que pasa

Sarah and I stayed in the freshmen dorm throughout college, so cooking facilities were far and few between.  We took up dining plans for convenience and to satisfy the occasional need to feast unhealthily, stock up on milk/ fruit/ bagels/ yoghurt/ OJ, or eat with freshmen (with way too huge a meal plan always). 

I always believe that there should only be one woman in the kitchen, and between Sarah and me, it was no contest.  She had so much in her favor - her italian background, instant pasta packs, yummy home recipes and The Joy of Cooking (which is a great book).  My role was to eat - and gladly too - whatever she prepared.  I loved it when she cooked.

We had some funny cooking escapades.  Like how we discovered that the black surface of little red pan that i bought at the dollar store was peeling.  Like checking out the strange foods that people would keep at the common fridge in the rooftop lounge.  Like hating the awful smell that the fridge emitted when people forgot about their food in the fridge for months (and no one would dare to touch the food because of the strange bacteria/mould that was growing off it).  Like how we had to use peanut oil to make pancakes the first time and she refused to eat the pancake-lets (they were really small) because she thought they tasted funky.  Like how I told Sarah to put in 4 cups of rice in our mini rice-cooker which caused the rice cooker to literally overflow with cooked rice just because I forgot that 1 cup would be enough for the two of us.  Like how we would cook our entire dinner in our small rice-cooker (in that small corner of our room right next to the sink) so as to save us the trip of going up to the rooftop kitchen to cook.  Like how the rooftop oven thermostat was kinda berserk - we had to keep scrambling upstairs to check on the stuff we were baking every five minutes.  Like how I would drive her crazy insisting that I was going to be sick when she cracked a raw egg on cooked pasta, stirred it for a few seconds and insisted it was cooked and that I could eat it.  Funny.

I did try cooking a few times.  Sarah taught me how to make pancakes.  The thick ones with banana chunks in them.  I tried to make my favorite cold tofu dish - with mushrooms, oyster sauce and pork floss - which did not come out too bad.  But Sarah hates mushrooms, and the fact that my food was brown in color, so I ate it up by myself.  No fun.  The one cooking experience I can be proud of when I invited xWaVe and a couple of other friends to breakfast at the end of senior year.  I made banana pancakes and french toast for about 15 people all by myself.  That together with extra bagels from Dining.  It is a nice feeling: when people enjoy your food, or the opportunity that your food provides for them to get together and hang out.  That was more than four years ago.  I have not cooked since then. 

I guess it is a matter of acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses.  I appreciate the result of cooking so much more than the actual process.  I did dabble in baking before college and that was fun with some successes, but I know I am not cut out for culinary matters, at any level.  Some of you may have heard of my baking test in middle school; Crispy Prawn was witness to my very pathetic cheesecake; and my family can testify to other failed attempts as well.  Then again, maybe I should dig out my baking recipe book and take a shot.  Just for the heck of it.  Who knows, maybe I will have a good hand this time.