Ratatouille deserves 5 full stars for being so alive despite being an animation feature. Don't be fooled by its mere G-rating - With an impressionable influence on all ages, it effectively drives home important lessons in life to the audience, both young and old.
Inspired by the belief of
Gusteau - I found myself cooking in not just one, but two kitchens in the course of 3 days! Indeed, the kitchen is a place where the creativity in me flows and the boundaries of imagination and innovation are pretty undefined. It was my haven for the past week, where I could freely explore and experiment with
anything (that is edible.)
Eating is easy - check out my waistline. Preparing the ingredients & cooking up a great meal ain't. The fortnightly chore which I absolutely detested (because it was on Sunday mornings) had suddenly become my favourite pastime. I used to hate the smells and the wet, slippery & dirty floors of the market (in fact I still do) - but it was quite enjoyable really, especially with my loved one sharing the burden during the Friday trip to the market. We took pride in choosing the freshest ingredients and finally understood why one would wanna go through so much effort (in enduring the stench) to buy the greenest
baby kailan or the best cod fillets.
It all began last Wednesday - Golly, it was already pretty crowded when I reached the wet market at half past seven! The myriad of noises - choppers hammering the fish heads off the chopping boards,
auntie banter and gossip, negotiations in price bargaining - it was all too familiar...
And returning home, I immediately cooped myself in the kitchen to begin my first true culinary experiment by whipping up three dishes for my own family for lunch - in my words, it was to 'test poison first' and
here is what one of the 'guinea pigs' had to say.
Ironic, that we always and yet seldom use the kitchen - at least, for those around my age - and we take it all for granted since every household has one. It was in cooking did I realise the blessings God has granted us, in the food we receive (and yet so often waste and throw away - my fat tummy is testimony of my staunch protest to such a cardinal sin) and in the people who make them and cooked them.
When was the last time you gave thanks to those who prepared your meals for you? Those heartwarming home-cooked dishes which we are sometimes fussy over (I myself were guilty when young) that were painstakingly prepared with lots of time & effort without us knowing it. I felt it all when I finally donned the apron.
Friday, 7
th September will always be a memorable day in my heart - among other reasons, you might have found out by now that it was the day I cooked my first dinner for the family-in-law. Yeah I know, you must be thinking - "bad move"... It was a field day, I tell you. Both of us tried to wake up early but we managed to get to the wet market only at about nine in the morning. But we bought everything we needed and headed back home to start cooking from about two onwards! And with a two hour break for us to rest, dinner was whipped up and served by seven on the dot - that is three hours of cooking!
*Warning* The following image(s) may prove to be quite disturbing and may cause vomiting or any sick form of reaction possible. Please do not view them if you have a weak stomach.
First up, we have
something that resembles the contents of Greg's intestines Stewed "Lor Bak" - three-layer pork with taupok, mushrooms & hard boiled eggs in gravy. I was pretty apprehensive at my first attempt since the gravy wasn't very promising initially, but it turned out to be the most favourite dish for my 'guinea pigs' *wink*
Next, the ever favourite cod. You might think that one can never go wrong with cod. Wrong. Unfortunately my first try at
Pan-Fried Golden Garlic Cod Fillet was poorly executed when I pan fried all the cod steaks in one small pan until it either crumbled, or became
keropok. But the garlic bits were the saving grace of the dish. Round 2 soon...
This was not supposed to be a dish that could go wrong, it din go wrong the first time round - It's just
Stir-fried Baby Kailan & Shiitake Mushrooms with Oyster Sauce. But that evening, the presentation totally failed me - I recalled that water content is high in veggies and the resulting look is like diluted gravy flooding the dish and messing it up. Plus, I was quite liberal with the oyster sauce, which made the vegetables a tad too salty if eaten plain. Mum said it would be great with rice, though.
This was my proudest dish of the evening.
Fragrant Deep-Fry Cereal Prawns! I had perfected the dish on my second attempt after using bigger prawns and fine tuning the cooking techniques.
The last dish is the star of the dinner, though I may have found out that it would require an acquired taste to be appreciated. My
Ginseng Chicken Soup has no photo because we forgot to take a picture of it. But it was a potpourri of goodness that took a long long time to boil!
Here's an impromptu shot of the family dining! That's mum and dad at the two ends of the table (both apparently quite shy, with mum saying she's 'not very photogenic' - probably why she positioned herself to be blocked =p but mummy, you're beautiful! =) Just like your daughter =p)
Cherie was taking the picture, her boyfriend Kyle downing more cereal prawns than ever (he claims he usually don't eat prawns) and lastly that's me scooping more food to stuff down my darling's throat =p Shaun had already eaten earlier (he couldn't wait =p)
The dinner was accompanied with a bottle of
Wildvines peach & Bailey's. We ended off the dinner with nice fruits which we handpicked - our favourite watermelon and honeydew! Yummy~
We proceeded to Settler's Cafe for some great family time over games like Apples to Apples and
Charudles! And we saw each other - especially mum and dad - in a very different light! It was totally hilarious! It was a great and splendid night =)
The whole experience was like a new found discovery yet a poignantly nostalgic one. As I eagerly savoured the fruits of my new culinary experiments and recreating the tastes which lingered ever since my childhood days - I am more motivated than ever to embark on an exciting lifelong mission to warm the hearts of those whom I would cook for. And I hope that more, especially us men, would be able to master the art of culinary as a means of offering our love to those around us through our food.
For me, nothing beats the expression on your diners' faces when they take that first bite. And I remember a great chef saying that it is the expression at the last bite that determines one.
Right now, I can't wait to catch No Reservations and somehow I'm beginning to anticipate the Culinary Science module (I dreaded it because it is gonna be the heaviest subject so far) which I will be taking up next Semester.
This post is dedicated to my families, with love. Especially to my dearest Cheryl, for whom I had initially decided to cook only Ginseng Chicken Soup (her Prelims are starting today, all the best honey!), but ended up being the spark behind all this. She's the greatest fan of my cooking by the way! =p I love you, sweetheart =)
"Anyone Can Cook" - Why not?! If I can cook, so can you ;)
