Quay Po Cooks: colorful life

Showing posts with label colorful life. Show all posts

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Life need not be just black and white

When one feels life is boring, it is possible you have just settled into to much of a routine. Doing the same thing, day in day out can be begin to wear you out, don’t you think? How about doing something new? Don’t be afraid to try new things for they are the spice of life. There are so many new things you can do to make life interesting, so what are they? Let me name a few of mine.

You might want to consider to learn cooking, baking, singing, dancing, writing, painting or learn to play your favorite musical instrument. How about doing some social work, lending a hand to people in need? If you still do not know how to use a computer, get one and learn how to use it. Then, open a facebook account and start connecting with old friends and make new ones. Starting a blog has been interesting and very rewarding for me. I have found much joy in writing down my thoughts. If you would like to keep fit, you could join a gym. It is fulfilling to look in the mirror and see yourself in good shape. When I was going to a gym on a regular basis I also felt more energetic and more healthy. The list of new things that can add colors to our lives are endless. Your life can be more colorful and delicious than all these kueh lapis I brought back from Sibu!

Assam Manis

Horlicks Honey

Aiyoh! this one I forgot to write the name before

I throw away the wrapper.

All the kueh lapis are from this friendly lady in Sibu.

I can imagine the high level of skill she mastered in making those pretty, moist and "to die for" kueh lapis. Each layer are so even in size and surely she got good sense of color matching too. I was fortunate to have the awesome host, Arthur of Still Crazy After These Years, brought me there. Arthur, Thanks again, you are "THE" food icon in Sibu. However, I regretted that I bought one each of three flavors of kueh lapis home only. All three were delectable but I love the "Horlicks Honey" (recommended by Arthur) the most, my Quay Lo preferred the other two. I wished I had bought one dozen of each flavor. The price is so reasonable, none of them is more than RM35.00 and if you know how tedious and time consuming it is to make one kueh lapis you will not complain the price is expensive ever. After seeing all the photos of the kueh lapis, don't you want to try making your own? I do. The other alternative for me, is to go back to Sibu when I finished them. LOL!

I found a kueh lapis recipe and video from Poh’s Kitchen and I am going to try making this as soon as all the kueh lapis from Sibu "habis" (gone). Maybe you can try it first and let me know how it goes. Here is the link:

Kueh Lapis Recipe with Video instruction

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.