The thing nobody warns you about is that homesickness usually arrives as a very specific craving at a very inconvenient hour. Mine tends to be around eleven at night, and nothing here is open that solves it. So I started cooking. Results have been mixed and I want to be honest about which. What worked: curries. Almost everything I need is available, and the ones that need long cooking are actually easier here because I have more time on weekends than I did back home. These come out close enough that I stopped thinking about it. What sort of worked: anything involving a particular kind of flatbread. I can make something that is good in its own right but is not the thing I was craving. I have made peace with it and now think of it as a different dish. What did not work: anything that depends on a specific char from very high heat. My kitchen cannot get there. I have tried several workarounds and the result is fine but flat. If someone has solved this on a domestic burner I would genuinely like to know. On ingredients, the shops that carry Southeast Asian goods have covered most of what I need. Some things I ask family to bring when they visit, though that list has got shorter as I find local substitutes I am happy with. The unexpected part is that cooking has become social. I started inviting a few people over, including colleagues who had never eaten this food before, and that has turned into a regular thing. Explaining a dish to someone who has no reference point makes you notice what you actually love about it. Also worth saying: some cravings just do not need solving. Sometimes it is not really about the food, it is about the person you used to eat it with. Cooking helps with that too, in a roundabout way. Anyone else attempting this? Would love recommendations for shops, and I am still after a solution for the high heat problem. #malaysia #cooking #homesick