master of the kitchen

* this post was first posted in Inadvertently Domesticated. my 2nd contribution to the blog.

Link can be found in the title.

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Growing up, I’ve been surrounded by relatives who know good food and know how to cook them. Both my grandmothers on both sides were superb in the kitchen. My paternal grandmother has the best leche flans by my standards in the world! Nothing compares to how each container would produce the perfect flan. My maternal grandmother has the best laing ever, that her recipe can’t be duplicated after the first try. But since they both passed away, who were the lucky ones who inherited their recipes?

Certainly not I. My attempts in cooking can only be enumerated to frying hotdogs, spam, eggs and those easy to cook dishes. In short, pang tamad (for the lazy). As much as I would want to adapt the skill, it seems that it doesn’t like me that much. And did I mention that I have this fear of lighting the stove? Whether using matches or just turning the knobs, how’s that for a wimp?

My mother has been frustrated in attempting to teach me how to cook. How can I learn when during the first few attempts she always had to do it all over again because she wasn’t happy with the way I was doing it. Which left me with a broken heart for cooking, but my mother didn’t stop there. One day she left the house without preparing anything for dinner. She just left me a note on how to prepare adobo. I followed the instructions to the letter but with a few adjustments on the taste. After laboring in the kitchen for an hour, tired, and with no more appetite, I served the “experimental” adobo to my family. I was dreading the reaction from my family. But surprise! They loved it!

It wasn’t the same as my mom’s recipe but my family sure did love my own variation. I never felt so proud. It meant there was still hope for me in the kitchen! I’ve learned to cook sinigang and tinola which is quite easy.

But then, I’d rather leave all the yummy dishes served by P, because he cooks way better than I and he sure beats those other culinary students. Ms C can attest to his famous Chili Con. :) (you have to get us drunk first before we can give you the recipe).