Foodie Paradise

Today is the first time I rein the kitchen, simply because no one else is at home. (Let’s not count the other times that I had cooked instant noodles for myself when my parents were not at home.)

From going to the market to the final preparation of food, it is the first time that I had done all of these all by myself.  There were no nagging instructions from my parents about what I should and should not do while I was cooking and no additional help from them when they simply cannot bear what I am doing to the food.

To people who are wondering if there is any mishap or little funny incident along the way, the answer is that the entire process had gone smoothly.

The end product….

I suppose I can term this as fusion food.  It is actually Japanese cold noodles with some of our local yong tau foo and a chicken drumstick.  It is extremely simple to cook.  For the Japanese cold noodles, I just scalded them for less than a minute before running them through cold water.  As for the yong tau foo and the chicken drumstick that I got from the market, I just boiled them for about 15 to 20 minutes.  Finally, I just mixed the noodles in some Japanese sauces and my lunch is ready. 

It is just a very simple and healthy meal, but I can proudly proclaim that I have prepared them all by myself. =P

Happy Chinese New Year and a warm welcome to the Year of Dog! Woof woof!

There is always a lot of food to prepare before CNY. There are chilli, jiao zi, ngoh hiong to be made, cashew nuts to be roasted and food for the next few days to be prepared, especially when fresh food products will be scarce for the next few days as the markets will still be closed.

Based on the Chinese tradition, all family members are supposed to come home no matter where they are to enjoy reunion dinner together on Chinese New Year Eve. And Chinese always tend to spurge and enjoy all the best food during this special occasion.

There is a tradition of eating steamboats during the New Year. This is so that the entire family can huddle together to enjoy steaming bowls of soup and warmly cooked food during the cold winter.

Personally, I don’t understand the rationale of eating steamboat in tropical Singapore, especially when our weather is so warm and humid, but my parents always insist on having steamboat every year. Furthermore, I’m not really a person who likes delicacies, thus I can never really enjoy a meal that is made up of prawns, abalones, sea cucumber, fish maw and such.

Well, I know there’re more food to look forward to for the next few days of the Chinese New Year, which I think is going to be the nice “simpler” fare of fried qiao zi with salad sauce, fried ngoh hiong, curry, fish, and a few other dishes which I can’t remember. Oh yah, and the whole lot of CNY goodies to savour.

It had been stewed mushrooms for dinner for the past few days at my place. One reason is because “stewed mushroom” doesn’t make the whole kitchen so oily and sticky during its preparation, in comparison to preparing other Chinese dishes for dinner.

The other reason is because there are a huge variety of dishes that can be prepared with stewed mushrooms.

Firstly, stir-fried the mushrooms, and then stewed it together with oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and light soy sauce for a few hours. After the mushrooms are stewed, you can add in any ingredients which you want into the pot of stewed mushrooms, for example vegetables, fish, or chicken.

Stewed mushrooms with Fish Head

Stewed Mushrooms with Mixed Vegetables

Then viola, a satisfying and delicious dish for dinner! =)

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.

These are the reasons why sometimes I’ll rather stay at home than going out with friends during the weekend:

Crayfish with Chilli

Mei Cai Kou Rou

Glutinous Rice

Home-cooked food is the best food in the world, especially when I knew that my parents had been preparing these food for tonight’s dinner since Friday night. My Dad was the main chef, my mum was the “menu-planner”, while the rest of my extended family and I were just there to help to finish all the food.

These food may not be the most delicious ones that you can find, but each dish has been meticulously and painstakingly prepared. Everything is home-made, from the fried onions to the chilli. My mum had soaked the “mei cai” many times so that the final dish will not be too salty. She had started cooking the “mei cai kou rou” since last night so that the dish will have a stronger and tastier flavour today. The crayfish were fresh from the market, as my parents had to wake up earlier than usual to go get them.

Always, it’s the thoughts and efforts that enabled the best food in the world to be prepared.

To my parents: Thanks for those lovely food!