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Singaporean badminton ace Loh Kean Yew, 24, can hit a shuttlecock with force and precision, but did you know he can also cook?

Well, sort of, because he did serve up something edible recently by demonstrating how to cook a Hokkien dish that his mother makes at home, as well as basic stir-fried veggies.

The world number nine player demonstrated his cooking chops in an episode, "Loh Kean Yew Can Cook", uploaded to the BWF — Badminton World Federation Facebook page on Feb 23.

What he did

The 175cm boyish Penang-born shuttler, who subsequently settled in Singapore, appeared in the 5-minute video speaking candidly and making wisecracks while preparing the ingredients, tossing them together in the frying pan, and applying heat to turn them into something that looks palatable.

Prep work

At the start of the video, Loh said: "Welcome to Kean Yew's cooking class. Today's mission is not to burn down the kitchen. Okay, just kidding."

He added: "Today I'm going to make a dish that is from my mother because I miss her home cooked food. It's called Huan Chu Char Bak."

He said the dish, in English, basically translates to "potato with minced meat".

Carrot, onions, minced meat, and potatoes, are used in Huan Chu Char Bak.

He was also made to cut the veggies and garlic, for the other dish, to show he can use a knife.

He explained that he took the chance during the pandemic lull to start cooking: "During circuit breaker I was cooking a little bit because I was bored and lazy to go out."

Cooking technique scrutinised

Loh's cooking involved using a lot of salt -- a hypertension warning.

He acknowledged his love of sodium as he said while adding salt to his meat and potato dish: "Because I'm from Penang, so I may eat quite a bit of salt."

"I have a heavier taste."

He then used a dollop of oyster sauce plus more salt in only a handful of vegetables and carrots.

Loved his own cooking

That only encouraged Loh to show how much he loved his cooking when he had to taste test what he made.

Roasted

The BWF — Badminton World Federation video of Loh cooking was watched 64,000 times in six hours.

Commenters were genuinely tickled by Loh's presentation and surprised to see him fronting a cooking segment by himself.

Loh has hit the media circuit before doing interviews in English and Mandarin, but has not been profiled in this way off court.

World number one, friend, mentor, and fellow competitor Viktor Axelsen was quick to roast Loh on Facebook in the video's comment section.

He left a comment barely 40 minutes after the video was published.

Loh hit back with a sassy response.

Axelsen did have a point though: Loh's veggie cooking technique did appear suspect as he did not sauté the veggies enough before adding the oyster sauce and water.

But what would we know, as that could be the secret to be world number nine.

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