Cooking - A Forgotten Hobby

If only you knew how much I love cooking. I always even had to fight against my eldest sister just to get a hold on our wooden ladle. But that was long time ago. At our early age, we were taught how to cook our food. If I remember correctly, I was ten and my sister was eleven that time. We had a very simple kitchen -similar to that of indigenous kitchens you'll find in remote places and hinterlands where only dried cut woods and coconut leaves were used to produce fire. I would sit over the kitchen's countertop - all made of wood and secretly marveled at how the fire engulfed our soot covered clay pot.

The food we had on our table is way far from what I have right now. We only had a pot of cooked corn grits partnered with fried dried fish and sauteed "camote" tops. These were very easy to cook. My sister and youngest brother (we were only three that time) would graciously feast over this humble food for dinner and sometimes were the same food(viand) we had for breakfast and dinner. We're poor but we're happy as one family.

So much for my childhood story, now is way different. Well, I no longer cook for my meals. My partner does. He will do the cooking while I do the dish washing. He cooks food better that I do because he graduated from a Hotel and Restaurant Management program. And he always insisted to do it despite my interest to cook. The food that I'm good at cooking are mainly sautés, soups and boiled dishes -nothing special actually. When it comes to viands, I don't eat beef and similar meat with strong beefy taste. I prefer eating vegetables and sauteed peas on most occasions.