WONG LOKE KENG
RETIRED PRINCIPAL, MARRIED WITH THREE CHILDREN
“On the 30th day of MCO, we ran out of ideas what to cook for our meals. We’d revisited past recipes, repeated some and rejected others. We actually improved on the quality of our cooking since MCO started.
After dinner one day prior to this, my grown-up children looked at me hoping that I’d have some ideas to share. So I thought of recreating what I cooked in 1977 — 43 years ago!
In 1977, I’d just completed my post-graduate school programme in Cornell University and had thankfully passed the required examinations. It was customary for me back then to invite my supervisors for dinner. I thought a home setting would be more casual and definitely less costly.
My friend Sunny kindly loaned me the use of his apartment. The dinner was good and the company great. The main dish was Hainanese chicken rice, cooked by me which I’d learned from my dear mother.
We decided that lunch on March 16 would be chicken rice with a side dish of cucumber and tomato salad plus chicken soup made from stock cooking the chicken.
My daughter managed to buy a kampung chicken or one reared free-ranch as opposed to in cage.
Hainanese people traditionally cook chicken rice with chicken reared free-ranch style. Chickens are reared till they’re about four to six months old or just before they start laying eggs.
Chickens reared to this age are more succulent and tastier. It’s not easy to obtain such
kampung chicken so we were fortunate.
Cooking chicken rice isn’t difficult but the skill level determines the quality of the outcome. You can imagine the trepidation of whipping up this meal to an acceptable standard.
After all, the last time I did this was 43 years ago! Will it stand the test? As they say, the test of the pudding is in the eating.
To ensure that the lunch would be memorable, we also made a chili sauce made of bird's eye chili (cili padi), red chili, garlic and ginger and topped up with lime juice and chicken stock.
The verdict? I don't know if my children were being very kind or not trying to be too critical for fear of missing out on future meals, but they pronounced the meal a success.
Well, I was glad that I still had it even after 43 years in hibernation!”