A new life...

I started from never owning an oven my whole life, to not knowing how I can live without one.

There were always woks and steamers in my mom's kitchen and the closest thing to an oven we have is a toaster.  My mom married at 19 and never inherited my grandmother's gift of cooking until when she turned 40.  She was forced to cook at home cos' my grandmother got tired of cooking for us so she had no choice but to battle with the wok herself.  It was a hard time for my family.  Being guinea pigs.  However, I now know being guinea pigs are important for the cook to improve.  Without the guinea pigs, there are no good chefs left in this world.  

I think the good genes skipped one generation directly to me although I only started at 28, just 12 years earlier than my mom.  I still love your soups, mom(if you're reading this)...!!!  They are the BEST!  How I would kill for some right now.  Lotus root and sweet corn soup.  Mmm-mmm-mmm...

My early forays into the kitchen and oven started when I was just 13.  Home economics was not an optional subject in my school cos' all "proper" convent school girls should know how to cook and sew(yucks).  I always scored an A.  Easy-peasy.  By 15, I moved on to the geek division in school and took biology, chemistry(*yawn*) and physics(*double yawn*), geography, literature and history.  You see, cooking was out of the curriculum for geeks.  

It took me another 14 years before I took up residence in a kitchen again.  And I never left.

The new challenge in the kitchen every day is "What would a 19 months old toddler want to eat?"  Broccoli?  Cod?  Potatoes? Pasta?  Rice?  I thought I was a fickle-minded eater BUT my son beats me hands down on that one.  I miss the breast-feeding days, it was so easy back then. 

I always figured that as a parent, I have a right to tell my son that as long as I am the one cooking and buying the food, he really has no say in what he is eating until he goes to work and buys his own food.  However, trying to speak logic with a toddler is no easy task.  I think I would rather sew. 

Dining out has always been my favourite pastime.  Living in Singapore and New York City had utterly spoilt me with the wide array of exotic cuisine and delectable restaurants.  I loved NYC's Restaurant Week cos I believe the very first time my husband(not husband then) and I went to one, it sprinkled the magic love dust upon us and we've been inseparable ever since.  Food became our mistress and dessert is our everlasting lust.  

Welcome to my new blog on being a mother, a chef-at-home and a gourmande.