Ayu and her soup ahaha..

I'm not the type who actually spends my days cooking. In fact, I usually only cook during Ramadhan or when I'm bored with bought food or when I'm at home and feel like, what the Malays say as, bagi dapoq berasap hehe..

I'm not saying that I'm a good cook too.. just so and so. Enough for me to survive. Though I do love trying out new recipes that catch my attention. However, there is one dish that I really suck at making.. and you may be suprise when I say that I suck at making soup!

Yup.. the simple clear soup.. and I dunno how to make it. Laugh at me if you want to, but thats the truth.

However, a few weeks prior Ramadhan, I had made up my mind to at least be able to make edible soup, thus started my journey toward the enlightenment in soup-making ahaha..

And I found out, just as everyone says, its not really that hard. I'm beginning to wonder why I was never confident enough in soup making before. Not that I find out my soup is outta this world, far from it! But at least it tastes like everyone else soup.. but made by my own two hands.. yeay!!!

The reason I was happy for this was because I love chicken soup with lots and lots of mushrooms and the pasar malam is usually bursting with these fresh ingredients so now I don't have to go to Bagan Samak for a dose of soup (except when I want delicious soup la.. as opposed to my biase² soup). The second reason is, as a potato lover, I've always loved potatoes when cooked in soup or spicy curries.. yummy! At home, when I make the chicken curry for the family, I put an abundance of potatoes in it.. and I won't need rice. Just a plate of steaming chicken curry heaped with potatoes and maybe a slice or two of bread.. Ooohh! Even my tummy is grumbling at the thought of it..

Anyway, last Friday, I was suddenly craving for some chicken and mushroom soup (besides the fact that I wanted to improve my soup making skills hahah..) so at noon, I went home and sauteed the shallots and garlic then proceeded to make soup kosong first with only potatoes (well, potatoes DO take long to soften, don't they!) I hadn't bought any chicken or mushroom yet as I didn't have a fridge at home but since my class ended at 6.30, I expected to be able to pop to the pasar malam for some chicken (there's this stall that sells cut up chicken where you can choose whichever part you want.. and they've cleaned the chicken too!) and mushrooms then head home and leave them to boil in my soup kosong while I take my shower or something.

However, I was disappointed to find the particular stall closed, much to my dismay. Shessh! Now I had to buy chicken which I had to wash myself haha (ayat pemalas). At first I thought of cancelling it all, but then I remember, I had already prepared the soup at home so nak tanak, terpakse la beli ayam jugak. And you know la the usual stalls sell chicken by the whole thing or paling sikit pun you have to buy half the chicken.. which was what I had to do! Gile banyak.. sape nak makan???

Back home, I had to add some seasonings to my soup as the prepared soup was actually for just a small portion, then I had to cut and wash my half-chicken before dumping them into the soup. Then, I realized the pot I had used was too small thus I had to dump all its contents into a larger pan.. uwaaaa!!! Sangat gile banyak dah ni..

As a result, I got what I wanted.. but on a larger scale. Gile tul, I had chicken soup for that iftar, then for sahur the next day. Then for iftar on Saturday and sahur on Sunday.. AND for iftar on Sunday and sahur on Monday. The differance was just that some days I took it with bread and some days I took it with pasta. By then, I was sick of chicken soup. On Sunday, the potato lover in me couldn't even take another potato in soup anymore so I fished out all the potatoes and fried them and ate them with ketchup hahah..

So yesterday, I told abg Fadzil and Farah of my soup weekend (being just eaten another bowlful of soup that morning for sahur *ughhhh*). Abg Fadzil even asked me, when I had told him about the fried potato incident, "Awat hang tak buat cucoq ubi ka.. begedil (burger-dil kate Pojie hehe..) ka.. wedges ka.. kan hang suka ubi.. amik la semua ubi kat hang!!" Uwaaaa..

That afternoon, while we were sitting quietly in our cubes (Farah in Choong's cube), abg Fadzil suddenly asked us what we were having for iftar?

I for one know, whatever it is, it WON'T be chicken soup!!!!