East Asian cuisine is food native to countries like China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei etc. These regions have a splendid set of cuisines that are packed with flavours, spice and taste. Rice, noodles, beans, seafood, mutton, bok choy et al make up for the staple food in these regions. Galangal, lemongrass and fish sauce are the flavours that are prominent in South East Asia, whereas soy sauce takes over in the West.

East Asian cuisine also gets its flavour influences from surrounding countries, like cumin and cardamom from India, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, where as coriander, star anise, cloves, nutmeg and maca are native. Herbs such as basil and mint are very common in the region as they are grown and easily available everywhere, while the idea of using them in cooking might be imported. In addition, vinegar, coconut milk, ginger, cilantro, chilli sauce and lime give the authentic taste to the East Asian food.

Last month, we came together with FreshMenu for an East Asian Recipe Contest for all our readers.

FreshMenu is an online food delivery portal, which inspires the new age Indian to confidently try a new cuisine. At FreshMenu, the menu changes daily, with dishes inspired from cuisines across the world. The dishes are prepared with top-notch ingredients at their own kitchens by experienced chefs.

The contest turned out to be an absolute success with some amazing recipes coming in, making it all the more difficult to pick our favourites from all the super delicious recipes that were sent in. But as promised, here are our winners (in the order of their ranking) and their winning recipes. The winners have the delightful opportunity to have their recipe featured on FreshMenu for a day, and also win some amazing goodies.

7 Winners Are

1st Nithya Anantham - Sambal Telor with Nasi Uduk Recipe

2nd Shaheen Ali - Japanese Chicken Udon Soup Recipe

3rd Madhuli Ajay - Toffee Banana Recipe

Winners in no particular order

Jyothi Rajesh - Cantonese Style Chicken Chowmein Recipe

Sindhu Bharadwaj - Sambal spiced veggie mee goreng

Sasmita Sahoo - Vegetarian Sago Dumpling Recipe

Alka Jena - Thai Pumpkin Soup With Red Curry Paste Recipe