Being Mom

I love food! Who doesn't, right? But I don't just love food. Anything related to food would always catch my attention. From street food to hotel food, from food menus to food art and craft. As such, I am sure you could guess my favourite department to shop at the mall. The grocery section! My son inherited my love for food and he is more open to try new food and he really enjoys his food. On the other hand, my daughter is a picky eater. She is very particular with tastes and textures that sometimes left me wonder what went wrong during the cooking process that she wouldn't even eat the food that she would usually eat. Like scrambled eggs for instance. If the quality of the egg is not so good or perhaps too much soy sauce or perhaps the heat wasn't high enough when I pour the eggs in so it changes the output. Anyway, instead of being annoyed with it, I learnt to take it as a challenge for me to improve my cooking which also includes being consistent at all times. Phe...

This morning while exercising at the park, I overhead a conversation among a few ladies. One of them mentioned that eating some sweet food in the morning is good. Another lady agreed and added that it will make a person look prettier. This conversation caught my attention and got me thinking how sweet food can help someone look prettier. Is it really true? I don't know. But I do know that if I go on a healthy diet, and exercise regularly, I will surely become fit and healthy and that will certainly make me look prettier. Do you follow a certain diet or do you eat at your heart's content? I do the latter most of them time. I just cannot resist food, especially savoury ones. Once upon a time (more than a decade ago), I heard of a diet where every once a month, you eat only apples for three consecutive days. Then about a  year or two ago, I heard of another diet where you fast for three consecutive days, also once every month. I was introduced to yet another kind o...

Birthdays. Do you love celebrating birthdays? Do you have a birthday tradition in your family? Or are you among those who try to avoid a celebration? We don't do birthday celebrations. Not until the kids arrived. Aside from the celebrations in their kindergarten, we only had simple celebrations at home with a cake. No present. I like it simple because I think simple is sweet. And more personal. I would love to create a birthday tradition for my family but have not thought of one. As of now, I would stick with a birthday cake, a birthday song and a few pictures. If you have a special birthday tradition, please share with us!

One evening over dinner... Son: Mummy, what was it? The language that you use to talk to grandma on the phone?  Me: That's Hokkien. It's a kind of dialect spoken by those of the Min ancestry called the Hokkiens.  Son: What? Hokkien Mee? (He started laughing)  Me: Not Hokkien Mee. It's people of the Min ancestry.  And since my son related my ancestry to food, I continued my answer by saying... Me: You know, if you say I am Hokkien Mee, then your dad is Hainanese Chicken Rice.  Son: Hainanese Chicken Rice? That's so funny! So, this led to some ancestry and heritage talk with my kids. If you are a Malaysian, I am sure you know what Hainanese Chicken Rice and Hokkien Mee are.  When we talk about the Hainanese Chicken Rice it is poached chicken served with seasoned rice. It is a complete meal by itself, served with a special chilli sauce, ginger sauce, fresh slices of cucumber, coriander and a bowl of soup. It is sometimes served ...

A few years ago my son was into growing plants and asked if he could grow some flowers. We did not have any flower seeds at home and I suggested that he plant some mongo seeds instead. The other reason I told him to grow mongo seeds is that they grow very fast and kids are not very patient at waiting for results.  So everyday, as we leave the house for school (he was attending kindergarten then) he would look at the plants and say, "Mommy! They are growing!" A few days after we planted the mongo seeds, I suggested that we plant some garlic. This time, unlike the mongo seeds that showed some growth immediately on the following day, the garlics showed none.  Two days after we planted the garlics, we went on a short vacation and when we returned, he saw some changes to the garlic plant and shouted, "Mommy, look! The garlics are growing!" Two weeks after that, we found time to do some detailed observations on the plants. We compared the roots and ...

I couldn't even recall when I cooked this plate of rice. It was a little less than a fortnight ago, few days before Chinese New Year (CNY) but I just couldn't remember if it was on Jan 31 or Feb 1. Hmmm. Was it forgetfulness or negligence? Yes, we were all busy preparing for CNY, buying cookies, new clothes, packing up, making sure we have enough new notes for the "angpow" or red packets, and we still wanted to do CNY scrapbooks (with the children), etc... With so many things to do, was it forgivable? That I left a plate of steamed rice in the wok? I only found the plate of rice in the wok when I was about to prepare lunch, on Feb 10. The rice has been there for about 10 days! 😱😱😱 Fortunately it was in the wok. It was not difficult to clean up. I would be so frustrated if it was in the rice cooker. I hate washing the rice cooker. That's why I have kept it away in the storeroom for years. Fortunately , it was just a plate of rice left there an...