Research Note

Defined Problem/Background
Most people in life now, only think about fast food and buying food to save their time. Some people think that cooking is interesting especially when it comes to dessert and I was one of those people. I have a special interest in pastry and dessert. When I first came to this school I never thought of cooking but one of the subject in this school which is Design Technology has change my perspective towards food. I found it interesting and fun especially when I have to create a jam for my assignment. When I was first presented about personal project in grade 9, I immediately think about something related to cooking because it was my personal interest out of all things that I have experienced and enjoy. Personal project is not all abo ut impressing people but we have to like and enjoy it in order to create an amazing product that reflects ourselves well. One thing is that if I only created one single cooking it will be too usual for people. I wanted to make something extraordinary but the project has to reflect myself and I have to enjoy it. After I did some brainstorm, I decided that it would be desserts recipes book with unusual design unlike normal recipes book that I usually found in the bookstore to attract people because I like designing things and making desserts. I think this project is well suited for myself.

Goal: To enjoy the experiences of making Asian’s desserts and compiles it in a form of book

Skills for Desserts
Based from all the cooking that I have done during the holiday, I find out about the things I am capable to do and things that I don’t about making desserts and book. First, in making dessert I am capable of cutting and shaping fruits like melon balls and making a melon bowl. I also can do simple things like boiling and cutting but not frying because I realized that I am still afraid of hot oil. I can make simple things like fruit salad, fruit in syrup, jelly and desserts that only involves simple skills. I cannot cut some fruits like avocado, because I don’t know the technique to cut it. In the end, I ended up using random technique as long as I can get the flesh of it to blend. I am not professional in creating traditional snacks like klepon and pisang goreng so I need the help of a professional like my mother.

I have the skill to decorate fruit, I realized so after I made a fruit salad with my own design. This is indeed the first time I ever make a fruit dessert but the result is not so bad instead, I think it is the greatest out of all of the desserts that I have made so far. I also found enjoyment in cutting and designing fruit.

After doing the cooking for my personal project, I realized that I am not that good in cooking and that I still have much to learn. I am not giving up and I am willing to learn because after all cooking is my interest.

Like/Dislike for Desserts
Even if I like to make desserts the most out of all courses, there are desserts that I dislike too. I don’t like desserts that is using fruits or other ingredients that I don’t like as the main ingredients. For example Avocado that is the main ingredient for Sinh To Bo, a Vietnamese avocado smoothie that I created or lemongrass leaves as the main ingredient of lemongrass tea. I also dislike desserts that are using too much cream or milk because they make my stomach feels sick. Not only the ingredients, if the recipe of the desserts are difficult to understand or too complicated I would not make them. I dislike desserts that are taking too much time to make.

I like desserts that are using my favorite ingredients as the main ingredients, sweet flavored, and not taking too much time to make it. For example desserts like fruit salad or jelly. Everything that involves fruit, agar-agar, or jelly is my favorite type of desserts because they taste good, simple, and not taking much time to make. The rate of difficulty is not that high either.

Skills for Books
The only way I can think of in creating an interesting book is to create a comic book. It is my hobby to draw a character in a blank paper. I am not that good in writing and expressing my ideas, the only skills for book that I have is to draw and make a short comic. At first, I was thinking to combine an encyclopedia about the desserts that I am making and the recipe of them but I think they will be too boring and I cannot write that much. Looking at my skills, I came up with an idea. The idea is to make a recipe book that is compatible with my skills in book. This leads to my idea which is to make a recipe book with comics inside.

I also have the skill to design by using Adobe Photoshop since I like to use photoshop even if I am a beginner. I know the basic skills to use photoshop and all I need is to let out all my creativity towards it. I was thinking to use this skill to create a cover for my recipe book.

In the process of creating a good recipe book, photos of each recipes are required. In other words, I need a photographic skill in order to produce a good photo which will be used in my recipe book. Considering it, I have never been interested in photo and I don’t know anything about how to produce a good photo. After taking photos in my cooking in this holiday, I realized that I can only take an ordinary photo. Experiencing this, I brainstorm about how can I solve this problem. After I have been thinking for several days, I came up with an idea to overcome this lack of skill. I decided to take an ordinary photo like I usually do, then I will edit it using Adobe Photoshop. As I said before, I have the basic skill to edit photo so this way I will be able to work to the fullest to create good images for each of the desserts that I have created. In conclusion, I need 2 skills required to create my recipe book. They are drawing skill and design skill (using photoshop)

Like/Dislike for Books
I dislike types of books with a little amount of image, books with small images, books with no colors, books that is only contains texts, thick book, and books with small fonts size. I think of the types of books that I mentioned before as boring and they are not entertaining at all. I think book with colors and images will provide a fun time for the reader. For example thick novels or encyclopedia books without image, they are the types of books that I dislike. The information contained are difficult to be absorbed because they are not entertaining.

I like books with an appealing and colorful cover, full of images, and provide a medium sized fonts. They are appealing and fun to read. The type of book that I like so much is comic book. For me they are fun to read, entertaining, and informations contained are quickly being absorbed into my head so it is easy to understand things through comic books. I often read a knowledge book in the form of comic book called Educomics they give knowledge through each story and it was easy to understand it and moreover, they are colorful. They really inspire me, and giving me new ideas which is very helpful for my Personal Project. Not only an education comics, I also like usual comic for entertainment. Out of my liking of comics, I decided to create some comic panels for each of the food in my recipe book. Not only teenagers my age, some adults also like to read comics so I think comic is the most appealing and interesting type of book.

Type of Desserts
My goal is to enjoy the experiences of making Asian desserts. Looking at my goal, I decided to choose simple and easy recipes in which the ingredients are easy to get in my society. I decided to match the type of desserts with my skills. This is the first time I get to make desserts and so I choose the best way so that I can make a good result while I learn the proper way to make desserts. I decided to create 20 desserts from Asia with more amount of desserts from Indonesia, China, and Japan because they are mostly easy to find and also people are familiar with it by looking at the amount of recipe books from those country sold in bookstore. By searching for the recipes from books, internet, and asking people. After trying the recipe I find out the material, skills, and equipment. I came up with the following results: