Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Modern Baba

In August last year, I blogged about the Peranakan culture. I might (or might not) have mentioned that the reason that the culture has all but fizzled out is because it is so chauvinistic and had Nyonya women doing all the work. Their cooking and needlework skills was what they were judged on when being considered as a potential wife.

Anyway, a large part of a Nyonya's life would have been spent in the kitchen, pounding up spices. Its not as simple as it looks. You've got to have rhythm and just the right amount of strength to get the job done without splattering it everywhere.

Seeing that I have no daughters, I'm exploring this part of my heritage with my sons. So, here is my little Baba, pounding up some onions. They didn't need to reach a paste like texture so it was a fairly easy task for him.







My brother is always saying that I'm making my sons do girly things but I don't. They offer to come help me with this stuff and I'm going to make full use of all this helpfulness while it lasts.

5 comments:

Mike said...

I think they have onion pounders at our grocery store. I'm sure they do a much better job than I would.

Wv: skylab - A place where it would be hard to pound onions.

Bilbo said...

I don't consider cooking-related skills to be "girly things." Someday, when a woman is dazzled by Aaron's and Adrian's cooking skills, they'll thank you!

vw: mandeadi - man atei spoiled foodi.

Bilbo said...

P.S. - that's a great mortar and pestle set!!! I'd love to have one like that.

Amanda said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amanda said...

Mike - I used to think that all that pounding would be fun but when I had to do it for real, its just full of tears and smarting eyes. I can't even see if the job is done or not sometimes. Don't know how those women could do it all day long.

Bilbo - That set is actually my grandmother's. Who knows? Maybe one day it will become an antique family heirloom.