Growing up in a conservative Chinese family, physical affection is unheard of. I used to marvel at my Muslim friends kissing their parents, thinking how westernise and cool it was. Well, I have never hugged my parents what's more to kiss!
It is not that we don't love each other. My parents, my brothers and I love each other, we just go about showing it very differently. When it comes to my father, since long ago I noticed that his way of showing his love towards us was his cooking. By the way, my father is a FABULOUS cook!!! Since we were kids, he would make us very expensive Chinese goodies soup such as abalone, dried scallops etc. Even my mom did not get to eat them! And of course my dad never eats it either.
Or how he would wake up at 3am to make agar-agar (jelly) so that it will set in time for us to take the school. Why not the night before? Overnight food is considered unfresh and taboo in my family. And right next to the jelly compartment would be special fried rice. One time he made us burgers to take to school. In order to prevent the bun from going soggy, he packed ketchup separately in a plastic bag, fashioned after an icing piping bag. I still remember him instructing us how to cut the end of the bag so that the ketchup would come out smoothly and neatly. He would also wake up so early in the morning to make us steak or chicken chop for breakfast!!!
When I left home to attend college, my trip home was always met with a huge steamed fish which my dad knew was my favourite. The only problem was fish that size is normally consumed by at least 8 people, and not just one.
Oh how we vowed we would never turn out to be like our parents. Here I am 4 hours before my trip, I have cooked up sambal fried rice, chicken white wine casserole with mushrooms and roasted half a chicken so that my dear husband has food for the weekend. By the way, coffee shops and Cold Storage are just 5 minutes walk from our home.
It is not that we don't love each other. My parents, my brothers and I love each other, we just go about showing it very differently. When it comes to my father, since long ago I noticed that his way of showing his love towards us was his cooking. By the way, my father is a FABULOUS cook!!! Since we were kids, he would make us very expensive Chinese goodies soup such as abalone, dried scallops etc. Even my mom did not get to eat them! And of course my dad never eats it either.
Or how he would wake up at 3am to make agar-agar (jelly) so that it will set in time for us to take the school. Why not the night before? Overnight food is considered unfresh and taboo in my family. And right next to the jelly compartment would be special fried rice. One time he made us burgers to take to school. In order to prevent the bun from going soggy, he packed ketchup separately in a plastic bag, fashioned after an icing piping bag. I still remember him instructing us how to cut the end of the bag so that the ketchup would come out smoothly and neatly. He would also wake up so early in the morning to make us steak or chicken chop for breakfast!!!
When I left home to attend college, my trip home was always met with a huge steamed fish which my dad knew was my favourite. The only problem was fish that size is normally consumed by at least 8 people, and not just one.
Oh how we vowed we would never turn out to be like our parents. Here I am 4 hours before my trip, I have cooked up sambal fried rice, chicken white wine casserole with mushrooms and roasted half a chicken so that my dear husband has food for the weekend. By the way, coffee shops and Cold Storage are just 5 minutes walk from our home.
2 comments:
nominee for isteri mithali award..chewah..
ape tu mithali???
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