There is now a trend in the city that increasingly shows people becoming more interested in cooking rather than dining,especially in the younger people, who are unfamiliar with the kitchen but have a consistent enthusiasm in food.

Tired of thinking about what to eat these days? Perhaps it is time to make a change - by considering what we can make to eat? There is now a trend in the city that increasingly shows people becoming more interested in cooking rather than dining,especially in the younger people, who are unfamiliar with the kitchen but have a consistent enthusiasm in food. Therefore many of them go to cuisine schools, not in the hope of becoming a chef someday, but purely for fun, and in order to make more friends at the same time. "Cooking is a not just a technique but also a way in which we can learn to respect food more and grow our appetite," said Daisy, a frenetic student for such cooking seminars.

Two weeks ago, I started my first cooking class at a local cuisine school called Betty's Kitchen. When I entered the "classroom,"which is a big kitchen on the second floor of a Western style cafe, someone immediately helped me to wear the apron and told me to wash my hands. The class was given by one male teacher to about 10 students, mostly young women. What we were learning to make was not the ordinary home-made dishes but a Cantonese dim sum which is called "fried curry beef dumpling".

This snack is actually not difficult to make, but needed much time. We started from the very first task - blending the flour with water, butter and sugar. The flour paste was later rolled into a piece of pastry and was then added with the margarine.We also had to repeat this process so as to make sure the pastry was multilayered, with well-proportioned cream.When the pastry was ready, we stir-fried the mincedbeef on the stove with curry and pepper, which would then become the stuffing for the dumplings. Then we cut the pastry into small four-square pieces and wrapped the curry beef into them.

The last thing we did was to put these dumplings into the oven and wait far them to turn a lovely golden colour.To prepare the food is really a funny and bustling experience here. The teacher was so busy helping his students mix the ingredients and shape the flour. Such a situation recalled my early experiences of making Chinese dumplings at middle school.

But remember, competition always exists in classrooms. At Betty's Kitchen,the food which we made had to be up to standard, and also had to be presented correctly,a task that can make some awkward students feel shame.

The happiest moment came when these fried dumplings were finally brushed with the syrup and sesame, marking the ending of our cooking. But I tasted the joy the following day when I brought my dumplings to a friend's party and found they were finished in just a few minutes.

So what is another vital benefit in learning how to cook? Simple. Just to show how excellent you have become in creating food.

(China Daily January 13, 2007)