She’s always the first voice to welcome the contestants to a new week, and to reassure them when times are tough. Damian (D’Silva) is the father figure, who everyone would look up to for his depth of experience with traditional cuisine and classic techniques. Then there’s me – who is the youngest judge. I see my role as being someone to help cut the tension with dumb jokes. Jokes aside, I’m there to lend a fresh perspective to the judging, coming from a culinary background that is innovative and rule-breaking.

Why did you decide to do modern Middle Eastern food in Singapore when you opened Artichoke?

I opened Artichoke in 2010 – back then no-one was being inspired by Middle Eastern flavours. But it was already happening for a long time in the Australian café scene.
I was born in Singapore, but lived in Brisbane for seven and a half years, from when I was 22, studying a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Tourism management and then working as the sous chef in a Greek café. I was surrounded by Habibis – my best mate was Arab, my housemate was Iranian. My Iranian housemate’s mum would come over and visit and I would just cling onto her every day and help her cook. I learned how to cook from
their Mums.

Are you inspired by Australian food?

What I picked up in Australia was very special. The Australian café scene is incredibly diverse and there’s a lot of Middle Eastern influences in café food. You see things like eggs with dukkah, or grain salads with labne. It’s something we haven’t seen in Singapore, until quite recently. With Artichoke the statistics were against me anyway – many restaurants fail in Singapore – so I wanted to be as different as I could.

You succeeded with Artichoke!

By the skin of my teeth! Not everything I’ve touched has turned to gold. For every success, I’ve had three failures. I’ve had other businesses that haven’t worked out and that I’ve lost a lot of money on. You learn your lessons and be more careful in the future.

Are you a rebel with food?

Some people call it breaking the rules, some people think of it as being humorous. To me, it’s just my style. I cook what I like to eat and I have a bit of a sloppy streak – I love eating dude foods.

What are dude foods?

Dude food is stereotypically associated with being masculine: things you would find in a frat house like pizza, tacos, burgers, ribs, smoked foods… junky, delicious things. But it’s a misconception that I’m all about dude food. I’m not. My menu at Artichoke features lots of salads and fresh mezzes, not all of them are dude-ish. Having said that our menu has undertones of cheekiness. We serve a pork collar with a cola sauce and a ‘Beet Mac’, which is a play on a Big Mac, only it’s beetroot falafels with a cheese sauce.

What’s life like outside the kitchen?

I have a daughter who’s one and a half, Gemma. My wife Roxy is a superwoman. I come home exhausted at 11pm and everything’s done. I do not cook at home. I have the worst home kitchen – it’s an open kitchen that looks good, but the moment you fry one egg the whole house smells like oil. Luckily the food is really good here in Singapore around the clock.

Catch Bjorn in action on MasterChef Singapore when it premieres on Channel 5 on 2 September, 9.30pm.