Living 5 months abroad, one can have many fond memories of travels, college life, and adventures. But for Soon Lee and Joanna, it was a more savoury sort of experience. Read our last feature of our exchange journal series, UniverSalPals, about their adventures in the kitchen, a journey fraught with burnt woks, but a happy ending with comforting, homely spreads, when they each discovered their passion for cooking.
Names: Kong Soon Lee and Joanna Ng Qi Juan
Exchange University: University of Edinburgh (Scotland, U.K.)
Cooking together with friends was really one of the most enjoyable experiences during exchange. Since we had quite a number of people in our group, we could afford to be more adventurous with our dishes and attempt to whip up food that reminded us of home. We tried making dishes, like soup, pasta, french toast, and even our own burgers! Cooking and eating together really made us feel like a family. Considering how far we were away from our families, it was really nice and warm to share those times together.
Initially, our woks kept getting burnt and we spent our weekends on the hunt for the next durable wok… only to see it fall to ruins a few sessions later. In the end, Annemarie, another NTU-USP student, had her mum ship a durable wok all the way from Singapore! Well, most of us did not know how to cook initially, so you can imagine how funny it was when we tried to come together with the little expertise we had. But you’d be impressed with how our culinary skills now!
Supermarket shopping
For some reason, supermarket shopping was so satisfying. We visit supermarkets about once a week to get our groceries and food supplies, browsing for the best deals among different shops.
Joanna: I’m going to miss cooking! Not that I can’t cook in Singapore, but I probably will have lesser time to do so. I’ll also probably be lazy, since kopitiam food is so accessible and cheap. I think the best part about cooking is that you are in-charge of any ingredients, so you are able to make it healthier if you want to. I’m not actually good at cooking, but it’s just fun to dictate what goes into your food!
Here are some dishes I made while abroad!
Chinese noodles with a secret ingredient that never fails: oyster sauce!
We started experimenting with more dishes. Annemarie put together a hearty vegetable soup, eggs, and a stir-fry, with the rest of us as assistant chefs.
Some days call for something quick, tasty, and cheap – instant noodles are still reliable back-up plans.
Soon Lee: When I first started cooking, I didn’t know how to prepare food, how to cut the vegetables, how to cook the dishes, the sequences and so on. It was only after numerous practices, plus help from online recipe guides and friends with cooking experience, that I really learned how to cook for myself.
In the first few days, we had to stockpile lots of ready-made food while experimenting with cooking, so that we wouldn’t starve, if our experiments went wrong.
To be honest, it was like stepping into the unknown, as I haven’t cooked in pretty much the past 22 years of my life. But all of a sudden, I need to learn to cook for myself, and it was a little intimidating. I often wondered how the food would taste, if I would get a stomachache after, but all’s good. I’m now much more confident and daring in trying out new dishes in new styles. Now, I enjoy going to supermarkets just to check out what’s available and to envision the different types of dishes I can whip up!
Cooking Fried Rice with Eggs for the first time!
Fried rice with broccoli for my first experiment
Big smiles as we made our own burgers!
–
UniverSalPals is an initiative that invites students who have gone for NTU-USP Study Abroad Programme for a semester to journal and share about their adventures, changes in perspectives and their growth paths on exchange. Living in a foreign environment for 5 months isn’t a long time, but you can’t say it’s short either. You’ll be surprised at how much a semester exchange abroad can teach you – both about the world and yourself.
