Heritage Wok

As I have gradually honed my cooking skills and sharpened my knives over the years, I confess that I have turned into quite a kitchen monster as well. My mother, who used to cook, has hung up her apron and passed the cooking baton to me because she has decided that firstly there can never really be two cooks in the kitchen and secondly she was never going to tame the kitchen monster in me. So now she is content to help rather than instruct. However, sometimes experience and wisdom is something that comes with age, something that I as a young and brash 20 something might not have for a while.



Yesterday, for one night only, my mother and I (the kitchen monster took a night off) met over a frying wok of Chap Chai. The problem with learning how to cook from the generation is that more often than not they provide you with an ingredient list rather than directions. My called my aunt for her recipe, where she provided me with an ingredient list, with no quantities, leaving me to "eyeball" quantities and to go by instinct, so needless to say, I did what I used to do as a kid, I said, "help mommy help!" My chap chai cooking experience is zero, and my mothers is years numbering more than my fingers and so I was content to have her look over my shoulder all evening as I followed my aunt's ingredient list, my own instinct and my mother's advice. After last night, I'm inspired to tame the monster in me and to take a few more pages from the experienced.