The beginning...

I've always been fascinating by cooking. When I was young, I would stand beside my grandmother in the kitchen as she cooked. My grandmother would always be very worried abt bumping some hot soup into me but I picked up many great tips from her. I still remember learning to rub the top of the cucumber after slicing it, to get rid of the bittertaste. I think her tips must have helped me look more "professional" for my cooking exams in Home Economics class during Sec Sch, I got the top score for my fried-rice dish I recall fondly.

Aside from my grandmother, I love my aunty's cooking to bits. She's a perfect cook! And she allowed me to help out (I was only 10 yrs old) so I was always picking the vegetables and observing her. My aunty was also married to a Cantonese back when I was a kid, so she made many types of Cantonese double-boiled soup. I still remember the famous Apple Soup though I didnt exactly love it :P What really strikes me about her cooking is the effort that she puts in. She considers what's a good mix of nutrition before she cooks the meal, who doesn't like chilli or springonions. And she always prepared the food so carefully and always made sure to taste it halfway, making many adjustments to the taste. If it didnt came out the way she wanted, she would be disappointed. Even till today, whenever I visit her, she makes it a point to cook something nice for me because she knows I like her cooking. I would stand and watch, and she would explain to me every step in great details, showing me the brand of the sauces.

Hubby loves to cook too, though not in the way I want. Because 1) he does not clean as he cooks 2)he's a very messy cook! He likes to cook western food, especially the meats. We have very different eating habits. To me, a meal is not complete with vegetables/fibre, even if it's just a tomato. I like my Chinese homecook meal. To him, a slab of meat is a very good meal. I think his cooking throws me off my dieting plans. But he has a plus point, he does not eat much carbo or care much for it. I love rice.

I started jotting down and taking pictures and I have found it to be a very good way of recording. Even though I keep hardcopies of my recipes (eg baking sutff), whenever I cook a dish and months later, I recreate it, it will turn out different. With this foodblog, I can just go back to the pictures to see exactly what I do. And here, I can write more than I did on FB.