My Love Affair with Food

i always associate food with the family. with ppl that i love. bcoz my earliest memory of food is associated with coming home of all my siblings during raya. that's when Mother would wake up at 4am to cook nasi dagang on raya morning. or the time when Abg Mi n Kak Dah would bake semprit or biskut arab. on raya, there would be arrays of cakes n cookies on our chinese roundtable, along with our nasi dagang n gulai ikan tongkol (or known as ikan aya in the east coast or better known as tuna ) n in the centre, is a cake complete with icing, looking too pretty to be eaten.

as i grew up, more family gatherings were held - most of the time they're barbeques. we're a very tolerant lot, so the barbeques were often western styled concoction, complete with beef steaks, frankfurters, lamb chops, mashed potatoes n gravy n salad.

all of my sisters took home ec., except for yours truly. they love to bake, n cookbooks r plentiful at their houses. 2 of my sister-in-laws also love to cook, one of them being a Filipina born in a family who also love to eat.

we do enjoy local fare as well, our absolute favourite being nasi beriyani. in fact, when my siblings talk of the old days, they will talk abt my mother's nasi beriyani recipe (written in jawi) with such reverence n awe. my mother is a purist who believes in cooking almost every dish from scratch. being the youngest n the most who spend time with Mother, i've also become a purist. Aside fr the nasi beriyani, i love nasi minyak, which is eaten as breakfast here in terengganu (yes, we love heavy food here - breakfast menu consists of nasi dagang, nasi lemak, nasi minyak, pulut kuning or laksam).

it is no surprise then, with such passion for food in the family, that i've become passionate abt food as well. cooking, in my opinion, is an art that one should master, n should not be treated only as a means of survival. wat more better way than to make ur loved ones happy by presenting them with ur work of art?