Thursday, April 16, 2015

Mum's multi purpose oven.

Image result for roasting pan

 Photo: Wiki



My friend Chang Yi, triggered my memories of Mum's Multi purpose oven.

My dad did not buy my mum an oven. Mum made her own charcoal oven to bake cakes and roast meats. Mum was very clever, and used a very big almost one meter diameter tin container. She put burnt down charcoal on top and on the bottom. She was always the person to take charge of the fire. It was hot, and she set her oven in the void deck of the houses built on stilts.

 I finished form six in 1974. Mum and Dad went to Singapore and they bought a "wan nan wo" aka multi purpose oven.

It wasn't an oven.  It was like a very thick pot. about 1/2 a meter tall. The top lid was 1/3 the height. A bit similar to the photo I borrowed from wiki. You sat it on the gas fire.

I can still remember it in my head. I cooked my first roast chicken and got scolded. I thought by cutting it half would cook faster. Dad wasn't happy. 

Mum no longer have to slave over her self made oven. Mum did a lot of roasting and baking when she went to live in Australia. Come to think of it, I have two electric ovens and I hardly use them.  I am too lazy to clean them.



Wonder if my sisters remember this, especially Elizabeth. Wonder if she still has it. In 1975, I left for Canada.

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