Food Virgin

Before the year 2000, I remember my dad was once a victim of my experiment. Most memorable bad dish was some sort of pineapple stir fry with pork/chicken. All I could recall now was that I spent a lot of the time scooping all the pineapple flesh, the whole fruit, had to remove the eyes in a clumsy way. Then cooked with the meat. It tasted well tasteless.

Not so long before that, my mother also almost went nuts over my attempt to make deep fry ice-cream. Only that the full  pan with oil was mixed with the melted ice-cream. Messy sink, messy kitchen.

Then I started to make sushi for my teachers and some friends.  Master  Tong, bro An, and Master Hau kept making fun of my rolls. At that time we hung out a lot and I also was in my 18, had one of the young flings and for some reasons I had figured that one of the ways to the opposite’s sex’s heart is through the stomach.

Not necessary the right beginning I think.

The urge to cook really started when I was living in Auckland, far away from home. As a student, any students, food was probably something along the line of burgers, instant noodles, instant food, packaged food or university canteen. I remember making a fuss about putting together 5 packages of tom yum flavoured instant noodles with 3 other friends back in West Auckland. My home-stay had strictly boring food: badly cook pasta, cheap bad pizza, boring home-made bread everyday, and maybe some canned food. I always had to eat the Shin-cup half way through the night. And of course there was baked cauliflower with cheese and white sauce.

I started to cook lunch for myself and my mates .

The interest started from there.

Well supermarkets displays and the shopping environment in Foodtown was attractive. That was probably when I began to explore. Also SKY cable network has Food channel. I was totally drawn into it.

Next comes the dining out and fussy boyfriend.

The idea of cooking Vietnamese food was somewhat gradually becoming unrealistic for a student. It simply took too long to prepare a full course daily menu like what I used to have at home. Plus I was not sharing my residence with Vietnamese. One pot food was much appealing. Plus I can do whatever I want and nobody would give me the face about what I cook or how it tastes like. Yahoo! And Borders bookshop had a nice café with a library of cook books, I decided to copy recipes. Who says I have to buy the whole book?

My collection of recipes grew, my notes on recipes also started to pile. I simply cooked more and enjoyed cooking.

Until finally that cooking passion turns into the concept of entertaining my friends at home. That was when I was living in Scotland. As a student, again I never let that poorly perceived notion of student life let my meals dull.