The Wife Can Cook Too? Episode 1: Tau Yew Bak

There has been a recent rivalry between the Wife and I when it comes to the kitchen. While i will always insist that i am the better cook, the Wife is not known to just keeping quiet upon hearing that statement and continuing with just washing the dishes.


Knowing this, she had something up her sleeves when we were questioning what to do with some pork belly we had bought to keep during the long Christmas break.


Like a lightning flash, she announced that she would cook and the kitchen was out of bounds for the hour.

After announcing that everything was in the pot, we counted down as the meat simmered in a concoction of sauces listed below:

500-600 gram of pork belly

2 cups of water

1/2 cup of soya sauce

2 tablespoon of oyster sauce

2 tablespoon of dark soya sauce

1/2 tablespoon of 5 spice powder

1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns

Whole bulb of garlic

Sugar, salt and pepper to season

To season (optional): Chinese wine, mirin and sesame oil

Once that comes to a boil, let it simmer under low heat. Give it a taste and adjust the proportions according to how you like it, the Wife likes it sweet whereas I like it savoury. The above is just a guideline.

The result? A very successful first attempt by the Wife, i can almost feel her ego growing by the second now. The meat was almost melting with all the fatty layers in between, the sauce rich and thick from all the braising and eaten with rice, it was pure comfort food. 

We all knew who washed the dishes that night.