Beginner’s Choice: Discovering Gastronomy

This week has been a busy week with the launch of Homskil’s Homemaking 101 programme.

Val’s Amazing Lunch Box

Fortunately, friends have sent photos of their cooking for the blog. Val (of Val’s Amazing Lunchboxes) sent a photo of her most recent lunchbox of crab cakes, gambas ajillo (Spanish garlic shrimps) and roasted potatoes. She has recovered energy to revive her amazing lunchbox cooking, even though the workload for nurses has not eased. Well done Val!

Rina’s discoveries

I was surprised to receive photos of food from Rina in Vietnam. Rina used to ask: “Why is there a need to eat cooked food when you can take supplements or food in a liquified form?” For her, it was the most efficient way to get the nourishment and not waste time and effort on cooking and washing up. She has been converted; she not only enjoys food now, she even cooks! I noticed that she was changing when she started to ask for recipes. The lockdown has done wonders to promote home-cooking.

Gen’s baked sushi

Gen announced yesterday that she was teaching Club 56 (for primary 5 and Primary 6 girls) to make baked sushi via Zoom. She was kind enough to save some for me to try. It is an interesting new way to eat sushi. The baked sushi is served on a nori sheet.

Cheng Teng

I made another attempt at making Cheng Teng (Chinese clear soup dessert). This time, I succeeded in making it look like a soup. I realise now that white fungus absorbs liquid, so that the ingredients become mushy and gooey if left overnight. I had to add more water and sugar to make it a soup again. The bitter almond, found in Chinese medicine shops, give the dessert a unique flavour and crunchy texture.

Elena’s Food Art Designs

Now that Rina has discovered the joy of good food, we would like to introduce her to the beauty of good food. There is an art to presenting food to make it tasty to the eyes as well as the palate.