Free Style Cooking..a tribute to Bro Amree Mohamad

an example of combo dish @ noname

I am always an advocate of free style cooking, the art of cooking without any recipe or any predetermined  ingredients. The whole idea is to cook with whatever ingredients we can obtain from the refrigerator and in the kitchen. This art of cooking ala "Master Chef" has its own risk of not being edible or too gross to eat.

Me and Arwah Amree during our first semester at UNC, CO - Fall 1982

It all started during my college days in USA in the early 80's. One of  my house mate, the late Amree Mohammad ( he died in the early 90's) started doing this free style cooking due to limited ingredients available then and also to save time. After all, as a student, we din't have the big budget for our groceries then. Amree used to throw in squids with meat and vegetables as one dish and when asked his rationale for this style, his simple answer was, "somehow they all  get mixed in our stomach"

with Amree -( Colorado - Oklahoma - Kansas -  Texas trip- 1983 )

Arwah Amree was crazy and genius at the same time. He was good in two things : 1) Mathematics and 2) Guitars /music. The rests were optional for him..He did not complete his studies and forced to leave the University of Northern Colorado during his junior year. By then, I had already transferred to the Utah State University in 1985. During our two years together in Colorado, Arwah Amree used to tag along with me whenever i traveled outside the state. He didn't drive but he was a good navigator and travelling companion. I was always being considered a hardcore driver and  i did not mind driving alone for 15 hours non stop ( except for gas & meal break) just to complete one stretch of a journey. And all the travels were mostly done using my faithful Datsun B210 model 1974 which i purchased for USD700 in 1982. For your information, Datsun B210 is similar to Datsun Bahulu or Datsun 120Y in Malaysia.


Arwah Amree had another passion, riding motorcycles. He was one of the rare guys who rode motorbike in the midst of winter in Colorado. Apparently, he had a good tolerance on winter cold but it did not spare him from falling down many times from his bikes due to the slippery roads. Speaking about winter, Colorado experienced one of its worst winter in decades for the  1982-83 season and i remember clearly when Amree and me were stuck in the snow and ice coming back from Denver to Greeley. It was only a 60 miles journey but it took us more than 6 hours to reach home and Amree, for big part of the journey was the one who helped to push my white lamborghini forward when it got stuck in the snow. The same night, i got to sacrifice one sarong to be used as the traction for the tires on the snow.


Crazy guy? yes but he was one of the guy whom we could say, the ultimate carefree individual with attitude that defies the norms and rigidity in many of us. He was a fun guy to be around with and one of his lasting legacy as far as i am concerned is the Free Style Cooking that he brilliantly executed with ease then and now becoming my favorite way of telling people, anybody can cook!. Rest In Peace Bro Amree! Al Fatihah!