Cooking eh....hmm....cooking to me is neither a hobby nor interest, but a responsibility and sometimes satisfaction. I cook when I’m at home where there’s family to be fed, that’s responsibility. It is a satisfaction when I’m craving to eat something that is more delicious when it is self-cooked rather than buying it somewhere else. huhu... Wondering what kind of food do I mean eh? haha...For example jemput2, caramel pudding, paprik, sweet sour egg, laksa Sarawak, daging bistik and sayur lemak kulit rambai, since there’s no point to ask others to lead the cooking when I myself can cook them well enough. Not to mention other common lauk like masak merah, masak kicap and goreng kunyit.
Usually people ask ladies “pandai masak tak?” What should I answer then? “Define ‘pandai’. huhuhu...” Coz my mum said I cannot be considered as ‘pandai masak’ but ‘boleh masak’ and she also regards herself as ‘tak pandai masak’ though I view her as a good cook. Maybe she views those who is good in cooking is only those who are cooks by profession or those who manage to join Master Chef. huhu... But to me if people ask “pandai masak tak” and you answer “boleh la...” then it sounds to me like you only can cook rice and Maggi ONLY. huhu... So there’s a few views of ‘pandai’, or in other words it’s better to grade the level of proficiency. haha... Then I regard myself as a beginner who has enter this so-called activity for years and going to be in intermediate level... meaning I can cook in order to sustain life. Better to put it this way, if you live with me you won’t die or starving even if there’s no restaurant around. huhu...And so far people have never vomited after eating my cooking, and the food that I cook has never been so salty. It used to be tasteless though because I’m so afraid to put salt into the cooking. But less salt will make you healthy. haha.. Most of the time when I cook something I will ask someone to taste it first so that it can be altered before it is served. Currently my cooking is getting better since already understood its rule of thumb. In fact, I like to cook according to general rule of thumb since I’m not good in tasting. The rule of thumb I mean here is like how much sugar and salt do people put generally, this shows that I can’t cook for feast. huhu...I can only cook for my family with that general rule of thumb.
Hmm.. Frequently people view me as someone who doesn’t know how to cook. Is it true? Well, if I have never cooked at your sight it doesn’t mean that I can’t cook. Like I said earlier cooking to me is not an interest or a hobby. It is just a responsibility and satisfaction. When I stay at a rent house where there are so many restaurants next to my house, I don’t feel the need to cook. In fact, I’m so lazy to cook for myself coz I feel like tasting all the foods available there. If I cook I always refer to my note book, kind of not confident with my skill and afraid I would miss the ingredients. Like I said earlier I don’t have a good tasting skill. Basically if you give me a food and ask me to figure out what are the ingredients, I can’t. Cooking is not an art to me, meaning that I don’t bother to slice the ingredient properly to be put in gravy etc because I think I’m not going to enter a cooking competition.
I like to eat cake but I don’t like to bake. In fact, I don’t like to ‘play’ with powder (but I like make-up.haha..) I know nothing about baking. I don’t like to bake kuih raya, bread, doughnut, pau etc that involve mixing the powder coz it appear to me like playing with clay. huhu... The only desert that I can cook well is caramel pudding, I love it so much. Well, I got a lot of compliments too from my colleagues who have tasted it... ^_^
Another thing is I don’t like onion, I think it is disgusting and smelly. If it is possible I will avoid from slicing onion especially when the cooking requires a large amount of it, eg for feast. Anyway a gravy will not be a gravy without onion, so what to do...have to slice it jugak la if needed... sigh~
