Cooking with Hong

This is week two of "Cooking with Hong". Sounds like a good name for a cooking show, no? She has stepped it up a bit, and has gone from beginner lesson to intermediate, in one quick week. I feel like I'm learning Chinese again. It starts off slow, and the accelerates to the speed of light.



We head back to the market, where this time, for the very first time we actually bought meat. Yup, the meat we keep saying that we will pass on, since we don't know where it came from, nor how long it's been sitting on the table. Ah, poor Mark, I hope he has a good stomach. I figure if it's good for Hong and her kids, we should be able to survive, just make sure you get to the market early while the meat still fresh.

After picking up the meat, vegetables, and fruit we were off to cook. Instead of one or two dishes, it turned out to be a marathon of cooking. Yea, she expects me to remember all of this. Good luck.

First we start off with sweet and sour pork, and apparently only a dish for Laowai's since most Chinese and Malaysians actually don't eat this dish. Mark, feel privileged. Again, Hong shows me how to prepare and cook the meat, and then onto the sauce.




Since we have enough meat, we make a nice spicy pork dish, a typical dish for Chinese, and then another dish which will be used for pork chops. We also made soup, for Ben, who was feeling under the weather, and a quick chicken and mushroom dish. This time the chef allowed me to marinate the meat and of course, insisted that I sing to the meat. According to her, it tastes better.

The poor little kitchen couldn't handle all the dishes, the the chef and the little helper bee, so, I did what I do best and stepped aside to let the chef prepare her creations, periodically stepping in to see how the food is prepared. I took notes. Hey, she's the expert!

Spicy Pork with vegetables

Sweet and Sour pork
Ben's Pork Soup

After a couple of hours of cooking, Hong's creations were ready for the food critic.
It came from a 7 year old boy, her son, Ben. The verdict? Yup, Ben loved it!

The food critic, Ben

Later that night, the other 7 year old, Mark, had the opportunity to taste our dishes. Like the first critic, also loved it. I think it had something to do with my singing voice.