The joy of self-cooking

My Father is great

When I was still at my old house, eating home-cooked meals was very common.

My father is a good cook, albeit the dishes that he makes can be heavy in taste at times. As an Asian, the various usage of condiments is essential to unlock the flavors of the food. Hence, soy sauce, thick soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil, pepper, garlic, shallot, cooking wine, fish sauce are the staples that you will always find in my father’s repertoire, in stir-fry bak choy, pork patties and many others.

I consider my father to be the endurance type, in the sense that to cook for 3pax, sometimes 5pax is not a problem for him. Prep work can take around 40 minutes on average, sometimes even more to cut, marinate, clean the ingredients. Then, the dishes must be cooked. Stir-fry, steam, deep fry, pan sear, soup making etc, all look trivial in his magic hands. Notwithstanding that after the meal, the dishes must be washed too. Of course, I will be the one to help to wash.

Moving out

Now that I have moved out (really miss the old days) and am staying together with my wife, cooking has become the needed thing to do to save some expenses on eating out. We occasionally prepare lunch boxes, and dinner consisting of rice and 2 to 3 dishes. Tired as it may be, it can’t be denied that the savings are sizeable too. Compared to eating out on RM30++ for 2 pax, with home-cooked food of ingredient cost of ~RM6-10, it’s a no-brainer.

But it’s not just about cost saving. For me, it’s also about being health conscious, that I know what really goes into my meals, and finding joy in the process.

Finding Joy within

One thing that I have been exposed to when home-cooking, is that I get to explore the recipes that we find fun on the internet. I’m able to learn what condiments go well with Stir-Fry Tomato egg, Fried Tofu and so on. And the ones that I’m most proud of, Pan Seared Cream Sauce Salmon with Mashed Potatoes. Hoo boy, that really takes a long time to prep, and challenging to make due to the multi-step processes. However, it looked somewhat good, tasted good, and it felt great that we were able to produce restaurant-ish taste on our special Valentine’s Day.

Also, it is fun to come out with one’s own ways and recipes to cook for. I had great success in buying bread wrap, lightly toast it, adding some eggs, mustard sauce, cheese, ham, and voila, a very simple breakfast wrap! It has even become our go-to breakfast if we are stuck. Another one is dry sauce noodles. I’m able to get 900g dry wheat noodles for just RM8.50, so that I can experiment with various combinations and ratios of sauces, condiments, and side dishes to create the noodles that I like.

Of course, being in my own house plays a big factor in it. It’s not that I’m not able to cook while I’m living with my father and sister, but more on the social pressure (that’s in my mind). For instance, I ought to deal with the anxiety of cooking in front of others and being judged about it. Also, it’s very weird to cook for yourself only and not for others, right? I’m not mentally tough enough to cook for multiple people, multiple dishes like my father did, He is a hero!

Now, with the kitchen that is owned by me, the condiments and pans are placed in a well-reachable place, I get to buy and decide on my own ingredients (and get a harsh reality check on the price of the ingredients. Who knew pork cost RM35++ per kg?). It feels like a place for my imagination to run wild and putting a smile on the person that I loved most. Also also, it may sound crazy, but prepping works can feel like meditation at times. I coined this phrase “You shouldn’t rush when prepping, but you also have to be fast”. So, my mind should be focused on prepping and nothing else. That itself feels like meditation for me.

Having modern gadgets such as induction kitchen stove, multi-purpose sink also increases the enjoyment of cooking. Say goodbye to the troubles of buying gas and placing it below the stove that will take up precious storage space. The multi-purpose sink has a soap dispenser, knife storage, vegetable and cup washer, movable sink head which are all very intriguing.

It’s not always rosy

With that being said, self-cooking is not all sunshine and roses, in the sense that there is dish washing to be done every time. It’s not unheard of to spend half an hour just on dish washing. And the prep work, grocery buying work, all needs to be done. Meals won’t magically appear out of the blue, thus there are times that I just can’t be bothered with cooking and just want to eat out.

But I suppose this kind of feeling is not unique with cooking, right? Even if we love our job and hobby, there will be times that we are just simply tired of it. But such is life, that even when the boring and mundane pours upon us, we have no choice but to acknowledge and keep pushing and pushing, and we will reap the fruits greatly. As for the technical downsides, a cooktop being completely flat means that using wok is out of the window. Yeah… they did offer a wok stand, but I really can’t be bothered to buy a wok to try it out. It’s a shame as Asians really need the wok to create some great dishes. Maintaining the kitchen in pristine condition as long as possible are also adding up to the house chores.

All in all, it is a great experience, and I hope to continue it for as long as I can. But first, let me have a run to the Nasi Goreng Kampung on the mamak downstairs… XD