Flashing back to 1978, I was just a 7 year old geeky poney-tailed convent girl. My fondest memory was watching mummy baked at our Holland Close flat. Mum was a great cook but I suspected she hates washing up greasy baking tins. So she would only compromise by baking a butter cake, not sponge cake, not marble cake just a simple round butter cake. I would watch her whip the butter and caster sugar with a wooden spoon, while she mixes the SCS butter and sugar into a fluffy mixture, I would be on standby to polish off whatever was left in the bowl with one fine sweep with my index finger. I couldn't remember the taste of the cake but it sure had a nice brown crust on top and a beautiful sunshine yellow inside.
Fast forward to 1984 and 1985, we had to do Food and Nutrition, Fashion and Fabric in lower sec school. Already being the foodie then, I chose to do Food and Nutrition for my O level subject. Why sew my own skirt and yikes who wants to wear a batik tie and dye blouse? Anyway, my forte was always the Pineapple Upside Down Cake, got to master the damn cake or get kick out of Mrs Singh's class. She was a dragon lady with her embroidered punjabi suit. She hardly smiled in class and mistakes wasn't well tolerated in her class. My classmate once used too much blue colouring in her glutinuous rice, she couldn't salvage her portion and had to serve her VERY blue pulut inti. I think she got 1 mark for effort. O level results came, I knew I did well but the A1 came as a surprise. The first teacher I ran up to was Mrs Singh. I had to tell her I aced her subject, no one else in class did. For once, she smiled. But I have never baked since. Mum also stopped baking, and our oven soon became another space to store condiments, sauces and cooking utensils, how convenient. I helped mum stir the curry, helped her cut up bamboo shoots for her babi chin, opening cans, mince pork, julienne french beans, peel shallots and garlic. Because mum was always in the kitchen, there was never a need for us sisters to prepare our own meals.
After I got married, we ate out all the time, mother in law wasn't convinced I could cook. She saw me making my own strawberry jam once (taught by Violet Oon) she probably thought I was an idiot, why make my own jam. The total cost of my jam would have came up to $20 when I could actually get a good quality english jam for $5 at a supermarket. As I am more tuned to cooking western which normally includes butter, mother in law wasn't a fan. I started trying out oxtail stew and kong bak pow and have since tried so many times over the years, I have practiced enough to have a fan base for both dishes. Mother in law is not one of them as she doesn't take pork or beef.
Again fast forward to 2009, when the home I bought came with an oven, I got excited but it took me one year to actually pluck up the courage to jump start the oven. I decided to make marble cake. Phoon Huat was THE place to get all your baking stuff. I was disappointed. Marble cake didn't rise, and marble cake found its way to the bin. My oven was totalled. The problem was because it hasn't been used for a long time. So until I get someone from La Germania to check, I won't be near any baking accessories soon and I suspect I don't like washing the greasy tins as well.
These days I prefer to eat out, no cleaning, no washing. But I miss home cooked food especially mummy's cooking. Her kentang bak and stir fried cabbage with eggs is such comfort food. I'd pay big bucks just to eat those. They are so simple to make but the simplest dishes are sometimes the hardest to master. Mum always remind me to learn to cook her signature dishes
as she will not be around forever to cook for me. I should start cooking again. I procrastinate, too lazy, no time, full of excuses. If my boys love their grandma's cooking, wouldn't it make sense to learn mummy's cooking so that my boys would also love my cooking?
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