Dinner's Ready!

I love eating. I love food. But do I love cooking? Not in a million years, baby.

When I was in primary school, the most cliché and common question prompted by the teachers is what would you do if you have a million dollar? And my answer would be to have a bakery, mainly for my mom who is a great cook and baker. She’s so talented in cooking; everything she cooks turns out so mouth-watering and gastronomic. Mom would take orders for events if she has some free time. And she would be very busy nearing Eid. People would request for her famous “Kek Lapis Sarawak” non-stop, since hers are cheapest and yet the best one would find made by a non-Sarawakian.

So would I buy her a bakery? I told her about my buying-her-bakery idea, and she responded, “Kau pergi belajar masak dulu baru berangan nak buat bakery.” That mean. I can’t cook, literally. I never care that I’m the eldest and my other siblings can cook. They’re just 15 and 12. Shameful. I’m 18 and I only know how to fry an egg. And still sometimes I fail to do so.

Staying in hostel where food isn’t provided is hard. So sometimes my housemates would cook to cut off budget. I will join too. To eat. I’m no bluffing, man. They even got a nickname for me; The Kitchen Scream Girl. Cuz when I have to join them in the kitchen, I’ll scream. I can’t stand the hot boiling oil in the pan. Oh my that just freaked me out. And I’m outta there as fast as I could.

And lucky me, I’m still in Malaysia. What would happen when I’m in Australia? Who’ll cook for me? And I guarantee there’d be not as many halal eateries as we got here. Abah told me to learn how to cook before I go to Australia. Well, I’m 18 after all. Sooner or later, I have to go through this life by myself.

And talking about life, I will not live alone. There would be a husband later. And aftera a husband, there would be a kid. Or kids. How I’m gonna feed them if I can’t cook? So, we reach to a conclusion: I need to learn to cook. But I don’t want to! Well, for the time being. I can help my mom in the kitchen, but to cook by myself, nahhh. So that’s my dream: I want to cook by myself.

In order to get that realized, I went back home that is located miles away from where I’m studying (Shah Alam-Batu Pahat takes 4 hours to reach). Sacrifices that I made, even though I’m having a test a day after the trip. Alhamdulillah, I made it! Chicken chop, come to mama!

Will give you the recipe in the next post!

XOXO,

Zaty.