Ariel Nour Nadeera Ishika
Ibni Muhammad Iqbal, 15
About NAD
Ariel Nour Nadeera Ishika Ibni Muhammad Iqbal (she prefers to be called Nad) started her ‘dabao’ (takeaway) life ever since a stroke affected her grandmother’s ability to cook at home. How does Nad decide what to buy, and what does she buy every day to eat at home?
Featured Caregiver:
Grandmother, Mdm Chua
Dish of Choice:
Takeaway food
Have a listen to Nad's reflection in this journey of documenting her dabao life or read on in the transcript below.
Ariel: My name is Ariel. I have multiple hobbies, such as drawing and listening to music.
Shiyun: Do you feel that food is the source of stress in the family? For example, you don’t know what to eat, don’t know what to dabao, and then like, people will quarrel about food arrangement.
Ariel: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. It all started way before like when my grandfather passed on. And we started dabao-ing food because no one could cook at home. Sometimes we cook at home, but very rare. Often is dabao food.
Ariel: We would argue on like... Because I prefer Western, my grandmother prefers Asian culinary. So we would, like, argue on what food to eat.
Shiyun: So before that, your grandma didn’t cook also?
Ariel: She did, a lot, before she went into her stroke. She would cook for the whole family to eat.
Shiyun: What kind of things do you usually dabao for her?
Ariel: Usually, it would be like porridge or bean curd, because it’s all soft food, because she doesn’t have the teeth to bite.
Shiyun: You mentioned before in the project that actually one of the things you want to do is to cook for yourself.
Ariel: Yeah. I want to cook for myself, but the thing is, I cannot buy the ingredients yet.
Shiyun: So you’re thinking that you will slowly save up so that you can take care of your own meals?
Ariel: Yeah.
Shiyun: What sort of Western cuisine that you like to dabao and eat?
Ariel: Mostly it would be fish ‘n chips, so I can share with my grandma, because fish is soft, soft thing to eat.
Shiyun: It feels like your mealtime at home is very much about sharing with your grandmother.
Ariel: Yeah, because she doesn’t eat much.
