Hello, my name is Sherine. Thank you for dropping by.
I started this blog in 2010 to keep myself occupied during my one-year break in Cambridge, Massachusetts while the husband pursued his studies in Harvard Kennedy School. Before that, we lived in Singapore (me for fourteen years and JL five).
We also lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for about two years until late 2013 when JL's work brought us back to America. We were based in New York right in the heart of Manhattan, where I had also gone to culinary school with the husband's support and encouragement.
I started this blog in 2010 to keep myself occupied during my one-year break in Cambridge, Massachusetts while the husband pursued his studies in Harvard Kennedy School. Before that, we lived in Singapore (me for fourteen years and JL five).
We also lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for about two years until late 2013 when JL's work brought us back to America. We were based in New York right in the heart of Manhattan, where I had also gone to culinary school with the husband's support and encouragement.
When it comes to cooking, there were discrete periods of my life when I cooked, namely:
But it was really JL who discovered and developed the cooking habit in me. Probably because he saw me holding his kitchen knife once? The first time I made pasta aglio olio for him, the man nearly died eating it, thanks to my generous "Singaporean-dosage" of ground black pepper. But he survived and never gave up throwing little challenges now and then: for me to cook and him to consume. And he remains my toughest and best critic. He has also been very generous and supportive in my fondness for good cookbooks, cookware and kitchen tools. These are my guilty pleasures as I am not a clothes-shoes-and-bags person. I only think about food and the kitchen all the time.
I cook primarily to keep a balanced diet and not rely on eating out too much. If American food is generally fatty, cheesy and comes in huge portions, Malaysian food is very carbohydrate-intensive and loaded with MSG. For sure, one can find real food that is healthy and satisfying at the same time, but these are few and far in between. I also prefer to know what exactly is in my food. My personal view on eating out is that it should remain a pleasure and at times a luxury. One should not eat out simply because there is nothing to eat at home. Even if one does not know how to cook, it is never too late to start learning. And there is always time - one just has to make time.
I had no idea how to use the electric kettle until the age of 18. So take it from me - everything I know today, I learnt from reading cookbooks, food blogs, food magazines; watching celebrity chefs, my mother-in-law, and even the guy who flips your burger or aunty who fries char kuey teow for a living. I also rely on fond memories of my late grandmother, mother, sister and sister-in-law who put food on their respective family tables. The past ten years had seen the rise (and even demise for some) of food sites and blogs. It is truly impossible for anyone to not know how to cook or where to start learning. There is just SO much readily available for one to learn - basics, techniques, skills, habits, thoughts, styles, tips and tricks - the only thing required of us is to bring ourselves into the kitchen.
Start something. Just any thing. Boil some eggs. Make a sandwich or a salad with them.
Here I hope to share with you what I do in my own kitchen, be it something I learned from books, people, restaurant kitchens or culinary school. We mainly have a good mix of French and Asian home cooking for everyday meals. It is my favourite part of our home. And I hope it will be yours too if not already.
- in my late-teens when I made instant noodles for supper in my parents' house;
- in my early 20s when I lived in one of the halls in NUS, where I was in the Block Committee, which meant preparing "block suppers" for 91 residents at least thrice per semester; and
- in my late 20s when I lived alone.
But it was really JL who discovered and developed the cooking habit in me. Probably because he saw me holding his kitchen knife once? The first time I made pasta aglio olio for him, the man nearly died eating it, thanks to my generous "Singaporean-dosage" of ground black pepper. But he survived and never gave up throwing little challenges now and then: for me to cook and him to consume. And he remains my toughest and best critic. He has also been very generous and supportive in my fondness for good cookbooks, cookware and kitchen tools. These are my guilty pleasures as I am not a clothes-shoes-and-bags person. I only think about food and the kitchen all the time.
I cook primarily to keep a balanced diet and not rely on eating out too much. If American food is generally fatty, cheesy and comes in huge portions, Malaysian food is very carbohydrate-intensive and loaded with MSG. For sure, one can find real food that is healthy and satisfying at the same time, but these are few and far in between. I also prefer to know what exactly is in my food. My personal view on eating out is that it should remain a pleasure and at times a luxury. One should not eat out simply because there is nothing to eat at home. Even if one does not know how to cook, it is never too late to start learning. And there is always time - one just has to make time.
I had no idea how to use the electric kettle until the age of 18. So take it from me - everything I know today, I learnt from reading cookbooks, food blogs, food magazines; watching celebrity chefs, my mother-in-law, and even the guy who flips your burger or aunty who fries char kuey teow for a living. I also rely on fond memories of my late grandmother, mother, sister and sister-in-law who put food on their respective family tables. The past ten years had seen the rise (and even demise for some) of food sites and blogs. It is truly impossible for anyone to not know how to cook or where to start learning. There is just SO much readily available for one to learn - basics, techniques, skills, habits, thoughts, styles, tips and tricks - the only thing required of us is to bring ourselves into the kitchen.
Start something. Just any thing. Boil some eggs. Make a sandwich or a salad with them.
Here I hope to share with you what I do in my own kitchen, be it something I learned from books, people, restaurant kitchens or culinary school. We mainly have a good mix of French and Asian home cooking for everyday meals. It is my favourite part of our home. And I hope it will be yours too if not already.
