Mari Memasak

That's "Let's Cook" in Malay. Today a friend of mine is coming over to help prepare some yummy dishes for a special occassion tomorrow. In Malaysia I don't ever remember mum having people over to help cook for a special occassion. We always have caterers. Not that we're lazy. No sir! Even back in the kampung (village/hometown) my aunt would cook as she owns a catering business. I do know for a fact though that the traditional way of cooking used to be that a whole bunch of ladies would get together the night before an event to cook for maybe 50 or more people since many families always include that many people. They'd dice, chop, cook and stir in between all the gossiping that only ladies can do.

I'm suprised that I'm comfortable with the idea of cooking with other ladies of the same background for a special function here in this country. The last time we had a barbaque, the ladies were the ones standing around the barbaque grill while the men hung around playing frisbee and volleyball. An American friend actually pointed that out since she's always used to seeing a man standing by his grill and guarding the grill with his life. Funny how we asians still bring our culture and norms across the seas. I suppose it's because we have to depend on ourselves to conjure a dish similar to the ones served by the caterers back in our home country.

Anyway, tonight hopefully will be fun and interesting. We're cooking 3 dishes. Maybe I'll take pictures and put them up here.