Confessions of a City Slicker

8TV has a new show on its lineup – Kan Cheong Kitchen.

This is a reality cook show, not unlike Iron Chef.  The difference is, Iron Chef is manned by professionals with years of experience and the ability to improvise under any circumstances.

Kan Cheong Kitchen sees 2 team participating. Each team is made up of 2 contestants, a Can Cook and a Cannot Cook.  The Cannot Cooks will do the actual cooking.  The Can Cooks, meanwhile will supervise them from a booth through a mini camera which the Cannot Cooks will wear.  The mini cameras will transmit everything that the Cannot Cooks see to a small monitor in the Can Cook’s booth.

Each team will have a total of 30 seconds to gather the necessary ingredients once the dish of the day has been revealed.  They will then be given 30 minutes to whip up the dish.

Of course, the main attraction of Kan Cheong Kitchen is not the recipes or any fancy cooking skills.  It’s the chaos that reigns during the cooking sessions that people will be tuning in to watch.

To ensure that the kan cheong factor is turned up to the max, the Can Cooks are required to shout instructions from their booths to their Cannot Cook counterparts in the kitchen area.  I’m sure you can imagine the ruckus that 2 ladies bossing 2 guys around the kitchen can make.

The dish for today is sirloin steak with mixed vegetables, mashed potato and sunny side up.

Memorable moments in the show:

• While gathering ingredients, one guy couldn’t find his “sunny side up”.
• One of the guys was resourceful enough to use a rolling pin to tenderize his steak.
• One guy almost flambé his steak when the fire from his stove suddenly surged up.
• “Lenyekkan kentang” means mashing the potatoes.
• “Eh shaddup lah you!” was frequently heard throughout as both ladies shouted to be heard above the din.

The results, both sides actually managed to whip up a somewhat palatable looking dish.

• Both teams had their mashed potatoes declared a disaster. Team A put too much milk in theirs which had the judges calling it bubur cha cha, while Team B didn’t cook their potatoes enough so it became lumpy.
• Team A had an overdone steak while Team B’s steak was underdone.
• The guy from Team B was creative enough to artfully arrange a small salad on his plate instead of using the usual boring peas, carrots and sweet corn for the required mixed vegetable.
• Team A put the mixed vegetable under the steak, a big no no.
• Only Team B managed to complete the whole dish as required while Team A didn’t manage to do the sunny side up.

The dishes were judged on both presentation and taste. Team B won.

Kan Cheong Kitchen is hosted by Rina and Fat Phabes, the laugh a minute duo from the 8TV Quickie.  Man, I love those two.  Too bad they don’t do the Quickie together much nowadays.

Watching the show reminded me of the kitchen in school.  I often hear the teacher who teaches home science screaming at the students in there.  I can just imagine how kan cheong it must be for the students, especially if they are virgin to the kitchen like me.

I turned up my nose at home science when I was in school.  I saw myself as destined for the rat race, which at that time I thought to be oh so glamorous.  So for me, home science is meant for those whose life plan was to finish school, get married and settle into the life of a see lai.

Ha ha, I didn’t know I would be missing out on an essential skill.  Oh well, it’s never too late to learn, is it?  Some good recipes and an adventurous spirit are all it takes to brave the kitchen and whip up something delicious.

And with the convenience of modern kitchen appliances, cooking need not necessarily be the drudgery it was back them.

Now, if only I can talk mom into getting one of those induction cookers, that would be real cool.