(Photo by altemark)
Do you like the "Ratatouille" reference in this blog post's title? Anyways, if you've read my recent entries here and here, I've been blogging about food. I would consider my family and I to be foodies. While growing up, I watched many cooking programs with my family. Instead of eating out a lot, my parents, particularly my mom, cooked the meals that weren't just food associated with our cultural background. My sister has recently been cooking a lot, too, after taking a cooking class in high school. During her university's school year, when my sister lives with one of our aunts, she's the one who does the cooking in that household.
While I appreciate food, I wasn't very interested in cooking it myself. Instead, I would rather "eat for food," as the sign says in the picture above. Sure, I could at least boil Top Ramen, as well as make pasta with sauce from a jar, but I'd avoid it if I could. Even if my mom tried to get me to help her in the kitchen, it was half-hearted on my part (plus, I don't feel very comfortable with kitchen knives). When I became a university student and started living away from home, you may think that that would have given me an opportunity to start cooking more regularly. Nope. For the past handful of years, I've lived in dormitories in which room and board came with a meal plan to eat at the various dining establishments on campus -- so easy, so convenient, and so unhealthy for you, if you're not careful with your options. It was either that or eating out.
When it was winter or summer break, I usually went home, where I could enjoy those home-cooked meals again. However, I spent last summer in Philadelphia for an internship, so I was on my own when it came to food. I gradually formed somewhat of a weekday food routine: cereal with nonfat milk for breakfast; a venti white mocha from the Starbucks counter at my office; a small salad and soup with a Snapple at my office for lunch (mixed with a splurge at Panera's once in a while if I went out with co-workers); Easy Mac, microwavable noodles, or a plain turkey sandwich on wheat bread, salad from a bag usually without dressing, and fruit; Triscuits or granola bars for snacks in between all that. Still no real cooking to be found.
Near the end of my stay, I finally started to cook -- a little. It mostly amounted to whole wheat spaghetti with a jar of marinara sauce or Top Ramen with a dash of sesame oil and some lettuce from the salad bag, so it was still not exactly gourmet. However, there was still something satisfying with cooking your own meal, that feeling of accomplishment after it's all done, and savoring the delicious results. Plus, it made me realize that I could have done this cooking thing all along that summer -- it would have saved me more money in the long-run than to eat out or buy ready-made stuff. Plus, I might have felt more satisfied.
During the past academic year, I was back to my meal plan, so I didn't take much advantage of cooking. However, in recent months, I've been cooking with my boyfriend once in a while and baking for him and his family, too. I like picking and trying out recipes on him, as well as cooking (he makes a nice sous chef) and eating together. All this has been a nice lead off to another summer away from home when I'll have to depend upon myself to come up with food. This time I'm looking more forward to grocery shopping and trying to come up with things to cook from what I have on hand. Sometimes what I have on hand is kind of random (e.g. someone left me a couple cans of green beans, a couple cans of tuna, and a box of chicken-flavored couscous), but that's when you need to get creative.
I read a May 29 article from The Seattle Times about an unemployed restaurant critic who now makes due with food stamps. It was interesting to read about his experiences, and it was especially interesting to read about how he uses his knowledge and creativity to come up with things to cook, not simply for survival but for a "gastronome's quest to eat well, to maintain a nutritious diet, to satisfy my foodie cravings, and to help those who help me." He writes: "By shopping wisely and scrimping compulsively, by cooking and savoring each meal as a blessing, I am sustained. Even that mysterious can from the food bank generically stamped 'Pork with Juices' promised culinary communion." That's inspiring.
No comments:
Post a Comment