“Mr Babo’s son, which one do you want to eat?” Howon said and flipped the pages of a recipe book.

“I want this one.” Shinwoo pointed to his favourite dishes, sweet sour pork.

Howon looked at the steps listed in the recipe book and gulped in panic.

How can this sweet sour pork this complicated!

“Daddy, can you really do it?” Shinwoo looked at his daddy “suspiciously”.

“Of course…haha” Howon smiled but actually in his heart he was crying frustratedly.

He was frustrated to the death that he was about to kill the creator of this dish.

Shinwoo stood aside, observing his daddy’s cutlery skills.

His daddy took out some ingredients from the fridge and washed it before he took a knife and prepared to chop it.

YES! You heard me rightly! He was going to C-H-O-P all the ingredients he has into pieces! No! Into cubes or more to say it was actually M-I-N-C-E!

OMG! Is the best word to describe his cutlery skill!

“Babo! What’re you doing?” Shinwoo yelled at his daddy and pushed him aside. He picked up the radish that was cut into pieces and brought over the sewing kit. A needle with strings was then taken out from the sewing kit and Shinwoo began to try his best to “connect” its body back to the “original”.

“Yah, Lee Shinwoo! What are you doing?”

“I’m trying my best to erase the sin that you made.”

“What? Sin?!” When did I do a sinful thing? Howon thought in his mind.

“You killed my friend!”

“Friend?”

“Mr Radish!” Shinwoo cried and held the “dead corpse” in his hands carefully.

He ran to the garden and took a shave to dig a hole as its grave. He placed his best friend carefully into its grave and cried.

“I’m sorry, Mr Radish for unable to protect you and let you being killed by that evil man. Sorry and goodbye to you, my best friend. Remember to grow more children at here so that I can harvest them when you’re ready! Bye!” Shinwoo said and covered it with soils and some fertilizers on it, hoping his best friend will give birth to some mini radishs for him. But, seemed like he didn’t know that radish grew from seeds…

Poor daddy Howon didn’t know it and still remorse for hurting an innocent kid’s heart and soul.

“Okay, daddy, let’s continue our cooking.” Shinwoo said and took over the knife as he couldn’t withstand his daddy “torture” the food again.

“Yah, Lee Shinwoo. Who says you can hold a knife?” Howon shouted in anger.

“Shhh.. Mommy is sleeping!” He glared at his daddy and continued to cut the ingredients. He sliced the meat into bite-size pieces and marinated it with soy sauce and some corn flour for 20 minutes. While marinating, he prepared the sweet sour sauce and set it aside for later use.

Then, he peeled the cucumbers, onions and pineapples and chopped it into 1-inch pieces while the capsicums were cut into half, with the seeds removed and cut again into cubes.

He placed a skillet on the stove and heated up some oils for deep-drying.

When the marinated pork was ready, he dipped the pork into the batter and coated each pieces evenly. Once the oil turned hot, he dropped the coated pork into the skillet and fried it until golden crispy. When it turned golden, he removed it from the oil and drained it on paper towels.

“Daddy, please clean the skillet.” Shinwoo said and handed it to his daddy.

When it’s done, Shinwoo took it from him and heated 2 teaspoons of oils onto the skillet. He sautéd the onions and capsicums until it began to turn translucent. He then added in the cucumbers and pineapple pieces and stirred fry for 3 minutes.

When the aroma started to exude, Shinwoo poured in sweet sour sauce and made a quick stir to toss well. He returned the pre-fried pork pieces to the skillet and mingled well with the sauce.

After stir fry for about 2-3 minutes, Shinwoo turned off the stove and placed the meat onto a beautiful dish.

“Okay, daddy. Done!” Shinwoo said and handed the food over to his daddy.

“Yah, Shinwoo! You know how to do it!” Said Howon as he was amazed by his son’s cooking skill.

“Of course I should know how to do it! I always helped mommy in the kitchen and told her to teach me!”

“Oh, Shinwoo ah, do you know how to do this?” Howon said and pointed to a photo of chicken ginseng soup.

“Ermm…” Shinwoo nodded his head. Howon was delighted by his clever son and quickly asked for his help.

“Shinwoo ah, can you help daddy to cook this. If you cooked it deliciously, daddy will buy you a new Pororo Christmas set!” Howon said and continued to describe how excellent the Pororo set was. Shinwoo, who was a Pororo addict, agreed immediately to his daddy’s offer.

“Then, what should I do, Shinwoo?”

“Please take out chicken, dates, chestnuts, ginsengs and ……” Shinwoo said while Howon acted as his assistant and started to prepare the thing Chef Lee ordered.

He cleaned the chicken and stuffed the chicken with the ingredients. Then, the chicken was placed in a large pot submerged in water. He cooked it thoroughly and added some seasoning to increase the tastiness of the dishes.

About an hour, a few dishes was done and arranged nicely on the table. It was then served hot with steamed fluffy rice prepared by Lee Howon, the first, ah! No! second time cook.

They quickly changed their sweaty clothes and went into the room to wake up the sleeping beauty.

“Our Queen-nim, wake up now. It’s late morning and the roosters already died from crowing to wake you up.” Howon said and slightly shook his wife.

“Mommy… mommy… wake up now!” Shinwoo called his mommy charmingly with his daddy acted cutely like a 6 years old child.

Jieun smiled sweetly as she saw this pair of cute father and son. She soon woke up and showered herself before she headed down to the dining room.

When Jieun saw the dishes placed on the table, she stared at Howon and Shinwoo confusedly as she has no clues on who cooked this for them.

“Who cooked this?” Jieun asked.

“Well, just sit and try first!” Howon said and pressed his wife down onto a chair. Shinwoo picked up the spoon and handed it to his mommy while looking forward to his mom’s comment when she placed a piece of sweet sour pork into .

“How is it?” Both of them asked and a lump began to form in their throats.

“Ermm… Delicious!”

It might seem to be a short and simple reply, but for that babo duo, it was indeed the great praise in the world! Both of them shouted and jumped in joy with their hands interlaced and danced in circle.

Looking at their overreacted action, Jieun finally get to know the truth.

“So, you make this?” Jieun said and glanced at the dishes on the table. How can they make this yet my kitchen was still “alive”? Jieun shook her head in disbelief.

“Of course, I’m Lee Howon the almighty!” Howon smiled and said proudly. However, his words quickly gained a fierce gaze from his son.

“Daddy, most of the dishes was cooked by me. You only cooked the simplest one, R-I-C-E!”

“Yah, Shinwoo, why must you state it out right now?” Howon said and pouted his lips.

“I’m just telling the truth! Didn’t daddy teach Shinwoo not to lie?”

“You….”

“Daddy, my name is Lee Shinwoo, not Y-O-U! Besides that, Lee Shinwoo is the name you gave me. Since when daddy became so absent minded? Daddy, you really make Shinwoo so worry that daddy will get Alzheimer's disease when daddy just reached 30 years old!”

“Oh, see like someone missing his daddy’s super dupa itchy tickles!” Howon said and began to attack his son. Both of them laughed happily as they were totally enjoyed to fool around with each other.

Seeing such a happy moment, Jieun ate the wonderful dishes prepared by the babo duo.

The food today is extremely delicious as it was secretly seasoned by a secret weapon, the love and care from Lee father and son……

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Finally, update this chapter! When I wrote this, my stomach kept on growling so I eat and eat and eat again! xD

And sincerely apologized to the Malays/Muslims for stating the "Pork" that was forbidden by your religion.

I didn't realize it until I remembered my Malay friends told me about it.

As I stayed overseas for 2 years, so it was hard for me to remember it. Hope you don't mind.

The quote of today:

The opposite of “I love you” is not “I don’t love you anymore”,

But it is actually “I can’t do anything for you…”

-   Chloe Kim in 2012    -

Kim Hoeun

2012.12.22

11:21