Too Cool To Cook?

Face it, you better learn a thing or two about cooking because cooking is the in thing to do! Haha!..

Recently, I officially quit my part-time job at Eng Wah Cinemas. I signed some papers and took the liberty to take a look at my job application form which I filled in back in December 2004. It's bloody freaky how time flies, huh?

2004... when I was 16? Sorry, lazy to do the math and I can't instantly recall. Okay, just to digress a bit, I can never do mental sums anymore. It's irritating some times, but I'm cool with it lah. Ever since choosing the design path, I find it impossible to do maths. I'm just not good with numbers. I'm much better with words.

So back to the application form from 2004; under 'HOBBIES' I wrote 'cooking'. I cracked up immediately after reading it. I felt really silly. Why the fuck would I put cooking as a HOBBY?! Folly of youth?

Okay, if you think it rationally, it's not all that funny nor foolish lah, huh. Cooking is indeed a fun thing to do. From the grocery shopping to the final dinner-on-the-table, what's there not to enjoy?

In fact, you know what? I LOVE COOKING!

I'm just really sorry I don't have much photos nowadays. They say a picture paints a thousand words, but I don't really have a thousand words for you to paint a picture, do I? Just make do with the average 300 words, okay? Plus I believe in painting a picture WITH words, so stop bloody complaining.

Furthermore, if I were to have food in front of me, taking a good photo of it is the LAST thing on my mind.

I marinated 2 kilograms of chicken wings couple of days back with my own secret recipe and it lasted me 2 full days. I love chicken wings and fuck, I make good chicken wings, whether you like it or not.

I don't remember how I came to my own secret marinate recipe. But if I were to guess, it'll probably be because I learnt it from my aunt? Cousin Sheryl's mother. I mean, she showed me the basic stuff to add, and I think from there, I intuitively added my own secret ingredient(s). And voila! I make good wings.

I know the barbecued wings from the hawker centre taste fantastic too! They've always got that crispy skin and juicy insides. It recently dawned on me how they do it.

The 'factory' cooks the wings on skewers in bulk. So your wings at this stage are already cooked, with an even brown tan. But the skin's not crispy yet. Then the 'factory' workers then deliver the cooked wings to the stall. When the order comes in, the sweaty uncle(um, just a stereotype) flames the cooked-wings-on-skewers over a blazing open flame(at least he's got a reason to be sweaty right? And the flame probably kills all the germs in his sweat that splatters onto the wings while cooking lah, huh?). The sweaty uncle flames and chars the wings, till the skin becomes dry but crispy.

Nobody likes mushy wings. Soft mushy skin and succulent insides. I cannot understand why people like to eat the skin on a steamed chicken. Tastes like fatty jelly; makes me throw up.

Oh, I'm also very good with potatoes. I make kick-ass skin-on mashed potatoes. Also kinda like my own recipe, but I think it's rather giveaway on how to make CREAM-y mash, right?

You watch enough Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, Surreal Gourmet, Yan Can Cook, Ching's Kitchen, Nigella Lawson, etc and you naturally have the intuition as to what works and what doesn't.

And I always eat my mash with broccoli. Firstly because I like broccoli. Secondly because I like the colour of the broccoli when it get blanched. And thirdly because it just tastes good. Duh.

I'm not a fancy chef lah, just simple home kitchen kinda cook. I do not sauté nor do I julienne. I just chop and mix and dunk. Common sense should suffice and anyone can be a cook!

I live to eat. Once again, no photos because when you're busy cooking, you do not bother to take photos since all you're thinking about is the final destination. And when you're at the final destination, you still don't take photos because all you can think about is savouring your masterpiece with relish.