Recipe for family bonding? Home-cooked food

Recipe for family bonding? Home-cooked food

Sales manager Agnes Loh, 45, never fails to cook fried beehoon for her family gatherings.

Her relatives love the dish and she also gets to bond with her daughter and mother, who help with the preparation.

She was one of 53 cooks who took part in a carnival yesterday to promote home-cooked meals.

They presented dishes such as devil's curry, Nonya prawn noodles and steamed yam cake for about 800 members of the public. The event at the Singapore Art Museum was organised by 16 avid cooks, who are friends with one another. They started a movement called #SgEatWithUs and have been organising food events over the past year.

One of them, teacher Lee Li Theng, 36, said: "I love cooking and I see how home-cooked food brings my family together. I want to get others interested in home- cooked meals too."

Another organiser, civil servant Andy Hue, 37, said he and his team spent about three months organising the free event.

Yesterday's cooks volunteered their services after hearing of the event either through word of mouth or on Facebook.

"The volunteers paid for the cost of the ingredients and prepared them in their homes. So these are authentic home-cooked meals," said Mr Hue.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong was at the event, and he also tried some of the dishes.

Madam Merlin Pillay, 61, a teaching assistant, prepared an Indian-Peranakan curry called lauk pindang as she wanted to let more Singaporeans try the dish which is loved by her family.

"When I cook, my children will always say they are coming home," she said.

Madam Loh agreed that home-cooked meals bring families together, saying: "The recipe for this fried beehoon dish was from my late mother-in-law and I am cooking it now with my daughter and my mother."

ameltan@sph.com.sg

 


This article was first published on June 15, 2015.
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