Dear Dotter
Last week, after hearing your upcoming home econ’s cooking exam (today), as your mother, I felt very obliged to help. PoPo will not tolerate otherwise because, for my own cooking exam back then, your grandma prepared all the ingredients down to the seasoning mix for me in little packets. I stapled all the packs of love under my pinafore and sneaked them into the exam kitchen and poured them right into the frying pan. A star star star.
Popo knew her daughter was not gonna make it in cooking back then. But in your case, your mother is by no means insinuating your lack of competency. I am merely uphold the grand tradition of Motherly Love to help Aces your Home Econs.
Alas, you said the food brief was “Cook a dish that a local Singaporean family will cook and eat during the Japanese Occupation”. What kind of a brief is that? So they want this to taste good or bad? I was stunned.
You were considering chicken soup, and your classmates discussed the need to use less oil since cooking oil must be expensive during war times. (yah right, gas is scarce too, I think you need to cook with coal)
THIS is getting bigger and more tricky than I tot!!! Gonna cover all base! Gonna nail it for my gal, Mummy is here!!!!
As usual, I harnessed my problem-solving skills, aka outsource the problem. “Help my daughter aces her cooking exam” became the hot new topic across many chat groups.
Just ask the grandparents, Daddy said.
Which I did.
PoPo said:
“The occupation ended in 1945, I was not born yet.”
“... and chicken soup is luxury tonic. You cannot get full on soup alone; the objective must be to fill empty stomachs”
Good point. What exactly is the objective of this exam?
Wei said:
“it’s obviously a test on war zone society and survival diet. Nutrition in an occupied zone!”
“Grading criteria should be nutritional value, budgeting, taste, historical accuracy, a good oral presentation of the food…”
Bun said:
Ah gong and Min both said:
“Sweet potato porridge”
But Lim highlighted:
“Sweet potato hard to chop. Can buy cut ones? Every time I cut I so scared”
Finally, PoPo came up with a solid dish idea – yellow noodle fried egg soup. Noodles being a common staple back then, easy to cook and fills the stomach. And eggs are a good source of proteins. Immediate buy in. Suddenly there was a 30g protein requirement (why is information coming in dribs and drabs?) Each egg only provides 6g of protein, so mincemeat was added to the ingredient list. So much for war time cuisine.
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Looks like you are A++ in the making.
Day of the exam. 6am.
“Mum, we cannot use mincemeat. Must be Halal!”
How was the exam, my love?
“oh I changed the dish to shredded chicken egg drop noodle soup…. And the examiner is vegetarian so cannot taste my dish.”
What the…..
