The mother and daughter are clearly close and this tight-knit bond has been solidified even further by their love for cooking. — Photos: SAMUEL ONG/The Star
In their home kitchen in Taman Seputeh, 70-year-old Chai Suit Chooi slowly adds a lump of rock sugar to a hot cauldron filled with tong sui (a sweet soup served in Chinese cuisine).
Standing dutifully by her side is her daughter Theresa Burhan, 37, her hands wrapped around a large bowl, waiting for her mother to fill it to the brim. A smile slowly starts creeping up her face as the soup sloshes its way to the top of the receptacle.
“My mother is known for her Chinese soups and tong sui. It’s really delicious,” she says, smiling at her mother.
The mother and daughter are clearly close and this tight-knit bond has been solidified even further by their love for cooking. In many ways, this is an inherited passion – one that began with Chai’s own mother.
Theresa loves her mum's soups and has made it her mission to learn these cherished recipes. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star
Growing up in Kuala Lumpur in the 1950s, Chai recalls a childhood filled with good food.
“I am the youngest of seven children. My mother was a very good cook – she came from a family of farmers, they were very poor, so she learnt to cook at a young age. She also went to cooking school at one point.
“When I was little, we also had a few amahs (Chinese helpers) who cooked very well because my mother taught them,” she says.
Chai grew up in a family of seven siblings. Second from left: Chai’s late sister, Chai Seet Lan, who taught her to cook; fourth from left is her late mother Liew Yew Tiam and extreme right is Chai.
Despite this, Chai says she herself never learnt to cook until she went to university in England, where she studied economics. Unlike most people who have to figure out how to cook for themselves abroad, Chai had help in the form of her oldest sister.
“My oldest sister was studying in Australia and when she graduated, she came to visit me. At the time, I didn’t even know how to chop up a chicken. So she had to teach me all these things.
“I was actually very angry that she was teaching me and not cooking for me instead. I was like, ‘Why don’t you just do it for me? Why do I have to do it?’” says Chai, laughing.
Chai only learnt to cook when she went to university in England. — Photos: SAMUEL ONG/The Star
In hindsight though, she says those lessons provided her with lifelong culinary skills that she was eventually able to impart to her only child, Theresa.
“I remember growing up watching my grandmother and mother cooking and going with them to the Imbi market. We lived with my grandmother in the family home in Imbi, so that’s where the cooking happened for festive occasions like Chinese New Year.
“But because everyone else did all the cooking, I never really learnt to cook until I went to university too – just like my mother,” says Theresa, laughing.
When Theresa returned from university (inspired by her mother, she too studied economics), she realised she needed to learn the family recipes, as everyone was getting on in age.
Theresa’s grandmother eventually passed away in 2010 but her legacy lives on in the heirloom recipes that Theresa and Chai continue to make and cherish.
Chai’s mother’s Hakka lei cha, for instance, remains a mainstay in the family recipe vault.
“In my mother’s house, the lei cha was bottomless. We used to make huge plates of vegetables and call my nephews and nieces and siblings to come and eat,” says Chai.
The family's lei cha recipe has been passed down from Chai's mother to Chai and now her daughter Theresa has picked it up too. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star
Lei cha is a Hakka dish that is also called ‘thunder tea’. It consists of rice and various leafy vegetables and nuts alongside a tea-based soup made out of tea leaves, nuts and seeds that are ground to a paste, then diluted with water and eaten together.
Chai’s family recipe is slightly different in that dried shrimp is also added to the dish, giving it a slightly briny, aquatic underpinning and a unique take on a traditional staple.
Another dish that Theresa has learnt to make is her mother’s pumpkin soup, which is enhanced with burdock and figs. The soup has sweet, smooth leanings and is the perfect antidote to rainy, miserable days.
PUMPKIN, BURDOCK & FIG SOUP — SAMUEL ONG/The Star
“My mum is really into healthy, cleansing foods. We even have a fridge full of Chinese dried medicinal ingredients,” says Theresa, pointing at a fridge in a hidden corner of the kitchen.
Chai says the secret ingredient in her soup that makes it a little unique is the dried figs. “The original recipe just has pumpkin and meat but I find that the figs give it a nice sweetness, so I started adding new things little by little,” she says, laughing.
Chai’s sweet tong sui, meanwhile, is filled with longan, monkfruit, winter melon and a surprising sleeper hit: pandan leaves. “It makes it taste so nice,” says Chai.
TONG SUI — SAMUEL ONG/The Star
Theresa says that these days, she has made it a point to learn these treasured recipes from her mother so that the family legacy will be preserved.
“My grandmother couldn’t really remember how to cook towards the end of her life. That’s why I am afraid that will happen if I don’t learn from my mother now. Which is why I started observing her and trying to cook all these dishes. If I don’t do it, the family recipes will just die,” says Theresa.
Chai, meanwhile, says she is happy that Theresa is keeping the family culinary ancestry going.
“Later on, I probably won’t be cooking all these things. So, she has to do it and it’s good that she learns and knows,” says Chai, smiling.
Serves 3 to 4
- 1 whole skinless kampung chicken
- 6 dried figs
- 800g – 1kg pumpkin, cut into cubes
- 1 burdock root, thickly sliced
Rinse the chicken thoroughly. Place it in a large pot and cover with room temperature water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once scum rises to the surface, boil for a few more minutes, then discard the water. Rinse the chicken under cold running water to clean off any residue.
Rinse the pot. Return the chicken to the pot and add 2.5 litres of fresh water. Bring to a boil. Add the dried figs and pumpkin cubes, and continue boiling over high heat for 10 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low and let the soup simmer for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, add the sliced burdock root. Continue to simmer for another hour. Serve hot.
Serves 4
- 1 Luo Han Guo (monk fruit)
- 700g fresh winter melon, sliced into thick strips
- 120g dried longan, rinsed
- 7 pandan leaves, tied into knots
- rock sugar, to taste
Bring 2 litres of water to a boil in a large pot. Lightly crush the Luo Han Guo and add it to the pot along with the winter melon. Reduce the heat and let it simmer gently for 1 hour.
Add the dried longan and knotted pandan leaves. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Lower the heat again and simmer for another 30 minutes.
Add rock sugar to taste. Serve warm or chilled.
