Chapter Nine

Ah Hock's Favourite

This is the bonus table — for the dishes that wouldn't fit anywhere else. Some are orphans — the side-dish that lives at someone else's stall but never gets its own page. Some are sources — the foundation-recipes that show up in five other dishes but never get taught. Some are home-tables — the dishes I cook at home, for my family, that never made it to the hawker stall because they belong in the home. The phoenix-tail prawns my daughter asks for in her tiffin. The weeknight mee hoon kueh. The sambal belacan I pound at six in the morning before the household wakes. The forty-five-day ang chao ferment that anchors a year of Foochow cooking. The white bee hoon at dawn — the book's closing dish, served from the cook to the reader. Reportedly a cookbook should end with the chef's signature. This is mine. The kitchen is the first room awake. It usually is.