"I was greedy. I yearned to eat the food that diners could enjoy at the restaurants," she says with a chuckle. "Since women were not allowed to work as chefs, the best alternative was to cook at home."
Her discreet way of learning recipes sparked an experimental cooking streak, which is apparent in her cookbook.
Initially, she handwrote 45 recipes from memory, which had to be whittled down to 15. Some of her creations include Yin Yang fish, a partially steamed and fried fish dish; pineapple prawns; and steamed egg pudding, for which she shares the recipe here.
She made the dish at home more than 30 years ago as a cheaper alternative to the then rarely seen Hong Kong-style dessert that her children like from a hawker stall in People's Park Centre.
Without a measuring cup at home, she improvised by using egg shells to measure the amount of milk and ginger juice "precisely". As a rough gauge, for every mediumsized egg used, she would add 11/2 egg shells of milk and ginger juice.
In 2008, she was diagnosed with colon cancer, but went into remission. In 2013, the illness returned in the form of a large tumour in the pancreas and she was given four months to live.
But she has remained strong and considers her time now as "God's gift".
Five years ago, she sank into depression. Her daughter, who declined to be named, said Madam Ng "cried every day while facing the four walls at home" before she attended the daycare services at HCA Hospice Care. There, her spirits lifted after socialising and participating in the hospice's activities, from exercising to doing craftwork.
"It was stressful as my mother is very particular about cooking," her daughter says of her role in producing the cookbook. "I am proud that she still wants to contribute to society through this cookbook despite being at the final stage of her life."
• A Lifetime's Legacy Of Home Cooked Favourites is available at Books Kinokuniya stores at $18.80. All proceeds go to the beneficiaries of HCA Hospice Care.