Hi and welcome!
I am Biren (pronounced as Bee Ren), the person behind Roti n Rice. I was once a techie but am currently a stay-at-home mom. I blog out of the Twin Cities, Minnesota with its diverse city culture and just a stone’s throw away from the rich farmlands of the surrounding region. I live here with my wonderful husband and two teenage boys. I refer to hubby as Ro-Ri San, eldest son as Ro-Taro, and second son as Ro-Jiro on my blog.
I am not a professional chef. My culinary “training” came through the old fashion way of learning from family and experimenting in my own kitchen. I truly believe that practice makes perfect as cooking often improves with experience. My kitchen philosophy is “cook only what you will eat” for food is God’s blessing to men, never to be wasted.
I grew up in Malaysia in a big family where food has always taken center stage. Some of my happiest childhood memories revolved around festivities and food. We had huge family gatherings and the women often got together to cook with Grandma at the helm. It was during these events that I learned how to make curry puffs, jam tarts, and wrap glutinous rice dumplings. I have always enjoyed learning the more complex and time consuming dishes. I got a lot of practice as mom would cook the filling and I would make the pastry and do all the wrappings.
Home cooking has always been an eclectic mix of Chinese, Malay, and Indian cuisines. I started baking and cooking more culturally diverse dishes after having my own family. Western, Japanese, and other East Asian cuisines are thrown into the mix. Living here in the American Midwest provides a challenging backdrop to this culinary heritage. It forces me to be creative in adapting the recipes from the old country by using local and more easily accessible ingredients. Today, my cooking reflects a little of the culture that I live in which is a melting pot of cuisines.
Roti n Rice is an outlet for my creative side. I blog about my passion for cooking and memories made in the kitchen. From here, I spend time rediscovering old family recipes and dreaming up new ones. My family is my greatest food inspiration and it is a joy to share the foods of my childhood with my children and to help them broaden their palates. It is my hope that the blog functions as a culinary library and resource for my two boys.
The name Roti n Rice describes the fusion of my Malaysian culinary heritage which is largely based on rice and my life in the West with its bread culture. Roti means bread in Malay, Hindi, and other South Asian languages.
I hope you enjoy reading my blog. Please subscribe or join me via
Yours Truly,
My other blog
A lovely glimpse into the creative force behind Roti n Rice. Thanks for sharing more of yourself, with us
Thanks Denise! This page took a long time in coming.
Nice write up Biren. My About were written by my two nieces
Thanks Ann! I do remember reading about what your nieces said. So nice of them
Biren, this is a great intro for you and I love this photo
Now I feel that we really should get ours done too…
So sweet of you Alisha! This took a long time in coming but I am glad it is done.
Bravo! It really is nice to see a face behind the name and site. I guess I should update my about page and do the same. After all, I really don’t look like Grover (at least I hope not).
Thanks Cristiane! I am sure you do not look like Grover but that made me laugh.
Hello Biren
Lovely to know what you look like, read a bit about you and your cooking.
Mina
Thanks Mina for taking the time to read. I appreciate your friendship
hi Biren,
I just stumbled upon ur blog,-nice blog! am a malaysian,and now living in Superior WI . am always going down to the cities to nicolet ave!
Hi May, nice to “meet” you. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. I hope you will visit often
thanks! am always “back” here for recipe ideas! Keep up the wonderful work!
Just want to say hi
and that you have a great blog! Definitely subscribing to this. Keep ‘em good recipes coming! 
Hi Sharon! So nice to “meet” you and so good of you to visit and subscribe. Your mom is a great cook and I am sure you will follow in her foot steps.
Nice to learn about you, Biren. I particularly like the quote “cook only what you will eat”. It’s something I believe in too.
Thank you Spoon and Chopsticks! So nice of you to visit.
Hello Biren! So nice to meet you!! I am also from the TC and it’s wonderful to see a fellow blogger so close! I look forward to following your posts!! Blessings!
So nice to meet you and glad to know that you also live in the TC. Thanks for visiting.
you have a fantastic blog! why did you move to twin cities? do you have trouble finding ingredients?
Thanks! If you are thinking of ethnic ingredients, there are quite a few stores scattered throughout the Twin Cities.
hi Biren,
This is the first time I’m visiting your site and looked around. I like your dishes and they looked yummy. I am a new subscriber and will be following you.
- more success -
ray
Hi Ray! Very nice to meet you. Thanks for visiting and subscribing.
Hi Biren! I’ve been following your posts through Foodbuzz and wanted to drop you a note! I love your blog and your philosophy on “cook only what you eat”. Since i started cooking I realized how much food we waste and it drives me nuts! Nowadays I pride myself when I use up all the odds and ends and make something delicious. I’ll be following along from now on!
-Jamie
Hi Jamie! So nice of you to drop me a line and for following along. It is true that sometimes much food is wasted unnecessarily. I try to minimize that by cooking dishes the family enjoys. However, my family is good about trying new stuff and food seldom goes to waste at our house.
Great to learn more about you, your family and your heritage! I recently updated my ‘About’ profile pic too – I realized the old one was 8 years out of date! I guess I was still clinging to my youth…
Thanks Ruby! I’ll have to check out your new profile picture. I think you are not the only one clinging to your youth.
Hi Biren, I think you blog is fabulous. It’s such a well done blog. Can you give me some advice regarding picture taking? I saw all your lovely photos on foodgawker, what is your secret? If I can ask what camera do you use? What kind of lighting etc.. I take most of my pictures outside and they are always denied by foodgawker for dull lighting.
Any help or advise you can give.. .I would really be appreciative. Thanks in advance. ~ Ramona
Hi Ramona, thank you for your compliments. As far as food photography goes, I am still very much a novice. I try to take my pictures in the late mornings or early afternoons. Those times work the best for me, given the conditions in my home. Whenever possible, I open the window or sliding door as the glass sometimes gives the pictures a slightly bluish tone. I only use artificial lighting when it is dish I’ve cooked for dinner. It is quite tricky and I continue to work on it. I do use umbrella lighting and and it is still a hit or miss for me.
I am currently using my hubby’s old Canon DSLR with an 18-55mm lense. I am toying with the idea of getting a macro lense or do an upgrade.
Thank you so much for answering my questions. I don’t have a DSLR… so that may be the first thing on my list.
Lighting is such an issue and I just don’t get enough inside the house by the windows so I am going to have to figure that one out. Thank you again for taking the time to write back. Hope you have a great day. ~ Ramona
Hi Biren!
I really liked your blog! Interesting recipies! I love malaysian food. So gonna take a while surfing your blog. I actually thought that this must be by an Indian as we use the term roti in India, but its interesting to know in malay food you use it too. Liked the pictures on your blog too.
Hi and welcome Gursahiba! I hope you had fun browsing. The word roti was probably adopted from the Indians who make up a part of the population of Malaysia. Some of the Malaysian recipes you see on this blog are Indian, mainly Southern Indian.
[...] Roti n Rice [...]
I love following your blog, and so I would like to give you this award!
http://lovefoodcookfood.com/20.....in-threes/
Thank you! I am honored!
Hi Biren,
Thank you so much for sharing more about yourself. I can empathize with you about growing up in a big family where food was the main focus and then moving to a different country where the culture is different and the ingredients you were use to are not so readily available. It is a challenge and I enjoy reading both your blogs.
Thanks Angela for stopping by. So glad to hear you enjoy both my blogs. It was a little tough at the beginning but after so many years, I have gotten used to the ingredients and know more or less what works as a substitute and what doesn’t. It is kinda fun sometimes.