I have loved cooking since young.
I remember my mum cooked our meals until I was 18 years old before leaving for university. I enjoyed eating her food until a point where I was craving more for some western food, e.g. spaghetti, burgers, shepherds' pie, pastries... And she is not into those kinds of food. Yeah, typical Asian parents, I would say, or maybe she has no interest in cooking western food, or maybe she is just lazy to learn. :P
I was the "good" child that would always help around with all of the chores in the house cause I thought: Hey, you're living comfortably in this house, and you are not contributing anything? There's nothing on earth that you can get for free. Even if there is, I would definitely feel guilty of taking and receiving it. Plus, my brothers are not the helpful kinda people in the house, so, needless for me to say much, I need to help out in the house.
It started with helping wash and cut veggies in the kitchen, cleaning chicken and fish, which I was disgusted with initially. I was disgusted taking the internal organs out of chicken and fish where all the blood would dirty my hands. I would normally make that "disgusted" look on my face, hold my breath up and count in my heart: One, two, three... Pull that shit out, then quickly put it into the plastic bag. That funny memories still stick in my mind until now. But after several trials and attempts, I am used to it now. I get to see the different internal organs they have in fishes. Some it carries undigested small fish in them, and some are eggs. Techniques and skills are also learnt in chopping and cleaning them properly. But the worst part of cleaning all these is that my hands stink like fish. One of the bad memories I have of cleaning fish is when my dad brought back small fishes. Imagine a sink of fishes. Yes, it was a sink of small fish, and I needed to clean it myself, and my mum was not helping me cause she was busy with other chores. Still remember my dad saying: " If you didn't clean all these, we don't need to eat." Lol... Inside my heart, I was like: " Eh, why not you buy big fish? I don't like these small fishes and rather don't want to eat them."
I upgraded myself to start the fire and cook the meal for my little brother when we were at home during the school holidays. Mum and dad went to work every morning, and my brother woke up and asked me what to eat for breakfast. Does anyone have the same sense of responsibility as me being the elder sister and needing to care for the younger ones? Yeah, I felt the weight on my shoulder and searched for ingredients inside the fridge. The most frequent breakfast I made was fried noodles (yellow noodles and kueh tiaw). Then we gained weight together, eating the instant prawn noodle from Penang at night... My gosh, such an unhealthy way of eating back then. I felt success and satisfaction every time my family members ate my food, and they liked it (except for my elder brother cause he doesn't like to eat home-cooked food). And my little brother would make an order for me to cook for his early breakfast before he went to school (after I graduated secondary school).
Watching YouTube videos, cooking shows, and dramas also influenced me quite a lot in wanting to try cooking different food I saw around the world. But one thing I realised, after knowing how to cook, I tend to have quite high expectations of the food when I eat out. I usually won't order the food I can cook at home, and rather, I would opt for the dishes that I rarely or don't cook often. I get dissatisfied with the food that doesn't taste good as they don't worth my penny. Hahaha... Well, trial and error, but I would definitely not visit them for the second time. :P
Note: I am not spamming all my food photos here, but you can see them at my Instagram's insta highlight.
What are your experiences with cooking? Do share with me in the comments box below.
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