Comfort food

I had a most relaxing weekend, so much so that I even found myself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling in the afternoon. Life gets a little better when the kids are having school holidays. No school uniform to wash and there seems to be alot less to do around the house.

I did lots of cooking though. YK's friend stayed over, so I have three boys and a dog to feed. On Sunday, I made a big pot of curry chicken for breakfast and mee goreng (spicy fried noodles) for lunch.

After an afternoon downpour, we decided to stay home for dinner instead of driving all the way to my parent's place. I cooked dumpling and spinach soup, braised bean sticks and shitake mushroom. We ate all that with rice, lots of curry chicken and a cucumber/tomato salsa.

I like cooking for the family and seeing them slurp up every drop of soup makes me happy. Somehow, alot of my own childhood memories revolve around the food that mum used to cook. Even though mum's not a very enthusiastic cook, we still reminisce about her delicious ngoh hiang (meat rolls) and tee kar (pork knuckles in dark sauce).

When I think of my grandma, the first thing that comes to my mind are memories of her making rice dumplings and huat kuey (steamed sponge cake) during festivals. Those were the happy childhood days.

It's no wonder when people talk about their childhood, they remember comforting food smells filling the home, like cinnamon apple pie, chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream or curry chicken. And they think of how much they love their mummy.

I want my kids to have childhood memories of their mum cooking delicious food for them too.