Malaysian culinary artist WoonHeng Chia has made a name for herself by crafting delightful plant-based versions of classic Asian dishes, sharing her culinary journey with a global audience through her blog and social media. Her simple yet appealing recipes, showcased in concise, viewer-friendly videos, have attracted significant attention online, with some videos, like her quick guide to making chili oil, garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Her vegan creamy miso ramen recipe and the guide for making vegan dumplings with just the right texture are among the fan favorites, demonstrating the demand for accessible vegan adaptations of traditional Asian fare.
However, Chia’s online presence unexpectedly went silent in mid-2022, prompting concern among her devoted followers. After a six-month hiatus, she resurfaced in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Chia’s break from social media was due to health reasons and the relocation of her family to China, following her husband’s job assignment. Having grown up in Kuala Lumpur with Teochew and Cantonese heritage and having lived in the United States, Chia’s global upbringing had well-prepared her for international moves, yet she admitted that adapting to life in China, especially without reading or writing Chinese, required a period of adjustment.
Her return to the culinary scene has been well-received, with her followers eagerly embracing new recipes influenced by her new environment, such as the stir-fried peanut sprouts she discovered in Chengdu. Chia’s journey reflects the growing acceptance and mainstreaming of plant-based diets, a contrast to the skepticism she encountered when she first embraced veganism at age 15. Initially, her traditional parents were concerned about potential nutritional deficits, but Chia has since demonstrated that a vegan diet can be both nutritious and flavorful.
Chia’s commitment to veganism extends to reimagining Malaysian classics, which she veganizes without compromising on taste or texture. Her vegan mee siam, for instance, forgoes traditional fermented shrimp paste for a homemade sambal made with fermented bean sauce, while her vegan nasi lemak bungkus replaces shrimp-based umami with kombu and tomato. These dishes illustrate her belief that the essence of beloved foods can be retained, even without meat.
Now, with a cookbook in the works and her daughter off to college, Chia is ready to share her wealth of experience on a larger scale. Her motivation stems from her own family’s tradition, recalling how her mother passed down recipes—a gesture of love and heritage. Chia’s modern take on this tradition involved using social media as her medium, which ultimately led to the launch of her blog in 2017. The forthcoming cookbook promises to be a treasure trove of Malaysian and Asian recipes, offering a comprehensive guide to meat-free cooking that draws from her lifelong love of culinary exploration.
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