Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My Father's Daughter - 1:08 AM
Of the few things I look forward to when I was in Singapore was Saturday lunches, cos Pa cooks! Marketing in the morning ensures the freshest ingredients for a simple lunch... nothing fancy, mostly fish porridge Teochew style (not the mushy congee kind), fish ball kway teow, and if I'm lucky, my favorite HOKKIEN CHAR MEE! My Pa is a pretty good cook cos1) He believes in solid, fresh ingredients (not just meat and vegetables but also in the condiments) and not afraid to use seasoning
2) He grew up on a farm where they have chores, thus not spoilt and actually enjoys cooking
3) My Ma's cooking was kind of inedible and he had to fend for himself or starve (TO BE FAIR, she has improved tremendously since they got married and is now pretty accomplished)
I still remember how he woke up at 7am while we were on vacation in San Diego, and started making breakfast for us: Teochew porridge, with braised meat and stuff that we bought from the Asian grocery store the day before, vegetables, and laid out the table before we're up. Shiyun was pretty amazed that the only man in the house (5 women to 1 man) was doing the cooking, and I think she was trying really hard to sleep in but couldn't since she slept out in the living room, about 2 feet from where the action was.
Now, I may not know Hokkien, but I do know my noodles. And while the hawker center Hokkien mee is too challenging (I understand that involves collecting plenty shrimp heads), the char mee 'hei hei hokkien mee' is way easier. All you need is top grade soy sauce, top grade vinegar, you need chives, fatty meat, sotong, and shrimp.
And I suddenly remember a story. In Pri school like, pri 2... we were to write a compo (that word is so RETRO!), about cooking a meal. Guess what I wrote about? MUAHHAHAHAHA. You guessed it... HOKKIEN MEE! And I recall starting with the garlic, and writing it till I was salivating. And in the end, my last finale sentence was actually 'OOPS, FORGOT TO ADD THE OIL!'. Yes seriously. In fact, this stupid story is such nonsense, but I really did write a compo on cooking hokkien mee when I was 8!
Ask anyone in the family... I RUSH to the dining table whenever I know that thats what we're having for lunch, and bounce around in my seat while waiting, like a kid waiting for Christmas, or Shiyun for cake (ha). Even now, I get so uberly excited that frankly, it gets kind of embarrassing to explain to visitors why I act that way.
So anyway, this past weekend, I decide to foray into unchartered territory... hei hei hokkien mee in my kitchen! And I succeeded!!! Well, the noodles could be better, soy sauce could be better, vinegar can definitely be better but HEY, I still think its mm-mm good!
Other than our love for hei hei hokkien mee, my Pa and I cook the same way - very MESSILY. Note to self: I WILL BE GRACEFUL ONE DAY. But one thing we do not share: My Pa being the engineer he is, goes marketing like this: Hmmm, each person has 200g of noodles, so 5 pple = 1 kilo, 5 shrimp per person, 5 sotong, this amount of meat, a bunch of chives... everything other than the tasting part is pretty scientific.
I go like this: 'Ooh I love shrimp so OF COS NEED MORE SHIRMP. ooh so much ingredients so need more noodles mah and since I love noodles so YAYY!! TONS OF NOODLES. Hmmm, how much fatty meat to use? Aiyah the more the merrier!!!'............. and I WONDER WHY I ALWAYS OVERCOOK and thus, OVER EAT. sheesh.
Anyhow, I am telling you it is pretty dang good.
TADAH!!!
And since I just washed my hair, and there is no way I am going to let it smell, this is the only way to do it. Laugh all you want.
YAY!