Home-cooked Food
My late mother had the wisdom to tell me to get a wife who would devote her full time to take care of my family. I was deeply touched by what she had told my late sister that as long as I was well taken care of by my wife, she would be pleased and contented. True enough, my children and I have never had to worry what to eat for the next meal.
My wife loves watching cooking shows and she never misses any cooking show on TV. Needless to say, whenever she has the time, she will be glued to her arm-chair for hours watching cooking programs on Astro, paid TV channels. These programs update her with new cooking skill as well as provide her with new recipes. She would then put into practice what she had learnt from the programs. Whenever we are at home, she never fails to cook a meal for us unless she is unwell. She would make sure every meal was ‘hot and fresh from the oven and wok’.
Just as she would update her skill with new recipes, she would improve her skill at using better cooking utensils available,as a Chinese saying put in this way, ‘工欲善其事必先利其器' [ meaning that a good tool would help to do a better job].Thirty years ago she invested on a few sets of expensive AMC cooking wares through installments.
My late mother had the wisdom to tell me to get a wife who would devote her full time to take care of my family. I was deeply touched by what she had told my late sister that as long as I was well taken care of by my wife, she would be pleased and contented. True enough, my children and I have never had to worry what to eat for the next meal.My wife loves watching cooking shows and she never misses any cooking show on TV. Needless to say, whenever she has the time, she will be glued to her arm-chair for hours watching cooking programs on Astro, paid TV channels. These programs update her with new cooking skill as well as provide her with new recipes. She would then put into practice what she had learnt from the programs. Whenever we are at home, she never fails to cook a meal for us unless she is unwell. She would make sure every meal was ‘hot and fresh from the oven and wok’.
Just as she would update her skill with new recipes, she would improve her skill at using better cooking utensils available,as a Chinese saying put in this way, ‘工欲善其事必先利其器' [ meaning that a good tool would help to do a better job].Thirty years ago she invested on a few sets of expensive AMC cooking wares through installments.
Her purchase made many of our friends and relatives to comment that it was an unneccessary and extravagent purchase.
As my second daughter was away from home to study and later to work in Kuala Lumpur since 2002, she seldom has the chance to taste home-cooked food prepared by my wife. Whenever she came home, my wife would try to prepare dishes that my daughter could never have eating out.
Lately, her knee problem does not permit her to stand for too long in the kitchen. But, out of love and affection for her second daughter coming back during the Chinese New Year festival, she endured the agony of knee pain due to prolong standing, to prepare a few more Hakka dishes for my daughter to bring back to Kuala Lumpur. She bore the pain quietly without letting her daughter know.
Even our Indonesia housekeeper,Fitri, whom we employed forthnightly to do the house-keeping is treated equally with the dishes she enjoys. My wife would find out from Fitri what she likes to eat before my wife goes to the market. Our housekeeper likes the home-cooked food prepared by my wife, especially the soup which my wife boils for hours to make it taste better. According to Fitri, we are the only family in the area that serve her with home-cooked meals. Other families she works for would simply buy packets of chicken rice for her to eat.
Lately, her knee problem does not permit her to stand for too long in the kitchen. But, out of love and affection for her second daughter coming back during the Chinese New Year festival, she endured the agony of knee pain due to prolong standing, to prepare a few more Hakka dishes for my daughter to bring back to Kuala Lumpur. She bore the pain quietly without letting her daughter know.
Even our Indonesia housekeeper,Fitri, whom we employed forthnightly to do the house-keeping is treated equally with the dishes she enjoys. My wife would find out from Fitri what she likes to eat before my wife goes to the market. Our housekeeper likes the home-cooked food prepared by my wife, especially the soup which my wife boils for hours to make it taste better. According to Fitri, we are the only family in the area that serve her with home-cooked meals. Other families she works for would simply buy packets of chicken rice for her to eat.
I am already pampered with eating the home-cooked food prepared by my wife. I dread to imagine the day I have to prepare it by myself unless I take up cooking soon.
