Thursday, May 18, 2006

Most Important Ingredient in Cooking!

Can anyone guess what is the most important ingredient in cooking?

Yes, you are absolutely right! The most important ingredient is "L-O-V-E". Without love, you can still whip up a dish, but your food may be just edible lacking that vital "oomph" that satiates the appetite of the person consuming it.

I love all the food that my siblings cook for me. I know they love me very much and whatever they cook will definitely taste great!

I remember the very first time I cooked dinner for my landlord and his family to thank them for taking good care of me for one year when I was a boarder in their lovely home. For one year, I had not bothered to learn to cook as Anne Smith was a good cook and I learnt to appreciate Western food and desserts. Anne's Yorkshire pudding and trifles were excellent and made a Malaysian student studying in Alberta, happy and contented.

I started preparing the food at eight in the morning, and only completed cooking at 6.00p.m. I tried to recall the dishes that mom had cooked, and guessed at the ingredients and cooking method. Dr. Smith and his wife thought the food was good. I guess what saved me was the love in my heart in wanting to make the lovely couple happy. Whatever I lacked in skill, I made up for it with love! That is why the dishes turned out to be quite tasty after all. My legs ached terribly at night, but I was blissful!

It is interesting that in the Korean TV serial, "Jewel in the Palace", love was also mentioned as a vital ingredient in the art of cooking!

Bon Appetit! Buon appetito! Enjoy your cooking and your food, everyone!

Gan Chau :-)

5 comments:

thanh7580 said...

I was going to say the most important ingredient is lots of MSG hehehe :-), but you're probably right, L.O.V.E LOVE (sing it with me Choo) is probably more important. Although I think MSG might come a close second.

afrobev said...

I agree with that one hundred percent! My mother's cooking always tasted that little bit better because of the extra LOVE she put into making it. I am starting to LOVE cooking at the moment and I think it tends to come out when you are eating it. Especially if you are cooking for that someone special.

Take it easy
James (Afrobev)

The Oriental Express said...

Thanh, a good guess. I have never used msg in my cooking. When I cook fried Hokkien mee or steamed yam cake, I make stock from the ikan bilis (anchovies).

Glad to say that now my cooking speed has impoved tremendously since my university days in Canada.
Now I can whip a reasonably good dinner for 8 within one hour!

Mm..mmmm... can imagine your mouth watering. so get a plane ticket and fly over to Singapore. Be my guest. Remember the Imperial Banquet I promised to cook for you for being so helpful to me in my ignorance on computers?

Choo Choo

The Oriental Express said...

Wow! Your lucky girlfried/wife. What is your race, Afrobev?

I am a Straits Settlement Chinese or what they call a nonya in Singapore. Nonyas are reputed to be meticulous cooks. Mom would never allow me to help her at all, for she was afraid I would not be able to cut the vegetables finely.

Hence I had to struggle with cooking in Canada. Made my first pot of coffee with whole coffee beans!! Now I am a chef! This is the beauty of learning! I always say that if Choo can cook, anybody also can.

Glad you like cooking too. Keep it up!

Choo Choo

afrobev said...

I am Welsh. Which you probably know is a seperate little country next to England that has a big bridge in between them (its free to get into England but you have to pay to get into Wales I reckon thats the difference ha ha). I suppose I could call myself British which is easier but my both my parents were Welsh and three of my grandparents were Welsh and one was English. So I like to class myself as a thoroughbred Welshman. Home Cooking is quite big over here and I was brought up on food that had the motherly love that you are talking about. There was always something different about any food my mother or grandmother ever cooked for me and the only cooking that I really, truly enjoy now is my long term girlfriend's cooking. weird isn't it? But I suppose you get used to a certain style or something.