Who's the good cook?

When I was a lil girl, I had a passion in cooking. Those days…there was no AFC, hence aside from Wok with Yan and some other seasonal cooking programmes (e.g. for Raya), thus every Sunday noon, I’d glue my butt in front of the TV for the cooking programme-Kuali, hosted by Laila Johari.

Usually, I’d keep my hands ready with paper and pen to jot down the ingredients and how-to’s of preparing the dishes. Most of the time, I focus on desserts as I love ‘em very much.

The recipes were copied into an exercise book that I turned into a ‘cook book’ together with the pix that I drew of how the dishes should look like.

Unfortunately, not only that I didn’t get moral support from Mak. Yes, I realize that there’s no way that I could turn any of the recipes into edible food. But, she even condemned and demotivated me, saying that I wouldn’t be able to be a good cook, as I don’t even have the experience to do so.

Well, it was saddening… considering the fact that she’s the one who never trusted any of her daughters to help in the kitchen. To the most, we’d only be given simple tasks like peeling the onions, or stirring the mixed ingredients in the pot. That’s all. So, who’s to be blamed if Along, Yone, Ina, myself –none of us doesn’t know how to cook at all?

Anyway, Allah granted us the basic skills to cook at least. Alhamdulillah…so far, neither Along’s family and nor mine have been admitted to the hospital after consuming anything we cook. And there are more times when I receive compliments from MrHubby on my cooking, rather than critics. I might not be able to cook nasi beriani, laksa, mee bandung, etc. (bcoz I haven't tried) but I can now cook Western, Italian, simple dishes and desserts.

So, who cares if my childhood dreams were once laughed at?