Home-cooked Food

For those who don't know, my parents own a small nonya kueh business so I pretty much grew up with food surrounding me. I used to sample and try the different kinds of nonya kueh that my parents (mostly my mum) gave/ forced me and because of that, I believe that I've maxed out my nonya kueh food intake quota (if such a thing exists). I seldom buy or eat nonya kueh when I'm out because I find it slightly ridiculous to spend money buying something that I can get for free. Occasionally though, I would indulge in a piece or two of nonya kueh when the craving hits but those times are few and far between.

Apart from feeding my siblings and I with nonya kueh, my parents also feed us with very yummy home-cooked food! It's really a pity that their talent for cooking didn't rub off any of us because I don't think any of my siblings and myself can claim to be good cooks. Maybe I should watch them cook as and when I'm free so that I won't be completely clueless if I had to cook anything non-instant for myself in future.

My parents follow an unofficial cooking timetable: Gumtoo cooks on Monday, Thursday and Friday and Papa cooks on Tuesday and Wednesday. In my opinion, my parents have very different styles of cooking and this may be a slight problem because my siblings prefer the way my dad prepares his dishes. As a result, they often choose not to eat when gumtoo cooks because they don't like the way her food turns out. Papa's style of cooking is more "hokkien" because it has a lot of flavour and his dishes are always so colourful and aesthetically pleasing. Gumtoo's cooking, on the other hand, is more "teochew" because the flavours of her dishes are not as strong Papa's. Generally, I think my family members prefer food with more taste and flavour so naturally more people 'support' Papa's cooking.

Here are some photos of the dishes that Papa cooked for us on Tuesday:

Fish slices with maize, some peanuts and tomato

Cod fish with black sauce (There were two plates of this dish)

Green vegetables with maize

French beans with mushrooms

Fishballs, tofu and prawns fried with egg and tomato

Honey-glazed chicken pieces with slices of pineapple

On Wednesday, he cooked us these dishes:

His amazing fried rice! We love his fried rice because it smells so good and tastes equally fantastic!

A plate of stir-fried asparagus

Sweet plum sauce chicken pieces

Cabbage with vermicilli and carrots

Fried fish marinated with some kind of chilli powder

Fried egg with tofu (a favourite among my siblings)

Big fried crispy fish with black sauce

Panfried fish slices and prawns cooked with mayonaise sauce and logans

I suspect my parents secretly want to stuff us to the brim after every meal because they always cook so many yummy dishes for us! Despite their different cooking styles, Papa and Gumtoo share the same philosophy when it comes to cooking: it's better to over-cook (in terms of amount) than under-cook because you never know when people are feeling hungrier than usual and it's not nice to have not enough food to feed everyone. I guess that's how I grew used to and subsequently fell in love with the idea of abundance =)

Alright, that's all for now! Will try to take photos of gumtoo's cooking soon! (: Have a great weekend everyone! =)