101 Truths About Me: #6 I love to cook.
I consider myself as an occasional cook because there's a part of me that's a wannabe chef... hehe
Hmmm... let me just copy+paste here what I wrote in my fb album with the same title:
Occasional Cook (wannabe SHIyfT!)
I heart making ordinary days extra special in simple ways :) This is where I post my culinary mess. Occasional cook because I only cook when there's an occasion and when I feel like there is an occasion even during ordinary days and the rest don't ask me to do the cooking I'm simply incapable :)
As a child I've always been interested in cooking. I've learned to cook through my father whom I call Papa. Like me he was an occasional cook, meaning we cook only when there's a special occasion. (Sorry I got weird vocabulary and I have my own made-up dictionary... ha ha)
My father was a lavish party thrower and he loved food so much. I grew up exposed in his cooking. You can't make him cook when there's no happening or event but he likes to celebrate every occasion in our life be it a birthday, anniversary, winning a contest, getting awards or perfect a test, recognition day, and of course fiesta and holidays and yeah, I just have to add winning cockfights and mahjong.
He loved entertaining people and when you say feast, it meant feast. The most extravagant party I can remember was his birthday (I'm not really sure about the exact age maybe somewhere around 42) but he had turbo broiled the same number of native chickens with his age that time plus a whole Lechon and other main dishes which were all his favorites. And I never had a problem with those list of his fave food because everything is simply delicious but Mama isn't feeling the same way about it for they're all not on the cheap side and it's all bad for his health.
Main dish cooking background came from Papa and baking and desserts knowledge came from Mama. We sell the most expensive Ice Candy in our town when I was still in grade school. Avocado flavored, 1 piece is 5 pesos, regular Ice candy price that time would be 1 or 2 pesos but we do that only during summer. That's our way to consume our avocado supply coming from our vacant lot.
I remember helping out in the kitchen when I was little and we were fond of cooking shows. I always love watching people cook be it on the telly or up-close. And even then I already have that habit to decorate and present our ordinary food in a different way. From the very start I'm a creative person and I guess will always be and I like aesthetics everywhere even for my food. Sometimes they like what I do to the food but I have lots of disasters.
I remember one time I added the whole bottle of Cheez Whiz into a freshly cooked rice and served the rice whole upside down like a cake and placed a candle in the middle even if there's no occasion whatsoever. Everything went orangy cheesy. It was disgusting we needed to cook another pot of rice to replace what I just ruined. But I got the cheese sauce idea on the telly, darn that's why never trust much the ads they are misleading and mostly meant to persuade but don't live up to their promises.
But even then I never been discouraged about cooking. I like it as a once-a-while hobby. Some days I like to cook almost everyday, some days I don't even want to be in the kitchen.
Oh before I forget I actually have a sort of formal education about cooking besides winning 2nd place for 2 consecutive years representing our school in a district cooking contest with a classmate when I was in grade school we had some cooking lessons too in a subject called T.H.E. (Technology and Home Economics) but very minimal. Then some more during college under a livelihood subject but this one I didn't pay much attention to it I let my best friend do the cooking and I did the eating... haha
It was a commercial cooking class and the menu were Filipino food and the main objective is how to commercialize it. I've learned from it a lot. It made the food cheaper in cost through quantity but not cheap when it comes to taste for it retains almost the same taste as the original recipes.
But I'm not into cooking Filipino food (not that I don't like it) but most of them are actually too tedious to make and so better if I just buy it since it's pretty available anywhere here. That's easier to do - just buy it, cheaper and even tastier than my cooking most probably... less hassle. Though I can cook some if ever I want to but only some of my fave like adobo.
My cooking mantra is affordability, quality and time-saving. So I prefer to cook meals that are easy to prepare and less hassle and now I just added healthier. I'm starting to get serious being vegan but not that hardcore. I'm just willing to give up meat for now. So expect vegan recipes from me from now on. I'm actually formulating my own recipe. Well I have to because I don't have much resources so I only cook things that are present in our fridge. I am combining the same ingredients over and over creating different one each time to satisfy my fickle taste-buds without spending a fortune.
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