Singapore food bloggers unite to #CookForFamily
Up to 100 Singapore food bloggers are cooking up a storm this month by encouraging ordinary citizens to cook for their families.
The objective of the month-long initiative in July? Simply to get more people — other food bloggers, their fans and the wider online community — to start bonding with their family through food.
"Many of us are too caught up [with] work that we forgot about spending time to bond with the family," said local food blogger and Radio 100.3FM deejay Daniel Ang, who first thought of the idea.
"The meals don't have to be very complex and elaborate," Ang told Yahoo! Singapore. "It can be as simple as a plate of fried bee hoon with vegetables," he added, a dish he himself cooked for his mother for lunch.
To date, Ang has gathered 100 bloggers for the mini-fete. The participants — such as actress Silver Ang and pageant queen and aspiring singer Cheryl Wee — will pick a day in July to cook a meal for their loved ones and blog about the experience on 6 August with the #CookForFamily hashtag on microblogging platform Twitter.
Others can also use the #cookforfamily hashtag to post photos of what they've cooked.
"I suggested #CookForFamily because it's a step further than just bringing our family out for meals, and to show that we truly care," said Ang.
While many sponsors stepped forward to volunteer prizes, Ang rejected them all, insisting the celebration of family time and ties should be free of commercial involvement.
Food blogger Ellena Guan was one of the first to join the online initiative as she cooks almost daily. The 37-year-old enjoys cooking and believes that eating together as a family helps to bring family bonding to another level especially for family with younger children and old folks like her own family.
"I cook for a family of four. I love to cook with my mum and my boy together in the kitchen where we share cooking tips and enjoy each other's company," Guan said.
Come Sunday, another blogger Calvin Timothy Leong, 25, will be cooking a hearty home-cooked chicken and mushroom pumpkin rice for his girlfriend.
Leong, who cooks two to three times a week, said it's good that the initiative uses social media to engage young people. Dedicating time to spend with family and eat with them is better than celebrating the overly commercialised Father's Day and Mother's Day, Leong said.
According to a recent food survey, 84 per cent of Singaporean respondents said they prefer to dine at home rather than eat out despite 81 per cent of them saying that they dine out at least once a week.
