Somehow, people always seem impressed by the fact that I know how to cook and that I cook most of my meals. I never considered it a really big deal, especially since my day-to-day meals aren't at all extravagant.
A personal history:
In my 3rd year of college, I was forced to move off-campus. When I moved in, my roommate told me that it was an absolutely necessity to learn how to cook.
(Ironically, I saw him eat a ton of fast food and hardly ever saw him cook.)
Prior to that, the only experience I had with cooking was making grilled cheese sandwiches. I usually ate my mom's cooking or had tons and tons of microwave pizzas and hot pockets.
When I first tried to cook, I wanted to make okonomiyaki because of my horrid Japanese fanboyism at the time. It was a bad idea for several reasons: I did not know how to cook, I did not know how real okonomiyaki tasted, and all I had was a random and unchecked Internet recipe from some newsgroup. I ended up with some mystery cabbage pancake blob. It was passable and it wasn't really that bad, but it wasn't exactly something I really wanted to eat.
This is what it's supposed to look like. I didn't even have the right sauces.
Over time, I would learn how to cook simple dishes. Chicken Adobo, pasta, curry rice were some of my staples. I made a lot of Hamburger Helper, I made a lot of cheeseburgers and patty melts. It was mostly basic stuff coming out of packages.
The next year, I discovered Alton Brown's Good Eats series and it opened up my eyes to a lot of different foods. I actually learned that less is more, and I would eat a lot of simply prepared meats and fish, sauteed in a pan or broiled and with just salt, pepper, and lemon or lime with a side of rice.
Oh, if it weren't for you Mr. Brown, I would never know so much about food.
Most of my meals are just that; some meat or fish with seasoning or sauce, served with rice/bread or even quinoa sometimes, and with vegetables (sometimes pickled) and a side of fruit.
I do have some crazy cooking adventures every once in a while, (most recently would be making homemade bacon, making takoyaki, and making ice cream) but 90% of my cooking is just really simple stuff.
Am I missing something here? Is basic cooking that rare of a skill?
On May 18 2010 03:32 kainzero wrote: Am I missing something here? Is basic cooking that rare of a skill?
Being able to prepare meals simply and tastefully (not trying to make a pun, just can't think of a better word) isn't really rare, but it is a skill. Too many people who start off cooking think that cooking has to be some really complicated process, like you described yourself when you started out. However, a lot of people seem to give up before they reach the realization that a lot of really good meals tend to have only a few ingredients.
When I have people over I make incredibly simple meals that take no skill and barely any time, but people are always impressed by it.
A friend of mine was impressed that I knew how to make grilled cheese. GRILLED FUCKING CHEESE. Some of my friends don't even know how to cut things, let alone cook it.
Some people just don't find the skill of cooking that worthwhile to actually learn, for the most part those people can get by with little to no knowledge.
Being able to cook should be a must for single men but it is very rare to find men who actually cook. Most single guys pick up the worst eating habits during their single lives and are honestly too lazy to cook. They resort to fast food which is obviously the most unhealthiest shit in the world. Guys then take this as their fundamental staple food for the next few years. Even if you exercise, it causes health issues down the road.
These days, it's even rare to find women who can actually cook "real" food. They look to frozen foods and pre-made recipes that require you to toss in the ingredients already packaged and add some water to cook = shit food.
You sir, have a rare skill. But learn train your women right! jkz srsly
Cooking is essential trust me, I've just started learning and it's awesome. There's nothing like eating a great meal you made yourself and/or sharing it with others.
On May 18 2010 03:57 ShaperofDreams wrote: Cooking is essential trust me, I've just started learning and it's awesome. There's nothing like eating a great meal you made yourself and/or sharing it with others.
Has anyone thought of doing the dishes after cooking a good meal? Pans, plates, bowls, utensils, cups, T.T fucking pain in the ass. That's why guys are lazy.
On May 18 2010 03:47 seppolevne wrote: A friend of mine was impressed that I knew how to make grilled cheese. GRILLED FUCKING CHEESE. Some of my friends don't even know how to cut things, let alone cook it.
There's something really wrong with that picture.
Cooking is quite a manly thing really. Basic X chromosome expression:
On May 18 2010 04:01 floor exercise wrote: Cooking is fun but it isn't a big deal to know how. In fact raw food has more nutritional value!!!!
That is bullshit. Vegetables, mainly, are known for their nutritional value. The human digestive system is not very capable of digesting plant material. Cooking food has the effect of breaking down the strong cell walls that cells in plants have. True, some of the nutrition is thrown away with the boiling water, and I guess boiling breaks down some of the nutrients into useless matter, but it is offset by the benefits. More healthy than boiling in water, is steaming food.
On May 18 2010 03:57 ShaperofDreams wrote: Cooking is essential trust me, I've just started learning and it's awesome. There's nothing like eating a great meal you made yourself and/or sharing it with others.
Has anyone thought of doing the dishes after cooking a good meal? Pans, plates, bowls, utensils, cups, T.T fucking pain in the ass. That's why guys are lazy.
After cooking a few times with my gf, we found that I was better at cooking and she was faster at doing dishes. So because of comparative advantage, I do the cooking, she does the dishes. I think it's fair.
Cooking is a good life skill to have. If you can make good, healthy, and tasty food, you can save quite a few bucks from not having to go out all the time and you have more control since you know everything that's going into what you eat. Sharing food with others is great too. It's so gratifying seeing clean plates or people getting seconds with a meal you made.
I love being able to cook so much. The people who say they can't cook are the same people who post asking for build orders: They don't understand the ideas behind the recipes and can only copy exactly what's in front of them. Once you realize why everything is happening in a certain order, you can play around and freestyle it to be more suited to your tastes.
I wouldn't trade living alone for the world, but cooking for yourself by yourself is a little taxing. Was one of the nice things of living with my ex. I just got out of my slump of being too lazy to make anything more than ramen and dumplings, and it's great! If you leave yourself time to cook a proper meal it's so fantastic
On May 18 2010 03:49 KudoJoe wrote: Leave this shit to the women bro. jk
Being able to cook should be a must for single men but it is very rare to find men who actually cook. Most single guys pick up the worst eating habits during their single lives and are honestly too lazy to cook. They resort to fast food which is obviously the most unhealthiest shit in the world. Guys then take this as their fundamental staple food for the next few years. Even if you exercise, it causes health issues down the road.
These days, it's even rare to find women who can actually cook "real" food. They look to frozen foods and pre-made recipes that require you to toss in the ingredients already packaged and add some water to cook = shit food.
You sir, have a rare skill. But learn train your women right! jkz srsly
I have noticed a sad trend as of late.
I think if you look at the majority of people who would say they can cook well, women still outnumber men. However, if you look at the number of people who are completely useless at cooking altogether, it seems there are way more women than men. I've also noticed that trend spread across to just basic cleaning abilities and laundry. It's like women are growing up in more progressive households, wanted more equality, and then just stopped giving a fuck about learning to cook and clean. It's actually bullshit. There is no way I would ever date seriously, let alone marry, a girl who can't cook.
EPT![[image loading]](http://yuli.eko.blog.undip.ac.id/files/2009/11/okonomiyaki.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://tausq.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/wpid-Good-Eats.jpg)
