Guest blogger: Yen from My Delectable Kitchen

It is my honor to welcome one of my favorite foodie on Instagram as my guest blogger, Yen from My Delectable Kitchen. My Delectable Kitchen is full of delicious foods, simple recipes to follow and her photos are just amazing. Let’s have a chat with Yen and try her easy chicken dish. Sticky Orange & Honey Drumsticks – Charinya

Hi Everyone,
I’m Yen and I’ll be your Guest Blogger today
Before I start I’d like to thank Charinya for this wonderful opportunity, I was so honoured when she asked me to guest blog for her. I have been following Charinya ever since I joined Instagram, she’s an amazing home cook and such a lovely friend whom I hope to meet in person one day.
Let’s get to it!

Please tell us about yourself
I’m in my early 40’s and married with 2 kids.
I’m a Vietnamese refugee, my parents escaped Vietnam with me when I was 3 to Perth Australia, where I live now.
When I was a little girl I wanted to be an artist but unfortunately I was not artistic! I floated through high school and when it was time to pick a university course I didn’t really know what I wanted to be and so the safest pick was commerce.
I spent most of my working life as an accountant, in my mid 20’s I lived in Tokyo and was an English teacher for 2 years, I am now a Stay at home mum (SAHM) and a Wannabe part time caterer.
As I was born in the 70’s, I love 80s & 90s music and I absolutely LOVE R&B.
When Usher released his Confessions album, I was living in Tokyo and I would play his album on repeat full blast and drive my roommates nuts. Fast forward over 10 years and I still play his album on repeat and it drives my kids nuts.
I wasn’t interested in cooking until later in life, in my early 20’s I spent all my time and money on travelling and dining out. It wasn’t until my late 20’s when I moved in with my boyfriend (who is now my Hubby) that I started to learn how to cook (because I had to keep us both nourished and alive!)
I hope that when my kids grow up I can go back to spending all my time and money on travelling and dining out
I would die if deprived of rice.
My favourite series of all time is Sex and The City – I have the box set with all the seasons and movies, they are my most prized possessions.

Before ‘My Delectable Kitchen’ the name was ‘Cooking with Yen’ – why the change?
I think a lot of people are curious about this so here’s my explanation
My Instagram page is also one of my most loved possessions, if I could call it that, I do own it.
I did very well as Cooking with Yen. I had a blog which was on my own domain. I gained many followers during my time as CWY and had a lot of brands notice me.
But whilst I was CWY there are small incidents that weigh on my mind. Things I said and did online in the public forum of social media which I am not proud of and one day I just asked myself what kind of influencer do I want to be?
As a company would have a Mission Statement, I have one for myself for my Instagram page – what is my purpose and how will I achieve that?
It’s not written down, it’s just in my head and I wanted to make changes in terms of what I post, how often I post, what I would blog, the manner in which I collaborate with brands & other people and how much time I want to spend online.
I could have just moved on, made these changes without drawing attention to myself but for me I wanted a line drawn in time to acknowledge my change in my Mission Statement and move forward. So I decided to change my name. It was a very hard decision to make, I had put Cooking With Yen on all my photos, my blog was called Cooking with Yen. My apron has CWY on it!
But I decided to put CWY behind me. As Elsa said “Let it go, Let it go!”
It was like getting a new haircut- I feel all fresh and new!
As ‘My Delectable Kitchen’ I will be spending less time staring at my phone, hence I will be posting less but I hope my followers will appreciate what I do post. I plan to be a responsible and positive Influencer and also hopefully a fun but professional person to collaborate with.
My Instagram page will be same but different in a better way.

Please tell us about your Catering Business
I was a SAHM for 7 years and then I went back to work part time last year, it was wonderful but then the company wanted me to go fulltime which I didn’t want to do so I lost that job and became a SAHM again.
I thought to myself the only way I can control my own hours, be there for the kids when they need me and earn some extra money is to start my own small business.
If you’re doing what you love it isn’t work is it?
So I started recipe creating, costing and photographing my catering menu and while I was doing that I was posting it on my Instagram to let people know I’m starting this little business. My initial idea was to just provide party food trays but then one of my friends asked me to create a grazing table for an event she was having. Grazing tables are essentially cheese, cold meats, crackers and fruit arranged beautifully.
I initially declined as I had never done a grazing table before but then I thought it would be silly of me to give up such an opportunity, so I did it and it was so much fun and I learnt so much in the process.
After that job I thought to add the idea of grazing tables to my catering business but I’m calling them Delectable Tables and I’m adding my Asian menu to it.
I have the bulk of my menu already up and running, so technically I’m in business and taking bookings however I’m still playing with dishes and ideas in my head. It should all be finalized by the end of the year and I’ll start actively promoting it in 2019.
My Mission Statement for “Yen’s Catering Perth” is be a #BOSSGIRL while also rocking my role as a Domestic Engineer aka SAHM

So that was some stuff about me but I know you’re here for the food! Aren’t we all?! Haha
In my backyard I have a lemon, an orange and a mandarin tree. I get an abundance of fruit in the winter which is so wonderful and one day I was thinking how to use up my lemons so I attempted to make lemon chicken but my kids just did not like it.
Maybe it was too tangy, I’m not sure. So at a later date I thought to use orange instead of lemon and it was a winner winner chicken dinner

Today I’m sharing with you my simple and easy chicken dish. I dare say this recipe is healthy too as it has oranges in it haha
Here’s my recipe for my Sticky Orange & Honey Drumsticks

Ingredients
6 chicken drumsticks (approx. 1 kg)
¼ cup of orange zest
½ cup of orange juice
1/3 cup light soy sauce
2 Tbs honey
Optional – thinly sliced orange pieces
Method
1. Use a grater to zest a large orange – collect ¼ cup of it.
2. Cut the orange in half and juice it – I got ½ cup of juice from my large orange.
3. In a jug mix the zest, juice, soy sauce and honey.
4. Place the chicken into a large zip lock bag and pour the marinade over the chicken. If you have time let it marinate overnight otherwise let it marinate for as long as you can, minimum 2 hours.
5. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C
6. Place the chicken in a baking tray, pour the marinade over it and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Take the chicken out of the oven, rotate the drumsticks, use a spoon to pour sauce from the tray onto the drumsticks (ie baste it).
Optional – slice another orange into thin slices and place the slices onto the drumsticks, one slice per orange is enough.
Put the chicken back into the oven to bake for a further 20 minutes.
8. You can garnish with some more orange zest on top and serve with rice or a salad.