How do our food experts cook and eat? Foodie and Talk About Taboos talkshow host, Shanuki (a.k.a pissupoosa) takes our Q&A!

Your worst dining experience?
My family and I once went to a ‘Chinese restaurant’ in Colombo that turned out to be a brothel. There we were, having the worst tasting Chinese food, and there were sex workers running across rooms upstairs with half-naked East Asian men ambling behind them, which we could see from where we were seated. We left as soon as my mother realised what was going on.

Your cooking habits?
The first thing I do when cooking is line up all the condiments and sauces I’m going to use in the dish. I like prepping and having everything I need at hand’s length before I start. Then I kick the dogs out of the kitchen, before the ingredients ‘mysteriously’ go missing. Sometimes I pretend I’m hosting a cookery show and I talk through my cooking process to the cat, who couldn’t care less!

Your favourite childhood meal? 
My grandmother would cut little squares of sweet French toast (we called them Bombay toast) and top each square with a slice of banana and a dollop of jam. Then she’d sit with me while I ate it and tell me funny stories. That became my favourite breakfast that I still make for myself today.

An underrated ingredient?
Cumin. I love it for the way its flavour and aroma take dishes to a new level.

Make a meal with Rs. 500? 
Rice and Curry always! Yellow rice, tempered potatoes, gotukola mallung, fried bitter gourd, spicy polos curry and ambarella chutney.

Your dream dinner-party guests?
Nigella Lawson and a bunch of anorexic models. I can put Nigella into the kitchen to advise me on the cooking and then I get to eat all of it myself because the others are too busy dieting.

You can have one dish from one restaurant forever – what and where is it? 
This incredible spinach ravioli I had at a little family-run trattoria in Trastevere, Italy. The cafe was so quaint, cosy and beautiful, and the food was absolute heaven!

Your last meal would be?
Singapore Chillie Crab if I still have my teeth left. Otherwise, a bloody good Mac ‘n’ Cheese. 

What’s a meal someone can make to impress you? 
Most meals can be turned out well by following a good recipe, but it takes special skills to make good Japanese food. Anyone who can make me Japanese food has my vote! 

Your pet-peeves and hard-no’s when you are dining outside?
Noisy children being let loose in restaurants gets my blood pressure up, as do dirty drinking glasses.

The most exotic food you’ve had? 
I was served frog’s legs once in Belgium without being told what it was. I ate it and then got a little nauseous when they enlightened me.

Your odd food pairing? 
I eat ripe sour plantains with my rice and curry. 

If you could dis-invent a food, what would it be?
Foie gras and veal! What absolutely vile, cruel food practices. WHO thought they were a good idea?

What’s a dish you’d love to relive for the first time?
The first time I experienced Hainanese Chicken Rice in Singapore. I fell in love with the flavours instantly and it’s become the first meal I always seek out whenever I travel to Singapore or visit an Asia food court.