By Arthur B.W. Yong JP, Dr. Keong Choong, Peter Green
Food is an important part of our life. You wonder why people cook. People cook because they have to eat and do not have to starve. Housewives cook meals for their families. Some people cook as an occupation.
Arthur Yong recalled that growing up in Penang, his parents, aunties, sisters, cousins and their house servant cooked. They cooked a variety of chicken, duck, pork, beef, seafood and vegetarian dishes. They used many different ingredients and sauces. The majority of his relatives knew how to cook a nice tasty curry chicken dish. Arthur learnt to cook fried rice when he was at the age of sixteen years old. This was when Arthur returned home late from his high school and sport activities and his family finished eating their meals. He had no choice but to cook his own food. He used ingredients of whatever he could find in the kitchen and refrigerator. After his success in the kitchen, he completed his secondary education at a famous Chinese school, Chung Ling High School in Penang. Before Arthur left Penang for his further education in Australia in 1969, his parents were concerned that it would be expensive to buy meals from restaurants or food stores and insisted that he should learn to cook as often as he could.
In Australia, Arthur rented a room in Preston from an Australian lady. Arthur did his Leaving and Matriculation at Thornbury High School. He socialised with his neighbouring Malaysian friends and friends, who were formerly Chung Ling High School students in Penang. During weekends, Arthur learnt to cook a variety of Asian foods from them. He bought most of the cooking ingredients from Asian stores in Little Bourke Street (the part of Melbourne Chinatown). Arthur tasted delicious Chinese food from Kun Ming Restaurant in this street, where many Asian students went.
Arthur proudly said, “In 1969, Moses Tan and I tried our cooking skills. As a fundraiser for Thornbury High School, we cooked a few Chinese meals, such as roasted honey chicken, sweet and sour pork, Singapore fried noodles, special fried rice with a mixture of meat and vegetables and prawn crackers for the staff and parents of the students. The Aussies and participants enjoyed our Chinese cooking.”
Between 1971 and 1973, Arthur studied a Bachelor of Applied Science, majoring in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Swinburne University of Technology. He socialised with many Malaysian and Asian students at Swinburne and learnt more cooking skills from them. During his time as a student, Arthur and his Chinese and Aussie friends ate Chinese food at a restaurant called the “Rice Bowl”, which located opposite Swinburne. Arthur was friendly to the owner of the restaurant. Occasionally Arthur was allowed to observe how the restaurant chef cooked a variety of food in the kitchen.
Arthur did not learn how to cook using recipes from cook books. He remembered that in 1972, he studied a book, “The Chemistry of Life”, written by Steve Rose. Arthur remembered a sentence in the book, “….most good biochemists would also make good cooks…..”
Arthur cracked a joke, “As a student, I used my knowledge of chemistry and biochemistry, and I cooked like a mad scientist and biochemist. I put in the wok a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I made sure that I did not cook with a too high temperature. I did not add excessive quantities of the ingredients and cooking materials, such as oil, salt, sugar, spices, water, chilli, rice, noodles, meat, vegetables and so forth. I invented my own recipes. You know, A + B + C + D + E + F + G + H = Recipe 1”.
During his employment at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, before the Christmas break, Arthur and his colleagues took their special cooking dishes to share in the staff tea room. Arthur remembered that he gave away one of his recipes of honey chicken to his friend, who had a country hotel business.
On Christmas day, Arthur, his wife and two daughters cooked one or two dishes of food to share for the festive season.
On Saturday 23 August 2008, there was a colourful and entertaining community event of Beijing Olympics Parade at Epping Plaza. Over a hundred participants from different cultural backgrounds took part in this event. A lion Dance, cultural performances and cooking demonstration were included in the program. Arthur recalled that near the Safeway store, he was brave to demonstrate to a crowd a home-made meal of his recipe of “Seafood Hokkien Noodles” with the assistance of Liena Li.
In 2008, while Arthur shopped at Epping Plaza, (at the corner of High and Cooper Streets Epping in Melbourne), he met Peter Green, a fabulous cook, who demonstrated cooking quick and easy recipes at the centre. Peter shares his recipes in his promotion pamphlets. Arthur also saw Peter Green cook at the Whittlesea Community Festival on Sunday 3 May 2009, which was held at Barry Road Public Gardens, Lalor. Arthur and his team of volunteers interviewed Peter Green about his cooking experiences on Chinese from the North, (heard on 88.6 Plenty Valley FM on Friday night), on 22 May 2009. Peter was invited to the Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday 6 June 2009 at May Road Senior Citizens’ Centre.
Through their friendship, Peter Green and Arthur provided an exciting cooking demonstration on Saturday 7 February 2010 for the celebration of Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger at Epping Plaza.
