June 13, 2020

Budding Cook

So it's now June, which is my birthday month. I am usually very excited whenever June comes around as I have claimed it to be MY month. However, this year, the excitement was lacking. My birthday came and went; there was no celebration as the whole country was still under the CMCO (Conditional Movement Control Order). [I did get presents from my family and friends; plus Ben cooked for me]. The last I wrote, we were in the MCO period. As I write this, we have entered the RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order) period which started on 9th June and will last till the end of August.

In my last entry, I had written that I started cooking. And this is something that I have actually continued doing, although not as frequent as I would like too. Among the dishes that I have cooked so far are:

> Kerala Prawn Curry
> Chicken and Tomato Spiced Curry
> Sweet and Sour Prawns
> Sambal Tumis Udang Petai
> Spicy Malabar Prawn Curry
> Ginataan Na Hipon (Shrimp in Coconut Milk) - this is a Pinoy dish
> Pancit (Fried Bihun) - another Pinoy dish
> Lumpia Shanghai (Fried Spring Rolls) - yet another Pinoy Dish
> Nasi Tomato
> Afritada - another Pinoy Dish
> Chicken Rendang

Now that I have listed out everything that I have cooked these past couple of months, it does show that I have learned much!! And, as you can see, I am trying to balance my skills and knowledge of both my Indian/Malaysian and Filipino culture.

I did indeed have help from mum in that she helped me with cleaning (chicken) and of course the taste test! Not forgetting my sidekick sister who also have had her share of cooking.

I must proudly say that there was no botched nor tasteless dish. But of course, credit goes to my mum for I asked her to taste the dishes multiple times just so that I would get the taste right. Even dad has given his seal of approval for all dishes!

To help enhance my Pinoy cooking, I joined a Filipino Cooking Group on Facebook so that I can get ideas or even easy recipes to try. So far, everything seems out of my reach! Lol! Plus, Pinoys eat innards and blood etc which is so out of my taste range.

Well, at least now, when people ask if I can cook, I can give a positive answer. No more shame in not being able to cook. Although, there is still the huge problem of me not knowing how to clean a chicken (which I tried and it was a horrible experience) or fish.

My next recipe is going to be Sinigang. I had excitedly bought the packet mix for this from the Pinoy Centre without realising that instead of the tamarind mix for Sinigang, I bought the Papaya version (Sinigang sa bayabas!) which has to be paired with preferably milkfish (bangus). I have tried bangus when I was in Manila and it was good. I managed to find the fish in Tesco and I was so excited until my mum accidentally cooked it thinking it was another fish. Now I am going to have to cook the Sinigang with another type of fish, so hopefully it turns out well.

I'm quite proud of myself for finally learning how to cook; and I must say, it's not as hard as I thought it would be.

Here's to more cooking adventures...

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