Hey, I’m Jen!
I was born in Auckland, New Zealand and like most children of immigrants, grew up in a household where my parents expressed their love through food. Because of this, I’ve always viewed the dining table as a magical place of shared connection. I hope to inspire you to have a little fun in the kitchen, to connect with (and impress!) your loved ones over a scrumptious meal on the dinner table too.
Stuff that my family actually eat.
You can expect meals that are fresh & light in texture but punchy in flavour. As for the ‘type’ of food we eat, I’d describe it as Chinese-ish, Vietnamese-ish, Cambodian-ish home cooking which represents my family’s cultural history and genealogy. My parents are of Chinese heritage and grew up in South East Asia. Dad was born in Cambodia and mum was raised in Vietnam. They migrated as refugees to New Zealand 30+ years ago and have lived here since, as proud Kiwis.
We were raised to speak Teochew (a Southern Chinese dialect) at home. Nowadays, we speak in a funny hybrid language, mixing Teochew, English & ~very broken~ Mandarin together. The way we communicate is a great analogy for the way we make our food – it’s kinda all over the place but animated, far from bland and ends up making sense. Well to us, anyway!
Aaaaand how did I get here?
I’m a new kid on the block with this blogging and content creation thing. I resigned from my 9-5 corporate job in June 2021 and moved back home after 8 years of living overseas (Melbourne.. Beijing..Sydney). I felt it was time to reset, spend time with my family and embark on a new journey that felt more authentic.
I knew I wanted to spend more time in the kitchen to bond with mum. What started as an intention to document her best recipes evolved into creating 30-second videos titled “Cooking for my Mum for 10 days“. I started sharing these videos on Tik Tok (because it felt less intimidating than Instagram) and have loved the whole process of creating and sharing our recipes and engaging with you all online. It’s been pretty cool!
Join me as I continue my food journey. I promise every dish is made with love!
JEN xxx
@jenlimmm on TikTok and Instagram
