Oct 14, 2008

When You Have Your Own Personal Kitchen Slave

Scribbled by Perky |

Do you know what's better than a guy who can cook? A guy who cooks extremely well.

Do you know what's better than a guy who cooks extremely well? A guy who does grocerry shopping.

Do you know what's better than a guy who does grocerry shopping? A guy who does grocerry shopping without having to wake you up on a perfect Sunday morning and let's you sleep in.

That's my McChef for you. I wake up and already I see him slavering away in the kitchen. "Hmm... perhaps I should've slept in longer. If not, I could've waken up to a prepared meal instead of having to wait for him to be done with the cooking".



Alright, alright. I ain't that mean. I do help out in the kitchen... to the best of my capabilities of course (which isn't much to begin with, btw).

So that Sunday morning's feast was the infamous Sarawak Laksa. We Sarawakians live to eat this food. It's our most famous dish, afterall.



My mom bought this Sarawak Laksa paste from the famous laksa shop in Bormill. I rate his laksa second to the laksa stall near Grand Continental Hotel in Ban Hock Road (next to the Indian temple if I'm not mistaken). I make it a point to visit either one of them whenever I'm back in Kuching.

The secret to making a good laksa soup lies within the chicken stock. Most hawkers resort to using chicken stock cubes as it's faster. But if you want to give your Sarawak laksa a little bit of oomph, then you should make your own chicken stock.

Now, don't ask me how it's done. All I see is McChef boiling the chicken and putting all sorts of things in it. But I know this process takes quite a while (up to 2 hours).


Making your own chicken stock



Somewhere during this point of time, I started harassing McChef to give me something to do. Don't mistaken this behavior as me being helpful. I'm just being the busybody that I am. Plus, it's also one way for me to make sure he doesn't mess up my kitchen too much.

So he gave me my first task, which is to soak the bihun (vermicelli noodle) into a basin of water.



I couldn't find a basin and this was the biggest plastic bowl that I have...




This was a no-brainer task for me. I was so excited to help out that I kept going on,"So what's next? What's next?"

So he gave me my second task: Peel off the prawn shell.

Easy-peasy right? Hmmph, that's when he started to pull his Kitchen Diva attitude on me. "Take off the head and peel the shell off like this...", "Then put the prawn into this bowl...", "Oiks! Don't throw away the shell. I need that...", "Put the shell and the head here...", "rinse the prawns so they're not so slimy..."


Aiyaiyai yai yai... so many instructions!


The thing about helping a chef out in the kitchen is that you need to keep up with his tempo. Obviously I wasn't working fast enough for him, so he shooed me out of the kitchen. My kitchen btw.

So I decided to make myself useful around the house. I gave my two cats a bath instead.

Then when I was done with that chore, I went to the kitchen and saw this on my kitchen stove:


The prawn shell and head is being cooked together with the laksa paste. He would then add water and some more thingy into this to make the laksa soup.


By then I had already lost interest in helping out in the kitchen, so it was my turn to take a shower instead.

And by the time I was all cleaned up, the food was already prepared.


Now that's an almost perfect Sunday morning to me.


What? Did you think I was going to write out the complete recipe here? ;)

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12 Your say:

Ron Jerem Lee said...

i still believe..... "kakak! masak maggie mee pls!!"

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you're talking about my Bill except for the different types of food prepared :). He is the shopper and cook and I'm perfectly happy with the arrangement.

KA said...

OH MY GOSH! That looks DELISH!

I want a guy that can be naked and cooking for me- he has to look good naked too. OMG, that would be so perfect, no?

Legolas said...

I still prefer kolok mee to laksa. I must must must have kolok mee.

Ratu Syura said...

i miss sarawak laksaaa!! that looks super duper yummy! you lucky girl! i wish i had a guy that could cook for me too. instead, i do the cooking. *sigh* well, i could have him cook if i want my food to taste burnt.

Nick Phillips (15/03/1967 - 04/11/2022) said...

Geez, I'm envious. All I can cook is urmmm, ahhh, uhhh .... Does boiling water count as cooking ah? LOL!

Anonymous said...

wow!! looks delicious... yummy!!

Perky said...

Ron Jerem Lee:
Lol! I remember that ad!

Jude:
Hehehe... looks like the 2 of us are very lucky to have them in our lives huh? :)

ToughGirl101:
Lol! But he has to wear an apron though, don't cha think? Don't want any of his body parts catching fire when he stands over the kitchen stove, now do we? ;)

Legolas:
We're having kolok mee this Sunday! :)

Ratu Syura:
My sis gave him a 7 out of 10. He lost out for not having the sambal belacan hehehe...

Nick Phillips:
Hey boiling water also takes a lot of skill u know... ;)

Boku-wa-kuma:
Of coz darling! ;)

Anonymous said...

*GASP* got S'wak Laksa meal never ajak!!! Just looking at the picture makes me hungry even though I had a huge lunch. Next time.....please save some for me...I'll wash my own bowl ;)

Perky said...

Catty:
Sorry la girl. This 1 was 1st try mah... if tak jadi kan I yang malu (coz got hubby yang tak reti masak kan ;) )

Dun worry, next time we make s'wak laksa we invite the gang k :)

Anonymous said...

is that the trick to get laksa to taste really2 good? prawn shell and head cooked together in the broth?

Perky said...

Fede:
I suppose so. After a while, you're suppose to scoop those out & let the soup cook sumore.

Also, if you make your own chicken stock, the soup doesn't taste "flat". I could always tell when the hawker uses chicken stock cubes.