Ramen

Ramen is one of those "ultimate comfort foods" for a lot of people. A good ramen should have body in the soup (slightly sticky with collagen and fat), meaty with pork bones, and be always, always accompanied by a soft boiled egg.

Bun thit nuong with picked carrots and daikon

Vietnamese food was a revelation - fresh, flavourful, and enticing. This dish perfectly suits a hot, humid night. The freshness of the mint and cucumber, and the crunch of the peanuts, perfectly complement the light rice noodles, sweet and spicy dressing, and rich pork or aubergine. Add some pickled vegetables for a final zing, and you've got yourself one hell of a meal.

This version comes from Northern Vietnam, where minced pork patties are frequently served alongside (in which case it's called bun cha), but similar versions of this dish are also found throughout Vietnam. The aubergine is a less traditional step; I got the idea of including it from the book Fragrant Heart (a travel book that also includes recipes, although her versions are a bit more Westernised than mine, presumably to make them more accessible to those who don't live near good Asian markets).

Sukiyaki

	A superb, light meal for a warm evening, this Japanese noodle soup is flavourful, low-fat, and filled with vegetables. It's also economical - a tiny amount of meat goes a long way with a dish like this.

Mee goreng with leftovers

Right across Asia, leftover bits of meat and vegetables are turned into fried rice or fried noodles for the following day's breakfast or lunch. So what do you do when you have 4 spears of asparagus, 50g of fresh tofu, and one handful of beansprouts that had seen better days? Mee goreng to the rescue! Throw in a few peanuts for protein, a dash of lime juice and roasted chilli paste for flavour, and dig in!

Laksa Kelantan

	I'm honest with you, laksa Kelantan isn't my favourite type of laksa. I tried making it for the first time recently, including making my own laksam (wide, soft laksa noodles) – a disaster which I won't be attempting again any time soon! But I found overall the soup was a little bland.
It's got a bit of sourness from the tamarind, but doesn't have enough sourness to really fit as an asam laksa. It has a lot of coconut milk, but not the curry seasoning to really qualify as a curry laksa. I also found it rather hard to get the fish suitable minced by hand (next time, I'd probably use an immersion blender!), Overall, it was all a bit meh. But never try, you'll never know!

Laksa Lemak

You'll find variations of laksa all over Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia: some are based on minced fish, others include mixed shellfish. Some use thin rice noodles, others use thicker, or spaghetti-like noodles. All are delicious. Laksas fall into two main camps: curry laksa (like this recipe for Singapore laksa) that uses coconut milk, or asam (sour) laksa, using asam fruit or sometimes tamarind as a souring agent.

Laksa Lemak fits into the repretoire of Nyonya cuisine, and is common in the Melaka area. Lemak (meaning fat) refers to the coconut milk used in the preparation, adding a yummy richness. It's mildly spiced, aromatic, and very, very tasty!

Fishball noodle soup with seasoned tofu

I'm never been a massive fan of dashi, to be honest. Give me good old chicken stock or mushroom stock any day. But some Japanese recipes just seem to call for it. This quick and easy recipe makes a low-fat, high protein supper with enough green vegetables thrown in to keep your mom happy. If you're not a big fan of tofu, keep an open mind, as this cooking method floods each cube with oodles of sweet and salty flavour. They're quite moreish!

Nam Ngiaw (Northern Thai noodle soup)

Nam ngiaw (sometimes written nam ngiao or nam ngeow) is a popular and porky noodle soup from Northern Thailand. It's easy to find in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, but not so easy to find recipes for online, probably because several of the ingredients are quite hard to come by outside of the region. But it's so delicious, even a non-authentic version (made with ingredients available in the West) is worth making.

Curry mee

I think this is officially my new favourite noodle dish. It's very spicy, sweet with coconut milk and jaggery, and bursting with sweet prawns, meaty pork balls, and tender crisp vegetables. Don't let the number of ingredients put you off - once everything's assembled, it cooks quickly and easily, and results in a supremely satisfying bowl of spicy goodness.

Pad See ew

This is a pretty common quick lunch food on the streets of Thai cities. It's basically stir fried noodles in soy sauce. Smokey wok essence and caramalised sugar is the heart of this dish - get your wok as hot as you can, and work in small batches to avoid swamping the wok (don't try and make more than 2 servings at a time). Note: naam see ew (spelling varies) is the Thai name for soy sauce, and pad means stir fry. The literal name for this dish is stir fry in soy (sauce). Simple, right?

Mee Siam (Thai-style Nonya soup noodles)

	This dish of soup noodles is found all over Malaysia, with a thousand different variations. What they all have in common is hint of sourness from the Tamarind, and a subtle Thai influence.

Sichuan noodles

This vegetarian main dish can be made in about 6 minutes. It's that quick and easy. I made this version with the traditional beansprouts and cucumber, but you could use whatever fresh vegetables you had in the house: thinly sliced mushrooms or bamboo shoots, julienned peppers or daikon, or anything else. Just ensure you cook the vegetables for a short time, so they're still crisp.

Kaukswe hin (Burmese chicken and noodles)

I've never been to Burma, but if this curry is anything to go by, the food must be worth the trip. Kaukswe hin is one of those great dishes that you can easily adapt to each diner's palate - serve chilli sauce and lime wedges on the side so they can be added to taste at the table. Other popular garnishes include deep fried onions and chopped fresh coriander.

Khao sawy AKA khao soi (Chiang Mai curried noodles)

Chiang Mai was my first experience of Thailand. I arrived at dinner-time, after 16 hours of travel, disoriented, exhausted and hungry. Half an hour later I was sitting amid the cacophony of a night market, slurping a bowl of noodle soup. Even now, years later, I still have such fond memories of Chiang Mai, and Chiang Mai street food.

Mee rebus

Often, when it comes to street food, it's all about the noodle. Mee rebus is a popular hawker-stall dish in Malaysia and Singapore. Yellow noodles are served in a sweet gravy, made with mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (or sometimes just regular potatoes). Garnished with fried tofu, hard boiled eggs, and various bits of greenery, it makes a tasty almost-veggie meal. To make it full veggie, just omit the shrimp paste.

Singapore laksa

If I only had one meal left to eat in this world, I would probably chose laksa. It's that scoffilicious. Essentially a dish of noodles, beansprouts and protein in curried coconut milk soup, you'll find versions of laksa all over Malaysia and Singapore. My Singaporean version uses seafood, but it's also very common to find this dish with chicken, tofu, and quail eggs instead.

Mushroom and tofu udon soup

	January can be a cold month: the damp cuts through you. Weather like this calls for something spicy and comforting. Noodle soup to the rescue! This simple, quick recipe uses only a handful of ingredients, but tastes nourishing and warming on a drizzly winter evening. I've adapted this recipe from Kitsune-udon, a recipe from Osaka in Southern Japan.

Miso ramen

This ultra-easy, ultra-tasty Japanese soup noodle can be thrown together at the drop of a hat from a few cupboard staples, and whatever vegetables you have on hand. Dinner in an instant – result!