Father's "Toasts"

 Both my father and mother spent time at the stove, discussing what to cook, and how to cook, speaking softly to each other and never banging anything on the stove or the dining table....... It was their delicate  expression of love.

Since moving to the Brooke Drive big house (8 rooms)in sibu and I was attending Year 1, (without having gone to Kindergarten) I started noticing our food on the table and the memories my parents created for us. For several years my mother used a wood fire stove, built by my grandfather, who was an excellent stove builder.

One of the best memories I have of the stove was when grandfather came to repair the stove which he built. It was what we called a Foochow stove with a chimney. Our stove was so well constructed that we never had smoke in the kitchen. The chimney was very truly a good one. The stove never cracked like some others that I knew .

Then there was the day when my father brought back a piece of wrought iron sheet (he must have had it cut with two holes for the pot and the kettle by a blacksmith). And with a flourish, he replaced the two steel rods meant for pots and kettles. It fitted really well and my grandfather would have been pleased. Ever since that day, we had grilled fish, and even toasted bread, whenever the wood fire was going well and my father was keen to cook after work, or at the weekend. My father was probably the first Foochow to do Ikan bakar in Sibu, but at HOME. Now when I think of it, I have a smile on my face.

But what was very innovative was how my mother prepared toasts for my father using the stove , or the kuali,in those days when a toaster was considered a luxury or even a non existent appliance.

Once in a while I still "toast" my bread using a non stick frying pan.

All you have to do is spread the butter on the slice of bread, place it on the non stick frying pan until it is well toasted, turn over and toast the other side. You need to do it one by one.

A lot of patience is needed when you want to make a toast our family style - using a non stick frying pan.

You too might have a family story of your inventive or innovative parents in the kitchen.