A Jamie Oliver Twist - God Of Cookery

“Remember not to put so much salt”

That’s the advice my boss’s wife told me when my girlfriend joked that I applied leave just to cook for her on Valentine’s Day.

 “You never cook for me before!”

Well, girls like to repeat the same sentence over and over again. The sound is just a bee buzzing your ear over and over. Well, I decided to take matter in own hand and kill the bee once and for all. That morning, I took my shopping bag and grabbed all the ingredient and groceries I needed. I spent most of my time preparing the dishes while I regularly took some photos. You have to or else they will say,

“Cheh. Must be your mom cook one la!”

Not satisfied, I even took video of me cooking just in case she says,

“Cheh. You just took for the picture of your mom cooking only!”

I used to like some cooking shows like “Yan Can Cook, So Can You!” and Oliver Twist. I noticed one similarity among all those cooking shows. After they prepared everything and jumped to the part which required some waiting i.e. marinating or baking, they will come with this line,

“Because of time constraint, I’ve prepared this in advance.”

And then he/she took out a prepared dish out of nowhere (normally the camera crew hid it in the oven).

(With a revised version of me) Because of the length of the blog constraint, I would like to fast track my description using animated photos instead. Basically, I prepared 3 dishes+1 soup with rice. Sounds little huh? But when you consider one person has to do the shopping, preparing, marinating, cleaning, cooking and then cleaning again, you will go back every day and hug your mom, thanking her for doing that for the last 30 years without complaining! If you have spared money, you might as well heed Andy Lau advice on the latest OSIM advertisement and buy her one massage chair.

Stir-fried pak choy. When I was in UK, shopping for grocery is the most enjoying moment because you get to come out. I always like to know what certain vegetable are called in English. After all, I was into the mindset that the Chinese name my mom taught me might not be understood by any vegetable sellers abroad. While browsing through the vegetable area, I stumbled upon pak choy on the fridge rack. I recognised this must be the vegetable that is always served up in the dining table back home. The label shows “Pak Choy”. Looks like they are lazy to come up with an English name and decided to follow the Chinese name instead.

Steamed egg with century egg. Now century egg does not mean I’m using a rotten 100 years old egg. I once remember Joe Rogan used this egg to fear the contestant into believing that this egg is a rotten egg in Fear Factor. But it’s totally untrue. It’s actually a preserved egg. Still, the process of how this egg comes from will disgust some of those who never ate it before. But, believe me. It’s good. If durian also can be king of fruit, I don’t see why this can’t be king of eggs.

Oven baked fish. I was introduced the way of using baking when I was in UK. When I was young we only fry, steam or stir fried. Seldom have we baked unless it’s cake, bread biscuit or pizza. I would say baking is more to Westerner style. I found baking is healthier after steaming. Don’t believe me? Take one fat chicken. Put on top of the grill and place a pan at the bottom. 45 minutes of baking. Take out the pan and you can have one week supply of cooking oil.

ABC soup. ABC does not stand for Air Batu Campur. The term is used by the parents to “trick” their kids into believing that the type of vitamins it has from the ingredient used.

Rice. The staple food for Asian. Without it, it’s like eating dhal without roti canai. I once saw in a vegetarian shop when one guy can gorge down half bucket of rice! Seriously, I doubt how one can stuff so much into one small built frame body.

The outcome was good. The taste was well OK. Reasonable. My mom used to say this,

"If you cook for me, I'll be very happy already no matter what."

I believe that those words come from those who understand the art of cooking. He/she who really sweats it out to prepare the food before knows the story behind every dishes served. Judging from the look of one food served, it really can reflect the effort one had put into making it. 

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.