Good Asian cooks are trained to bring out the aromas of each individual spice or herb.

If your childhood memories are stirred by the gentle aromas of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, you're clearly a child of the West. If, on the other hand, memories of your mother's kitchen are summoned by the citrus perfume of kaffir lime, the peppery blast of basil and the pepper and lemony aromas of curry leaves, you're a child of the East.

Carol Selva Rajah's childhood, spent in Malaysia and Singapore, abounds with fragrant memories of Asian cuisine that have inspired her to pen the English-language book "Heavenly Fragrance: Cooking with Aromatic Asian Herbs, Fruits, Spices and Seasonings".

"Good Asian cooks are trained to bring out the aromas of each individual spice or herb," she writes. "Garlic aromas are teased out in woks, and curry pastes are slowly cooked until they became aromatic. The abundance of perfumed ingredients makes it easy to create such food once you understand this simple point."

A collection of traditional Southeast Asian dishes and her own authentic recipes for fragrant home cooking are also included.

To this day, the Sydney-based chef and author lives by one of her grandmother's main tenets - "Good smell, good to eat!" - and she believes the Asian flavours and aromas are simple to recreate in your kitchen as well. Bon appetit!

Sunday Xpress