Cook with Love

For those of you who have been following my adventures as a parent, you would have known that I actually learn to cook after my wife had given birth to Ryan (now 5 years old) during her confinement months. What got me started were two confinement recipe cook books and I remembered faithfully following the ingredients in those recipe books to the letter.

Over the last 5 years I have developed a passion for cooking and coupled with my passion for photography, I am obsessed with the thought of making sure that my food looks delicious and tempting to start with. I love to cook but I must admit that I DO NOT have the discipline required to be a good cook. I, for one would and could never remember or even bother to record the types of ingredients and their measurement that I used to whipped out a dish. Hence, I always have problems trying to tell or teach others how to prepare a dish that I have just cooked because I could hardly remember what I had just dumped into the pot nor how much I have used.....

I get bored cooking the same dish over and over again because there is no challenge and above all, nothing interesting to photograph. I am always game for a change. Anything visually stunning excites me and hence, my wife always know that I would order something visually attractive whenever we go out to dine, not bothering whether the food is going to be delicious or not. Yes..I am a sucker for good looking food. That is because I am curious to see how exactly these professional chefs laid out their creation.

 This is one example where I ordered this dish earlier from a Yunnan restaurant. I have always had challenges on how to plate an eggplant dish and since my mother in law adores eggplant, I got tired of cooking the same egg plant dish over and over again. So, when I saw this dish at the restaurant, I ordered it immediately and over the next few days, I went out to buy me some eggplants and attempted my version. The result was oven grilled eggplant, stuffed with stirred fried eggplant with minced pork meat and Chinese mushrooms and red chillies with Chinese cooking wine of course, topped with chopped chives and Chinese parsley leaves. My wife said that this is even better than that at the Yunnan restaurant ! I am a happy man!

To me, cooking is an adventure. Gone are the days when I would follow a cook book by the letter (although I still do when I run out of ideas to cook). Most of time, I would just buy something that I fancy, conjured up the taste I thought I wanted as outcome and picture the dish being presented in my mind. Other times, I would just open my refrigerator, and plan what I wanted to cook based on what I still have left in the fridge.

 This is a dish where I roughly know what I wanted to cook yet had never attempt before nor do I have a recipe for it. I wanted to cook a mussel dish in premium soup (something rather popular back home in Malaysia in restaurant like LaLa Cheong) yet I have absolutely no idea what the ingredients are. Cooking is an adventure and being innovative and creative. I roughly knew what taste I would want my dish to come out as and I made used of some of the ingredients that I have left in the fridge, such as some left over lemon grass and lemon. The final product was mussels cooked in thick spicy and sour lemon grass soup with lots of black pepper and red chillies to provide the extra kick I needed. To thicken the sauce, I add some corn flour and whipping cream for colour. I am not even sure whether I am using all the right ingredients to get what I want but I got WHAT I have set out to prepare. Verdict: My mother in law whacked every single mussel that is left and even kept the left over soup for her next lunch!

I am not one who could cook every meal because once cooking becomes a daily chore, I will loose interest and the desire to cook. I see cooking as a escape from my mundane daily routine, something that I could exercise my creativity and at the end of the day, a sense of achievement and satisfaction with a nicely taken picture of that creation.

 This is one dish that I have been cooking almost two to three times a week for Ryan since he absolutely adores salmon. The only thing that keeps me interested with this dish hence, was to see what other sauce I could use to accompany this dish or how else can I better present this dish. Here, I made a horseradish sauce based on a recipe I found on the internet (Thank God for internet!)

Above all, I think I cook with a sense of love for the those that I am cooking for, wanting them to enjoy the same journey that I have taken in preparing them, when they feast upon the food before them.

 One of my wife's favorite is scallops and I have always been on a look out on different ways to prepare a good scallop dish. I used to bake scallops with Japanese mushrooms and Japanese mayo but I have got bored preparing that dish. I wanted something different and instead baked these lovely scallops that we found at the wet market near our place in Beijing, simply with some Chinese cooking wine, sea salt, black pepper and minced garlic topped with finely chopped chives for color. If you cook with love for the one you love, you would constantly think how to better yourself with fresh ideas to surprise them and in the process, learned something new.

Prior to this, I always thought that cooking is something beyond me. But if I can cook (and only started to do so when I was 45), so can you, as long as you cook with LOVE for the very ones that you LOVE.

Am I a good cook? I seriously do not think so but one thing I do know, I can cook, I love to cook and I love to cook for the ones I love. Bon appetit!

Small but Personal

This year's graduation for Ryan was rather different from the previous ones he had back home in Malaysia. As far as we can remembered, the couple we attended back home was `large' scale events. Held in concert halls or auditoriums, attended by hundreds of students from every class and age group and parents alike. Students from every age group were guided and trained for weeks leading up to the graduation event to perform while teachers and management take every effort to ensure that costumes, props and the venue besides logistics are well thought out to ensure a smooth and successful graduation memory for the students and parents alike. I must said that we, just like very parent sitting there at the event, were extremely proud when our child marched onto the stage and go through every move and motion to the rhythm of the song that they and the teachers have so painstakingly practiced for weeks.

But this year, we had a different sort of graduation feel for Ryan at Ivy Academy. We came expecting another grand event, just like the one we had back home. Instead, we were ushered into a medium size room with just enough chairs for 50 odd people. There were no stage, no elaborate decorations or props. Just a rostrum and a roll of small chairs neatly arranged in a row by the side with the our children's name written on them.

There was no elaborate speech. The graduation was only for Ryan's age group and there were only about 20 of them (some of whom have already left the country just before the event). The performance put up by the children was far from flawless but one thing was for sure, you can see the children  and the teacher having fun doing it.

It was simple but what amazed us and thoroughly touched our heart was how personal the event was and the teacher towards the children.

As the video showing clips and pictures of the children was shown, one thing was clear. As much as the children featured were excited, all three teachers were equally attached emotionally, touched, teary eyed and cried. At that instance, one can sensed their passion and their love for not only their job but for every child in that room as they relive those moments that they have spent together.

 When the lead teacher, "Uncle" Jeff took up the microphone, he could hardly composed himself and speak. His voice shivered as he spoke of how each child in the class reminded him why he was there in the first place and reignite his passion daily to help and guide this group of little but growing minds.

As each child was being called up to receive their graduation certificate, the lead teacher took the time and opportunity to share the unique character of each child. You can see tears swelling up in the eyes of almost every parent as their child stood in front of the class to receive his/her certificate. I was and I was darn sure that my wife was too.

I particularly love this shot I captured of Ryan looking up into the eyes of his `favourite' teacher, Jeff and how Jeff put his arms around my son, almost father like. They have a very special bond, one that some teachers, unfortunately have forgotten to build in their quest to educate the young minds under their charge and to excel as the star teacher who could train up the smartest and well behaved child.

There were no Star child awards. There was no Best Student award nor was there a Most Improved Student award. We needed none, because every child who was sitting there that day and who so proudly walked up to received his/her certificate is a star student in his/her own right, unique with their own individual personality, talent and vast amount of untapped potential.

As Jeff shared with us, when we met him, "Don't curb the energy of the young ones nor see their curiosity to try new things as not being well behaved. Instead help them to channel their energy in a positive manner and encourage curiosity to explore." And that is something that we are learning as parents everyday.

Yes. This graduation was SMALL and pale in comparison to those we had before but this graduation IS PERSONAL and PASSIONATE.