Eventually...: Cook Master

Some of the things I like to do is cooking. It is a stress reliever and a way to show my creativity - in recipes, I mean.

How did this all started? How did I learn to cook?

Looking back, I think the first few things I learned before I cook myself was preparing ingredients. Red onions was really tough back then. I cried so many times - tears of pain - that I nearly gave it up. But I was hard-headed, wanting to prove that I can handle the red onions minions! So it was all practice and more practice. Months after I think I learn to hold up my tears.

One tip though, make sure your onions are not watery when you are slicing or dicing them up and make sure your onion face the other way - not to your own face. And never ever put your hands near your eyes during or after handling red onions without washing your hand. Hope that helps.

Secondly I took a shot at preparing coconut milk from real old coconut shreds. I remembered it clearly that I had a bicycle then. My mom would asked me to go to the little indian shop at the military flat - a lot of kids around my house has a parent who was in the army - to get the 50 cent shredded old coconut and sometimes a few kgs of sugar. haha... it was funny because if I had a trip with sugar order, usually my bicycle would lean one side. Too bad I wasn't really clever that time. I should have asked the indian shop owner to divide the sack into two even weights. And yeah, my bicycle was a boy's bicycle, they don't have the basket in front! I had to maximise the use of the handles to carry the sugar.

When I get back from the shop, my mom would asked me to use the electric blender and I carefully divide the shredded coconut into two portions and blend each portion separately. So the first liquid would be the most potent coconut milk. Usually we use this in special recipe. Mom would store the potent coconut milk in the fridge for that special food. Then, I will blend the same shredded coconut another one or two times and get the milk out of them for the day's use. My hands usually hurts after this caused by the pressure I used to ensure all the milk was drained from the shreds. I was determined. So to me, no pain, no gain.

Another skill that I acquired got to do with shrimps. My family eat a lot of shrimps. And we don't get those scale free shrimps here. So my task when my mom got back from the wet market would be assining me to the shrimps. What I had to do was, first, detach the head. Second, unrest the scales and third, pull the tail. All these without any tool but my small fingers. And the smell of fresh shrimps... something that kids my age then would stayed away from. I think I was brave - and maybe my mom did said something along, "this is the easiest chore you have to do". So I settled with that.

And I can't remember why I did this next thing - I learned how to clean a fish by myself!! To many, this is the scariest thing to do. It's even worst than dismembered a "clean" chicken. urgghh... it was something that you couldn't imagine doing yourself. And the most eerie of all was the smell and the things you need to take out from the fish. There are the heart, stomach, intestine, liver, spleen, pyloric caeca, gas bladder, kidney, etc.. etc.. Maybe reading this makes you green already... I think I held up a few gags throughout the ordeal. I still doing the same now. Can't go over it.

So far, in terms of smell, I hate most the Parastromateus niger aka black pomfret aka bawal hitam. I've only dealt with sea fishes, so I wouldn't know whether the river fishes are any worst. Thankful for the super hypermarket nowadays. I don't have to endure the sicky feeling anymore. Just ask the man behind the counter to clean those up and presto, a fish for me to fry!

Nowadays, I cook for fun. I'm not saying I like to cook everyday cause that never can be fun. Check out for some pics of my latest invention. Looks yummy to you?

THE SPREAD