Flame grilled satay. Noodle soup with duck meat and fish balls. Steamed dumplings. Egg waffles. This interview with Sarah Leung, founder of ALG Seaweed, is thick with flavour and memories of hawker style meals from Hong Kong and Penang.

Name: Sarah Leung
Occupation: Founder of Alg Seaweed, dietitian and food entrepreneur
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Family members: Sarah, Jared and Charlie (3)

Like many families with two working parents, daily life is a bit chaotic. However, having a meal together is non-negotiable. There is a great balance in the house. I’m a foodie and a passionate cook and Jared is not a foodie at all. Jared is great with numbers and structure and I am quite messy and like to go with the flow. Charlie is a blend of the both of us and super cheeky.

I was born in Hong Kong and Jared is an Australian born Malaysian. Culturally, we are quite similar. I came to Australia when I was 15. Both of my parents worked full time so my food memories are more around street foods, yum cha and foods we eat when we gather to celebrate major festivals like Lunar New Year, Mid Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice and Dragon Boat festival. Dishes like my grandparents’ coconut and chicken soup, mooncakes, steamed fish, rice dumplings, glutinous rice balls with black sesame and street foods like siu mai, cheung fun (rice noodle rolls), curry fish balls and egg waffles are all my favourites. I can’t wait to bring Charlie there one day to eat it all.

Jared was born in Australia but in his childhood, he spent a few months a year back in his parents’ hometown Penang, Malaysia. As a kid, he loved (and still does) street foods from food hawker stalls like Koay Teow Th’ng (noodle soup with duck meat and fish balls) and open flame grilled satay skewers.

I have been eating seaweed snacks since I was a kid when I grew up in Hong Kong. I have fond childhood memories of seaweed snacks and a game that I used to play with my older brother. Seaweed has a special place in my heart and I hope my food products made with Tasmanian hand-harvested wakame seaweed will do the same – help people create food memories.

I always wanted to become a health professional to work with food and use food therapy to help people. Over the years of practising as a dietitian and reflecting on my own cooking and food practices, my experience really taught me that people do not eat only for nourishment. Food is the core of a culture, it’s about connections, emotions, identity and many other aspects.

Seaweed has the highest iodine amongst all foods, it has great flavour and it is a great salt substitute. Iodine deficiency is the most common cause for thyroid disorders and over one million Australians have an undiagnosed thyroid disorder. Iodine is also a crucial nutrient for brain and intellectual development of unborn babies and in early childhood. During pregnancy, the iodine requirement increases by 50% and up to 50% pregnant women in Australia do not get enough iodine.

I developed seaweed chocolate because sweet/savoury flavours work very well. We wanted to create an unexpected combination that is fun and tasty to demonstrate to people that seaweed is not just for sushi.

Rainbow Seaweed Flakes are great for kids. It’s made with five kinds of seaweed with no added salt and it’s gluten free. A source of iodine, magnesium, vitamin B12 and iron. Mild but umami flavour and so versatile to sprinkle on eggs, avocado, noodles, rice or soups. Our Rainbow Seaweed Seedy Bites are also great for kids. They are no-nut, gluten free with reduced sugar (no more than 5g per bar/4 bites). Adults also love them so that’s a bonus!

My son Charlie plays a role in all the product development. He is my greatest supporter, the tester and I have to get his approval before going ahead. It’s actually really funny how he associates me and my business. Whenever I wear my pink Alg Seaweed sweatshirt, he will say ‘Hey, it’s Sarah from Alg Seaweed!’

Making sure Charlie has a positive relationship with food is very important to me because I see how diet culture ruins people, their food experience and health. As strange as it sounds coming from a dietitian, I am an advocate of ‘food is food’, there’s no good or bad. We’re careful about the language we use around foods in the home. Last year during COVID, we built a veggie patch and he likes checking on them and picking them when they are ready. I feel like he appreciates food more when it’s from his garden.

All Charlie wants for breakfast is yellow jam and red jam. My mum’s pineapple & lemon jam and strawberry jam. Like all toddlers, Charlie has his preferences and they come and go but tomatoes, cucumber, eggs, potatoes, fish and pasta are a few favourites of his that haven’t changed. I know if I have to put something together in a short time frame, I can put together scrambled eggs, a simple tomato based pasta or baked spud and throw in a handful of frozen vegetables in the mix.

It’s hard to continue all the food traditions due to cultural differences and ingredient availability. We are so lucky that my parents also live in Melbourne and Charlie spends quite a bit of time with them. They are retired and have lots of time on their hands to cook. Both of my parents cook very traditional dishes and they value festival foods and confinement foods so we are very lucky to have them here to help us tell the stories to Charlie. Charlie absolutely loves their cooking too.

The traditions I want to pass on? Folding dumplings, making rice dumplings during Dragon Boat Festival, making snacks for Chinese New Year and all the significant dishes. Those are all the things that I want to pass onto Charlie.

Most dog-eared cookbook or websites post-parenthood: Recipe Tin, Adam Liaw, Mama Cheung,The Silver Chef, Ottolenghi Simple, CIBI.

Time-saving tip or food hack: Use frozen veggies!!! Many may not realise but the nutrition value of fresh and frozen are similar. Frozen veggies are affordable and convenient and have become my best friend after becoming a parent.

Favourite local kid-friendly restaurants: Gai Wong Hainan chicken rice in Parkville. Not particularly local to us but it is always a hit, enjoyed by all when we get to eat it!

Bo Zai Fan (Chinese Sausage, Shiitake and Chicken Claypot Rice)

When I think about claypot, I think about my childhood and my birth city, Hong Kong. ‘Bo Zai Fan’ (translates to claypot rice) is a classic Cantonese style meal found in Hong Kong. My primary school is located near Temple Street, the essence of Hong Kong and a famously busy hawker style shopping strip with food stores on both sides of the road.

On a freezing cold night, on my way home from school (I used to finish school at 6pm or 7pm if there were after school activities), walking past Temple Street, I saw people sitting around crowded tables, touching shoulders waiting for their hot and sizzling claypot rice to be served. You can get so many varieties of toppings, from preserved meats, to liver, to fish, to duck… This dish is humble, warm and comforting.

I have recently started making this for the family, to share my childhood stories and also to expose Charlie to different kinds of cooking. Cooking rice in a claypot is traditional. This dish is so flavourful because of the flavour of the toppings flowing through into the rice as it cooks, it’s delicious!

The key to making this dish is to have great temperature control, so you get a golden brown crispy layer at the bottom of the claypot without burning it. It takes some practice but the outcome is so worth it!

200g rice
200g water
3 dried shiitake mushrooms
A small handful of cloud ear fungus (optional)
300g Chicken thigh, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon Xiaoxin wine
1 teaspoon corn starch
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar 1 tsp
1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 Chinese sausage (lap cheung), sliced
2 tablespoons spring onion, sliced

Wash and rinse the rice. Add drained rice and water to the claypot. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Pour hot water onto Shiitake mushrooms and cloud ear to rehydrate. This takes about 20-30 minutes also. Once they are rehydrated, cut them into thin slices.

In a mixing bowl, marinade the chicken, Shiitake mushrooms and cloud ear with Xiaoxin wine, corn starch, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, dark soy and white pepper.

After 30 minutes, turn on the stove to medium, constantly stirring the pot to prevent the rice getting stuck at the bottom. Once the water starts to boil, add Chinese sausage on top and let it cook on low heat for 3 minutes.

Arrange the chicken, mushrooms and cloud ear evenly on top of the rice, close the lid and let it cook for a further 10-15 minutes. Make sure the flame is low to prevent burning of the rice.

Check to make sure the chicken has cooked through and all liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Turn off the stove, with the lid on and let it sit for a further 5 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, place soy sauce, sugar and mirin in a small pot. Warm it up until sugar dissolves.

Open the lid of the claypot and sprinkle spring onion on top. Mix through the topping and the rice, serve the claypot rice hot with the sauce. I found that without the sauce it is flavourful enough and definitely not needed for the kids.