Part of my early adventures in cooking consists of making some oops! cooking disasters in the kitchen.
There were times when I had to spend several hours to cooking something only to discover that I have missed a cooking step which turned my whole dish into a disaster. At other times, I would cook my beans forgetting to wash them before I put them into the pot.
Cooking was indeed a fun childhood activity for me. It was a family ritual to gather with my grandma, sister and auntie (deceased) to cook up a storm during the school holidays. My grandma, the chief cook, would have a list of food (mostly desserts) that she wanted us to make throughout the holidays and most often, it was an every day affair (how unhealthy! Nyeh nyeh nyeh)
Oh yea, coming back to my cooking adventure, when I was really young - about 11 years old, we had a golden cocker spaniel by the name of Kiko. When we got him, little did he know about his huge appetite. We bought him from dog breeder in a city about 4 hours drive from our hometown. While we were driving home, he clinged on tightly to my mom and sister. He was fast asleep the whole way until we got a little hungry. There was a leftover chicken pot pie that we had packed from a take-away outlet we went to for lunch. When I took it out of its packet, Kiko immediately woke up and before you know it, he was sniffing the pie. We found that real amusing as we thought he was fast asleep all the while.
That was just the beginning. As Kiko grew up, we discovered that he used different body movements to signify his opinions on the tastes of different food items. If he felt the food was really delicious, he would be jumping up and down. If he felt the food was quite delicious, he will just stand up. If he felt the food was okay but can be improved, he will sit down and look at you. And the most funny thing is if he felt the food was totally inedible or tastes disgusting, he will go and hide. His face will spell it all - “Don’t look at me. I don’t want to eat it.”
Besides his ‘food reviews’, Kiko was also my ‘cake alarm’. Whenever I went to bake a cake, I will tell him, “Kiko, let me know when the cake is done.” Then I will go and have a snooze while turning on the oven alarm according to the recipe instructions. During many occasions, Kiko barked frantically even before the oven alarm rang. When I went to check on the cake I was baking, the cake was just cooked perfectly. If I had left it much longer and followed the recipe instructions, my cake would have been over cooked. Thanks to Kiko, my cake always came out on time!
Kiko’s favourite past time besides eating is sleeping. He sleeps really early at night. But if my sister and I decide to bake right until 3 am in the morning, he will surprisingly be awake until that time!
It was really fun seeing Kiko eat the food that we cooked. When he ate the food I cooked, he ate with a real appreciative and hungry look on his face. This motivated me to cook even more and move up my cooking skills to try and cook new food to satisfy my forever hungry 'brother'.
I am really thankful to Kiko as he has been my greatest food inspirer, besides my family. He has passed away a few years ago at the age of 14. I will always remember him and continue to talk about him to my friends and family members for years to come.
Look at his photo...isn't he so cute? I miss him very much...
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| Kiko looking at mom |
