DANDELION

Westerly in flight, On UK shore I land, Roots deeply take

The Dandelion, the ultimate survivor. Hakka people are the personification of Dandelions, with the innate ability to thrive in challenging environments and with modest resources. As a Hakka-born child, whenever and wherever I land, I enact my natural tendency to fully embrace and live with the ethos of the Dandelion.

As a civil engineer, technical nomad for 30 years, and chef to four daughters and the Pang Clan, I invite you to join me in my life reflections and anecdotes on family, food culture, and food through thoughtful recreation of my cooking experiences from various parts of the world.

To me, cooking food is like creating delicious medicine. I strategically combine herbs and spices with available raw materials and apply considered cooking processes to nourish and enhance the health of my family.

Alongside this, I am a passionate advocate for food resiliency systems. Through my work overseas at the grassroots level, I am uniquely placed — given my origins, technical background, and work experiences — to unpack the issue of food resiliency through listening, storytelling, shared wisdom, and technical mentoring. Across both my work and home life, the broader theme of food resiliency has become one of my key focuses, shaping how I adapt in times of change.

I love food interactions! Wherever possible during my professional functions as a technical nomad in civil engineering design and consulting, I try to incorporate local topical food subjects to impart subtle creative disturbances to make my discussions interesting and receptive to the listeners when working with mining communities. I closely follow my human-centric approach to steer toward my aspiration to create meaningful technical solutions, with emphasis on the sustainable deployment of natural resources for the benefit of nature and the commercial ambitions of man.

Here, I want to share the many dimensions of food through day-to-day anecdotes about my experiences and how they connect to my family life. Each post will include a recipe or food preparation method for you to enjoy and recreate eg. Making my own ‘lap yok’ for lunar new year or simply breakfast for my girls before school.

My core principle in life is centred on the belief that everything meaningful starts from home. Home is the source of my creative energy and the reason I smile every morning. To me, cooking is a powerful metaphor for life: each stage of the process brings its own unique creative excitement. The act of cooking transcends time, and just like the availability of ingredients, the willingness to adapt is key — always supported by fundamental cooking principles.

I am instinctively drawn into the world of food in all its guises, from the Old Village in Hong Kong where I was raised to North West Africa, Central America, and the UK. The representation of food — from elemental sustenance to psychological nourishment for individuals and communities — is of great interest to me and deeply relevant to how we live today. I hope you’ll join me as I explore the stories, flavors, and memories that connect us all — one dish at a time.

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Keep an eye out - I’ll be posting what I’m cooking and my thoughts every two weeks!