Foodie Paradise

A few days ago, I was so bored with studying that I suddenly bounced up to my parents and told them that I’ll be cooking the dinner that night.

Personally, I think my Dad had this extreme look of horror on his face when I told him that. After my persistent asking, he gave some really unconvincing replies, “Yah, of course I dare to eat the food you cook.”

Basically, I’ve been learning how to cook since 4 years ago (not counting the home economics lessons I used to have during my secondary school days because those were a disaster. Luckily, home economics is not a graded subject in my school. =p). However, my attempts at learning how to cook had been a failure each time for the past four years. It’ll be an accomplishment for me the day I finally don’t end up throwing the fish into a wok of oil.

Thus, it’s pretty much understandable why my Dad had this extreme look of horror on his face. I guessed he must be either hoping that I didn’t burn down the kitchen that night or that dinner for that night would still be edible.

In the end, I was tasked with cooking the dish “Kang Kong with Chilli”. As I poured the oil in, followed by the chilli, I was slowly inching away from the wok. Somehow I always have this fear that the oil is going to sputter on me, even though each time this never happens and it will never happen unless I’m frying a fish. And I had a difficult time pouring the basket of Kang Kong in, and also to stir fry it. I was absolutely clumsy in the kitchen.

The end result…..tada!

Even though I’ll love to say that it’s the most delicious Kang Kong ever cooked simply because it was cooked by me, I got to be frank with myself.

There is an unwritten rule in my house that no salt is allowed to be added for any of the home cooked meals. Thus the Kang Kong didn’t look as delicious as those that we can usually eat outside because salt, besides giving the dish some extra flavour, also has the effect of making the dish look better. The Kang Kong had a dark green colour to it, meaning that I’d overcooked the dish. The only redeeming point about the dish was that the chilli was delicious. However, the chilli was actually made by my mum.

To have a plate of nicely cooked Kang Kong, it’s important that the Kang Kong is not overcooked (especially when it’s easy to overcook Kang Kong), no water to be added, and most importantly, great chilli which can cause sub-standard cooking to be taste reasonably okay (i.e. my dish).

Hmm…at least the dish that night was edible and I didn’t burn the kitchen down. =D

P.S. There’s a new category to my blog, i.e. “Home Sweet Home”. For this category, I’ll be starting to put up some of the food that my family prepared at home, and maybe recipes if my mum allows me to. One reason is because school has started, meaning I’ve lesser time to eat out, and also because there’re people who say that the home-cooked dishes photos that I’ve put up looks good. Muahaha…I’ll prefer to think it’s more of an ego thing on my part.