Labour of love

Link
http://www.stomp.com.sg/stfoodiesclub/foodieconfidential/Food%20reminds%20us%20of%20Mom/index.html

Lifestyle - Taste

Labour of love

June Cheong

4 March 2007

Straits Times

After devoted Peranakan cook Irene Yeo died of breast cancer, her two daughters, Elaine and Karen, fulfilled her wish to publish a cookbook of her recipes

TALKING about food can make sisters Elaine and Karen Yeo cry, because it reminds them of their late mother.

Irene Yeo, a passionate Peranakan cook, died of breast cancer in 2004 while working on a cookbook. She was 66.

Karen, 42, who plays the double bass in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO), says: 'She was editing the recipes from her hospital bed. She'd wake up early every morning to do it. When she couldn't walk, she'd still try to teach me how to bake a good chocolate cake.'

After Irene's death, Karen and her only sibling Elaine, 38, who plays the oboe in the SSO, decided to finish the cookbook.

Irene's Peranakan Recipes was launched in January and has nearly sold out its first print-run of 2,000 copies. It reproduces 104 of Irene's recipes.

The girls say their mother learnt to cook only after she got married in 1963. Her husband, Yeo Cheng Kim, 69, is a retired civil servant.

The book has its roots 20 years ago when Irene, then working as a personal assistant, decided to compile some of her recipes for her daughters who were going to Britain to study.

When she retired at 55, she started cooking classes and refined her recipes.

Karen, who is married with three children, says: 'Cooking was my mother's love.'

Adds Elaine, who is single: 'This book was my mother's dream and we did it to remember her by.'

Have either of you inherited your mother's flair for cooking?

Elaine: No, cooking's stressful to me.

Karen: When I studied overseas, I experimented more and I became interested in making Western food like bread. But I think we took learning how to cook like my Mum for granted when we were younger as she was always there. After she died, I started doing more cakes and kueh like onde-onde (glutinous rice balls) and kueh sarlat (glutinous rice cake topped with kaya).

How did your mother juggle a full-time job, a family and cooking a full Peranakan meal every day?

Elaine: We usually ate Peranakan on weekends as she had no time during the week. But on special occasions, she could spend up to two days cooking. She would go to the market on Sunday mornings to buy spices like chilli and pepper for preparing the rempah. (Rempah is paste made from a mix of spices which have been pounded by pestle and mortar.) She'd use that rempah for cooking for the rest of the week and I remember I often had to peel garlic for her.

Which of your mother's dishes was your favourite?

Elaine: Mee siam, beef rendang, ayam rendang and ayam siyow (spicy chicken in thick tamarind sauce).

Karen: My colleagues, classmates and friends from church used to say that our Mum should franchise her mee siam recipe. Whenever people had a party, they'd ask my Mum to cook it.

Do you have a food philosophy?

Karen: I don't live to eat but I do more than eat to live. I enjoy food but I don't drive around Singapore to taste food. My husband is a real foodie, though. He likes hunting around for new dishes to try.

Elaine: I eat anything as long as it's clean. I'm not fussy about food.

What food makes you happy when you eat it?

Karen: Mee siam. It reminds me of Mum. When you eat food that reminds you of childhood or your mother's cooking, it naturally makes you happy.

Elaine: A nice Peranakan meal. I still remember how, 10 years ago, we had a really good meal where everyone in the extended family brought one Peranakan dish. Home-cooked Peranakan food is the best. The kind you get outside is never as rich and is usually watered down.

What is your favourite restaurant?

Elaine: For Indonesian food, I like Tambuah Mas at Tanglin Shopping Centre. The food is good and it's reasonably priced. For Italian, I like Da Paolo Il Giardino at Cluny Court. Usually in restaurants, I'd choose to eat outdoors if it's possible.

Karen: Ly Cafeteria in Hoi An, Vietnam. Its cao lau (Vietnamese pork soup noodles which is unique to Hoi An) is famous and its BBQ pork is excellent. I went there last June and I've always wanted to go back.

Is cooking therapeutic for you?

Elaine: No, it's tiring. My Mum used to make me stand in the kitchen the whole afternoon to make cinnamon rolls. My passion is sailing and diving. I've always been an outdoors person. As a kid, I liked to climb into drains and ride bicycles. I even preferred helping my Dad wash his car to staying at home.

Karen: I like to make pizzas and if I have time, I'll bake cakes or make kueh. Elaine says I'm like our Mum and that I strive for stress.

Was your father shut out of the kitchen?

Elaine and Karen: Our Dad got really scared when our Mum got into a cooking frenzy. He's a stickler for cleanliness. She'd cook and not care about the mess and go shower immediately after. He'd then wash everything up and even use sandpaper to clean the kwali (wok).

Having such good food at home every day, is there any street food that you like?

Elaine: Char kway teow and roti prata. I can never say no to them.

Karen: Sago. I can eat bowls of it.

junec@sph.com.sg

WHAT WOULD YOUR LAST MEAL BE?

Karen: My Mum's mee siam. It's one of a kind. It's something you can't get anywhere else and it brings back memories for me.

Elaine: Ayam rendang (chicken prepared in a spicy coconut gravy) with plain rice. I'm a rice person. I'll miss rice if I don't eat it for a few days.