Inspire...

Someone asked me this morning, "What's with the baking stuff these days?". In order to get the best reaction ever, I curtly answered, " I am dying..." Then came the eyes bulging, the furious shake of the head and the flurry curt mantras of " Choy! Choy!Choy! Don't say such thing early morning-lar!'" I then calmly told her that I had not finished my sentence when I was interjected by the serious eye bulging activities plus the carousal tirade of yester years superstitious mantras. I went to explain that all I wanted to say was that I am dying to try out traditional food galore these days. People just don't want to make such kuih-muih anymore. Most of the excuses were too tedious, too much needed and simply heading towards the doom diabetic era with such traditional kuihs. Anyway, I went on to explain that I wanted to re-sample some of the finest kuih or even traditional sweet cakes which I had had during my early days. More often than not , we are able to relate to our childhood memories through the food that we had consumed over the yester years.  

Have you ever wondered how come traditional kuih-muih are really getting less and less in market while more often than not, "modern" cakes and foodstuff are overtaking our taste buds over the years? I would even go to the extreme to say that foreigners are learning to replicate our traditional kuih muih as sellers ( traditional kuih sellers) ; more often than not had to employ foreigners to do the work as locals tend to give up on making such kuih-muih. It is such a sad sad turn of events indeed. At the end of the day, we will simply see the diminishing traditional kuih and the death of our food culture as the young and hip are into other modern stuff. I take heart that I may be old school but I am beginning to enjoy doing the traditional kuih stuff. I know it is hard work and mom had said so to me some time back but I just wanted to learn some and try to put them in my scrapbook cookbook so that I could remember them some day or even my children could learn to do them one day.  I love the diverse and colourful Nyonya kuih varieties. I remember how my late auntie whom I shall call Auntie Bt.7 who is an excellent pulut tekan maker. I got to taste this fare even when I was a young boy and she was that meticulous when it comes to creating Nyonya kuihs as her husband was simply just too cerewet ( fussy) with the quality of kuihs produced. Her kaya paste was smooth and easily the best I have tasted over the years. This was the accompanying  goodness with pulut tekan fare. She was also very good with kuih wajik, lepat, angku and all the rest of the goodies. By the way, she wears a sarong , kebaya and complete with sanggul and what not! Ah! She has a violent temper too but she has the sweetest heart of all my aunties. The other late auntie whom I shall call Auntie Muar was an expert for kuih kochi, kuih talam, kuih genggang and so on. The other auntie of mine, Auntie Kulai was seriously a master biscuit maker. She practically raised her family in Kulai by pying her biscuit delights in Kulai. How I miss those wonderful kuihs.......Mom is great for kuih bakul, kuih dodol, kuih bangkit, kuih baulu, kuih kapit and Hainanese Chicken Rice! That's gotta be traditional, man! Yeah, sorta Baba Nyonya heritage here but still very Hainanese in many ways. I guess, like all moms around, my mom is also the live wire when it comes to food - both savory  and sweet. Maybe, I have "inherited " some of the influence from her. Honestly, it is good to be able to learn to do some cooking, baking and conjuring up of sweet desserts - the old fashioned way. It does help when the spouse "boycott" on meals preparation period! Hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....................  

Basically, I love cooking too. I guess, when I am cooking, baking or moulding a dough, it gives me a lot of freedom to be relaxed. I do find that it to be a  stress reliever while I could systematically get myself in order. It helped me to be focused and at the same time, I am able to enjoy the very fruits of my labour when it comes to cooking or baking or even making traditional fares. Do you enjoy sambal belacan- the one that the bird eyes chillies, the nicely toasted belacan paste are pounded up nicely added up with a fine squeeze of calamansi juice & pieces and eaten with the accompanying ulam or even cucumber and rice? Well, I love these simple fares. Saliva dripping,eh? What about ikan kembong or ikan cencaru stuffed with sambal then fried up or BBQ to perfection? My all time favourite is duck with salted vegetables and assam keping soup,man! This was my late dad's signature dish. Oh! How I relished to get a bowl of this made by the hands of my late father! Yeah! I miss all those dishes and even if those dishes are around, they had become too commercialised and the taste had completely run off.  I am thankful that mom still took the trouble to teach me some of the savory dishes whenever I asked her and I do hope I get the chance to learn more. I really want to learn as much as I can and challenge my taste bud. I also want to pass out the habit of cooking albeit the present generation who are more keen to eat dinner at stalls, restaurant and food stall rather than cook the food themselves. Yunno, we actually can cook wonderfully fulfilling meals for our family if we try hard enough. 

I was told not too long ago by SLing that she likes "pak thong kou" ( a kinda sweet dessert ) a lot and it is her favourite dessert. I remember telling her that I would do it for her soon. You know as well as I know, our "soon" can sometimes be "never", right? Well, I took up the challenge and I was determined to get that out. So, as usual, though I have never ever made this sweet dish before, I really took the trouble to read up and gather as much information as possible. One of my colleague even told me that it would be a difficult task as she had failed many times in trying to re-produce this stuff. Well, this evening, as I sit down here writing this, I have a tray of "pak thong kou" resting on the table ready for breakfast tomorrow morning. I just hope it turn out right. Like I said so many times, it is not about showing off or arrogance or even trying to be cocky and so on. I just want to say that it can be done if we look at the ingredients, study them and know what the ingredients are. Even if it doesn't turn out right, I'll learn from it and come back stronger and rectify the mistakes plus move on. I think, the most important thing is to try it out first and hope for the best. If we fail, we try again until we get it right, right? Look, many times, I had failed miserably at some of the desserts but I still continue to fine tune ingredients or cooking time or even the quantity of ingredients. Like I said, we all want to churn out good nutritious food for our families , right? We can if we try our best and learn some cooking or baking.

Start today and get rid of the silly notion that it "all females only" thingy. Hey, some of the best chefs in the world are men. So, get out there and surprised your family with a good meal made by you. I tell you, the fun is so much different. It's quality and appreciative time. Never mind if it is a chicken curry or some fried vegetables dish. The most important thing - you have tried your best at giving your best shot at the meals! Inspire and humour yourself ~  I DID!