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Cooking – the more you do it, the better you become

If there is one thing we at Twentytwo13 miss most since returning to office is cooking for ourselves.

Even our editor Haresh Deol, who used to burn water when trying to boil eggs, learnt to cook during the Movement Control Order (MCO). Much to the surprise of his family.

They checked but hell hadn’t frozen over.

Since then, although there were days when we ‘tapau-ed’ food to heat up, we hadn’t planned on cooking in the office.

However, recently we got a new blender, managing editor Pearl Lee cleaned out the toaster and I brought a small pot to the office.

Next week, Pearl plans to bring a bigger pot as the one I have is suitable for just one person.

Why this sudden urge to cook again?

My home minster who visited the office for the first time two weeks ago, remarked she was jealous that we have a supermarket downstairs where the produce was not only fresh but also reasonably priced.

“If I was working here, I’d cook every day. Not only would it be cheaper but more importantly, it would be healthy,” she declared.

I just nodded as healthy food and I are not on friendly terms.

In the time between her visit and yesterday, another mini market opened downstairs.

I went gaga over the frozen products it offers as well as the assortment of cheese which were reasonably priced.

I vowed then to give cooking in the office a try this week – hence the small pot I brought.

Yesterday we had a ‘tipu-tipu‘ cooking party.

I made soup with prawns, sweet corn, watermelon rind, tofu and then added some noodles to make it a hearty meal.

No MSG. I didn’t even use salt and pepper but it tasted great.

Haresh, Pearl and creative editor Amar Qastellani Tajuddin made sandwiches and mashed potatoes complete with brown sauce.

Why it needed three of them for a one-person job is still a mystery.

Since we didn’t burn down the office, there may be plans to cook steaks and chicken soon.

With Covid-19 showing no signs of going away, perhaps rediscovering our cooking skills is not such a bad idea.

All it needed was someone from outside our circle, in this case my home minister to make us realise what a good place we work at.

Oh by the way, the Taman Tun Dr Ismail market is within walking distance so…

I’ll leave you with an old saying… When it comes to cooking, the more you do it the better you become.

Anyway, today is the 172nd day of MCO, and this is the 12th weekly version of ‘The MCO Diaries’.

NOT OUT OF THE WOODS BY A LONG SHOT

Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah warned Malaysia must remain vigilant against Covid-19 as the infectivity rate or R-naught (R0) of Covid-19 increased from 0.74 on Aug 26, to 1.0 on Sept 1.

As of yesterday, there are 9,385 cases, up 79 from a week ago. Sadly, after four weeks of no deaths, there were three in the past seven days, raising that tally to 128.

Worldwide, the number of cases is closing in on 27 million with nearly 880,000 deaths.

The United States is the worst infected, with over six million cases.

This prompted people to share this on WhatsApp.

WATER PROBLEM

A friend, Andrew Jason, posted this on his Facebook page:

“Three things that are certain in life:

Death

Taxes

Yearly water disruptions in Klang Valley

SYABAS!”

SUNWAY GROUP TO FEED B40 FAMILIES

To raise awareness on food security, Sunway Group has started its #SunwayforGood Food Bank programme, the largest food bank drive by a conglomerate in Malaysia.

The programme aims to bring together Malaysians in the spirit of helping families in the bottom 40 per cent (B40) income group threatened by hunger due to Covid-19.

It has pledged to collect 40,000kg of food by Dec 31 to feed 25,000 people in B40 families.

The families were identified by non-governmental organisations – the Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas Malaysia, the Food Aid Foundation and The Lost Food Project.

The food will be delivered on a monthly basis.

MALAYSIA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP GETS START DATE

With the changes forced upon the national racing calendar by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 season of the MSBK, initially scheduled to run over four rounds, has now been shortened to two.

However, the number of days per round has been increased, meaning the participants can expect to compete in possibly up to six races over the two scheduled rounds – Sept 25-27 and Oct 16-18.

TRAFFIC IS GETTING WORSE

As much as I hate driving, I did enjoy going to work in June until recently as traffic wasn’t too bad.

However, in the past month, I noticed it’s slowly getting back to pre-Covid-19 conditions.

I guess good times can’t last forever.

A CUP OF COFFEE, A SANDWICH AND YOU

Here’s a classic for the weekend.