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Actor, writer and director Nina Oyama loves good quality food.
"My attitude with food is if you're going to put something in your mouth, it might as well taste like really f****** good," she says. "When the food you eat is good, your quality of life just improves."
Salty fish and hand rolls
Oyama prefers home-cooked meals over restaurant ones, and feels that the amount of choices when she's dining out overwhelm her.
"I prefer to make an effort in the kitchen, to take time cooking at home.
"I’m half Japanese and I grew up with my dad who used to cook a lot of Asian food, so I like a lot of soy, a lot of umami flavours, a lot of really salty things like fish. He would also make stir-fried vegetables with ginger and garlic."
When the food you eat is good, your quality of life just improves.
Hand rolls are another favourite she learned from her dad.
"I helped him prepare the rice and we would have things like avocado, tuna, chile mayonnaise, or a toro belly he would buy from the fish markets.
"We'd have a spread and make hand rolls together. I just loved that the hand rolls had this interactive element to them."
Nina Oyama shows Adam Liaw what she likes to cook on The Cook Up. Credit: Jiwon Kim
Olive oil fried rice and katsu
Oyama thinks her dad's fried rice is really good. His secret ingredient? Bonito seasoning.
"I tried making my own version. I’m like such a loser…I wouldn't say it was an epic failure, but I used olive oil," she laughs.
"Now, it's a lot better though. My fried rice is really good, man. I like it. It's to my taste!"
When one cooks, the others clean. I always made the biggest mess.
Oyama also likes to make katsu.
"I really loved making deep-fried stuff like katsu during the pandemic.
"I don't have a deep fryer, so I would just put oil in a wok and just fry the s*** out of the chicken. Me and my housemates had this rule that when one cooks, the others clean. I always made the biggest mess."
Smoothies and spaghetti bolognese
Oyama doesn't think smoothies make sense. "I think they're stupid. Just eat vegetables. Why are you acting like an astronaut and consuming your food in a liquid form?" she laughs.
"And then people add in this weird f*****-up powder in it, so it becomes like this sweet gruel. And then people will say, 'It'll taste good – just add pineapple in it!' and I'm like, just eat your fruit."
Meanwhile, she thinks spaghetti bolognese is underappreciated.
"Even if it's not the world's best spaghetti bolognese, it just tastes like home, you know? There's just something so comforting about it."
