My First Self-Prepared Meal

Cooking has never been my forte. It's just weird for me to prepare my own dish. I mean, you're eating something you've had your own hands on! It must feel so weird. I'm aware that I sound like a pampered mama's boy. Back at home, the one sole reason for me to step foot into the kitchen is to get to the toilet behind (no other way around).

So today 27th September 2006, I am going to cook my first ever meal, Red Bean Soup, a timeless chinese dessert. Of course I consulted our house chef, Adrian, for some tips on preparing my first delicacy:

Adrian: You? Cook?! "Oh look I'm Ben, I'm cooking". HAHA! "I'm Ben and I'm holding a spatula"

He wasn't too helpful. All he did was gave me a pack of red beans, a cup of sagu and some crystallized sugar then told me to "wing it". By that of course he meant throwing everything into the pot and see what sticks. Hell no I'm getting poisoned by my first self-prepared meal.

So I did what any bewildered men would do in this situation, I took a deep breath, sat myself down on a chair and pray that "Red Bean Soup Recipe" would return me some decent results on Google. There were many recipes online but unfortunately I couldn't understand half of what they're saying. What's a brown sugar? I thought sugars are all transparent?!

After freaking out over the difference between a bean and a legume, I reluctantly turned to home for help:

(On the phone)
Ben: Mom, I need help on cooking red bean soup.
Mom: Why?
Ben: I'm cooking.
Mom: Why are you cooking?! Is the whole town closed for Puasa?! I'm coming over to cook for you!
Ben: No mom, you're not going to take a 4 hour trip down here just so you can cook for me. I want to learn.
Mom: Why? So you can choose NOT to eat my food anytime you want?!
Ben: [So that's why she never lets me in the kitchen] No, I just think it would help me a lot in my future.
Mom: In the future, you get a chinese girlfriend and she will cook Shark's Fin Soup and Abalone for you!
Ben: But what if my girlfriend isn't chinese?
Mom: ... then Raitas and Chutneys it is.

If only. Actually, my mom helped a lot and because of it, I managed to prepare the entire dish from scratch in about an hour. It was delicious! Not a bad start for a kitchen newbie.