Keeping up with traditional cooking
With our world changing, it is now really easy to find traditional food readily made commercially. Sometimes, it is even possible to find festive treats all year round in shops. A perfect example is pineapple tarts. It is one of the most tedious tarts to make during Chinese New Year. Yet while I was in Singapore, I saw a cake shop selling it in November!
While it is easy to purchase them, they will never be as good as my mum's or my grandma's. And I can think of so many recipes which I wished I have learned from my grandma when she was still alive. Her braised duck and Ngoh Hiang are two which immediately popped into my head. Fortunately, my mum has mastered them. So the recipe is not lost. And yet I have not taken the initiative to ask my mum to teach me. I continue to turn to the commercially available versions even although the thought sometimes pop into my head. Perhaps no one else in my family in the next 2 generations will know how to cook them.
I guess what I am trying to say is that it is important to learn to cook or bake the same traditional food which our ancestors have been putting on their table to feed their family. It is no doubt more time consuming and requires more effort than just going to the supermarket to buy some. However the satisfaction you get knowing that you are able to continue the tradition is perhaps more rewarding.
While it is easy to purchase them, they will never be as good as my mum's or my grandma's. And I can think of so many recipes which I wished I have learned from my grandma when she was still alive. Her braised duck and Ngoh Hiang are two which immediately popped into my head. Fortunately, my mum has mastered them. So the recipe is not lost. And yet I have not taken the initiative to ask my mum to teach me. I continue to turn to the commercially available versions even although the thought sometimes pop into my head. Perhaps no one else in my family in the next 2 generations will know how to cook them.
I guess what I am trying to say is that it is important to learn to cook or bake the same traditional food which our ancestors have been putting on their table to feed their family. It is no doubt more time consuming and requires more effort than just going to the supermarket to buy some. However the satisfaction you get knowing that you are able to continue the tradition is perhaps more rewarding.
1 comments :
Amen to that! It's interesting, I have the same exact ideas. My sons ask me, "Mom, why are you writing all these recipes?" I say: "Well, maybe I'll have them as a present for my daughters-in-law" :-) My mother-in-law knows how to make some traditional meat specialties such as "toba" or "caltabosi" and I just marvel at her, but I know that I will never be brave enough to cook them myself. For now, I can buy them from the Polish store, but who knows... I actually told her: "These recipes are going to die with you, and it's a pity, I know...." On the other hand, I cannot help but notice the internet to the rescue! You can really find these recipes online. The downside is that you really need to know what you are looking for, not to mention being able to read the language. So I guess, the loss seems more acute for people who are removed from the culture.
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