MasterChef star Poh Ling Yeow reveals her family’s cultural heritage

And on Tuesday, Poh Ling Yeow spoke about her family’s cultural heritage as she enjoyed her mother’s mouth-watering traditional dumplings.  

‘Dinner at Mum’s was incredibly delicious taro dumplings of the Dai Bo Hak Hakka clan – not the best looking dish, in fact, a bit like a bird’s eye view of pair of dugongs floating in kelp,’ the 47-year-old wrote alongside a photo of the delicious dish.  

‘Mum’s side of the family is Hakka but from the Fui Jieu clan. My Tai Koo Poh (Great grand Aunty) first learnt this dish from my Grandma’s seamstress,’ she added.

Poh, who is a fifth-generation Chinese Malaysian, explained that the dish is stuffed with pork and shrimp and served with a chili and garlic sauce. 

She said that the dish always brings back fond memories of growing up in Malaysia before she migrated to Australia as a nine-year-old with her family. 

‘It brings back the deepest childhood memories of Malaysia, having a go at making these as a wee five-year-old with my Tai and Sai Koo Poh (oldest and youngest great grand aunties) and marvelling at the flavour of Chinese celery for the first time,’ she recalled. 

Poh previously spoke about wanting to reconnect to her culture after moving to Australia as a child and going by the name of Sharon and trying to fit in.

‘I did such a great job of shedding everything that made me feel different that in my early thirties I had nothing,’ Poh told Business Insider Australia back in 2014, before saying she ‘got a little bit scared’.  

‘I thought if I have children I have nothing of my heritage to pass on to them and so I thought I really need to reconnect with my culture. 

‘And food is such a natural fit for me, I love cooking, I’m just so driven with food.’