Extrapolate

The next day after I was back from Bangkok, I found myself enjoying a peaceful Easter Sunday. Vivian was on-call, and Uny, my Indonesian maid, was having her regular holiday.

Naturally I was responsible for taking care of my two princesses. Euterpe got to practice piano; she also had some homework to finish. Even Adler had a daily session on English.

Later that morning, when my mum was back from the wet market, I asked, “What’s there for our dinner?”

“Wintermelon and potato. There’s also a small chunk of beef in the fridge. Is that enough?”

“Quite so. Let’s take wintermelon as the veges; I can cook it with some dry shrimps and make a simple stew with beef and potato,” I was thinking aloud, “Just that I’d never try either, but I suppose they’re quite the same as zucchini and taro."

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That evening, I realized I was badly mistaken - they were both too tough for our teeth.

In short, wintermelon is no zucchini, and potato should not be compared to taro. The taste of both dishes were right, but the time and amount of water needed are way different.

As I always fancy, cookery is the sublimed version of science and medicine. Treatment protocol of one disease should not be blindly extrapolated to another - however similar the two conditions appear to be.

As Martin Ruth said: You will find it very good practice always to verify your references.