Cook For Family - Leftover Peking duck

It's no secret that I love to eat, and on the blog it appears that I love to eat out more than in. In real life though, I eat at home quite a bit and I do cook, albeit super simple things that can be done in a few minutes - such are the demands of modern life (or that's my excuse...).

When I got an email from Razlan about Daniel's #CookForFamily initiative, I jumped right in. Rather than paraphrase, here's what it's about in Daniel's own words:

The #CookForFamily is a bloggers-for-bloggers initiative. No competition, sponsors, or hidden agenda involved. It is created with a simple objective of getting more bloggers, and hopefully their fans and followers, to start cooking and bonding with their families.

You'll see that most participants are Singaporean food bloggers, but hey, food knows no boundaries, and certainly the internet doesn't.

Peking duck slices

But then came the challenge of what to cook. I was surprised by Daniel's blog post about bloggers telling him that they don't have time to cook or don't know how to. So instead of conjuring up a fancy menu, I thought I'd come clean and just tell you all how lazy I can be, and hopefully communicate that it really isn't hard to cook for your family, even if cooking means getting a little help from leftovers.

Germans can make Champagne (if your name is Krug)

Food and wine writers and sub-editors will know very well that only the sparkling wine from Champagne, the region in France, can be called champagne - everything else is "sparkling wine", or Prosecco, Cava etc. Even amongst Europeans, who all have their own legislation and certification with regards to regional/cultural produce, the French are known to be particularly picky about their appellations. You'd think then, that they were pretty xenophobic, but truth is, like most people, they just like nice things, wherever they're from.

A Char Siu Wine - Eddie McDougall's Little Pig Rose

Eddie McDougall's Little Pig Rose 2010

Wines with non-European cuisines have always been a challenge. I've talked about natural pairings in the world's cuisines before, say, soy sauce and rice, clams and pork - these foods appear in close geographical proximity, and through time, people have found ways to make nature's bounty work with each other. China doesn't really have a history of wines made from grapes, and only with globalisation has Chinese food and grape wines started to come together. Nowadays - well in Hong Kong anyway - there's been a lot of talk about pairing wine with Asian food - I'd say it's still in its infancy, but hey, what do I know, I'm just a drinker.