Quite the Cooker I am!

Now a lot of factors drove me to cooking. There was mum who constantly pestered me to learn to cook so that I can be self sufficient. There were horrified friends who became horrified when they learnt I cannot make an omelet. There was S who told me to check out her blog for pics of what she's made post baking classes....(fancy twisty dinner rolls, chocolate chip cookies, cakes, the works...). And then there was this terrible urge for honey chilli potatoes one evening when I got home for work.

You see, I love honey chilli potatoes. I cannot get enough of them. Right from the ones at Red Hot Cafe which are all honey, no chilli to Golden Dragon which are so hard you have to sacrifice a tooth every time you bite them......but if I'm having Chinese I have to start it off with honey chilli potatoes! I've caused enough embarrassment to some friends when we're out "fine dining" and everyone is ordering prawn ala la-di-da and crispy spinach ta-lu-ta-da and I promptly ask for my honey chilli potatoes total aka saki ishtyle!

Having given you that valuable insight about me, here I was craving for the potatoes and was too lazy to get out or order in. So I take the recipe from my sister and get working in the kitchen.

The first thing I learnt was that potatoes are just dug out from the farms and sold to innocent consumers without washing or processing them first! I had no idea there was so much mud around each potato. It's like they've all battled a sandstorm before making their way to Mum's vegetable basket!

The second thing I learnt was how disgusting the term potato "eye" is! I mean call it potato holes, potato depression but why call it the eye? It feels quite disgusting just saying it- I'm scooping out the potato eyes! Grosssssssssss!

The third thing I learnt is that a lot of plates, saucers, pans, cups are needed to get any cooking done. There was a pile of dishes crying for attention and the maid was away too....sigh.....

The fourth thing I learnt was that honey chilli potatoes needs chilli which is something I remembered just before I was going to scoop the dish out in serving bowls. The result were slightly overcooked/burnt potatoes.

The fifth and the final thing I learnt was never trust an expert's time estimate when you're setting out to do this yourself. My sister said it would be ready in half an hour. I took 45 mins just to peel the goddamn potatoes, 20 mins to cut the other ingredients, 30 mins to fry the potatoes and 30 mins to get the salt-honey-chilli combination right!!!!

But post that, I'm all set for a career in the food business! I'm going to start my own honey chilli potatoes and tea joint since those are the only things I can make. I would've liked to add roti to that list but the one time I did make them, they were so elastic my jaw started to hurt and I slept off hungry (and that's saying a lot!)

Make way for the new chef on the block! Or as someone recently put it....make way for the new cooker on the block!