Welcome to More Than Just Fried Rice! My name is Catherine Wong. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I love to cook and have had a passion for food from a very young age. It is probably because my mom is an exceptional home cook. Since she was a stay-at-home mom, she was always cooking or doing something in the kitchen, and I always enjoyed helping her from wrapping wontons to hand-minced pork with a Chinese cleaver. I would rather stand in the kitchen watching my mom cook than watching TV. I would always ask her if there was anything I could help, and I would feel accomplished if I could use the Chinese cooking shovel to stir fry a little here and there.
When I was about 12, my mom helped my aunt start a clothing wholesales company, so she would need to go to work Monday to Friday from 10am-6pm. By the time she came home, it would be kind of late to cook because it took at least an hour if not an hour and a half commuting from office to home, so my mom asked if I could help cook dinner during the weekdays, I was more than happy to. Since then I became a cook for our family of 5 and started practicing almost daily. Every morning my mom would buy ingredients from wet market and leave them in the refrigerator, I would call her after school and she would teach me over the phone. I appreciate the time my mom spent with me over the phone, and I know my mom is always only a phone call away whenever I have questions on cooking even now when we are over 7000 miles apart.
After high school, I came to the states to go to college and one of the first things my mom asked me to bring to the states was a rice cooker!!! As if there were no rice cooker in the states 
! I have to say though, the quality of the rice cooker was exceptional because it is still working after being used for almost 6-7 years daily, and I retired it with a non stick rice cooker to make my life a little easier, this vintage rice cooker is now sitting in my storage. Maybe I will send it with my son when he goes to college in Fall 
!
After coming to the states, I discovered Food Network and it immediately became my favorite channel. I was eager to explore different western dishes as well as baking. In 2000 I married my husband and continued to learn cooking thru TV cooking shows, some of my favorites were Emeril Lagasse, Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart and Iron Chefs. After having kids, I became busy with kids as well as my own business, I seldom have time to watch any cooking shows anymore. Instead I have collected a lot of cookbooks and learnt from them. I love reading cookbooks.
Fast forward to 2020, we are quarantined because of the pandemic. I have started cooking a lot since March. I mean A LOT because we are a family of 6, for some reasons my four boys are always hungry! We often run our dishwasher at least couple times a day. For the record, I cooked for over 170 days continually since March 16, 2020 except Mother’s Day and our Anniversary. Every day I would plan our meals and often I would watch Youtube and search online for ideas. I would try so many new dishes that I have never cooked before or I have dared to cook. Through this intensive training, one good thing I got from 2020 is my sharpened cooking skills.
After friends and families’ encouragement, I decide to open a page to share food and recipes, plus more. One of the main reasons I would like to document my cooking is because of my children. I would love my children to recreate their mama’s flavor whenever they want. Cooking and baking are good therapy and have gotten me thru 2020. I am looking forward to exploring more dishes in 2021 and more.
