Getting Started in the Kitchen

Becoming a great cook starts with a passion for life. Though eating is always associated with survival, eating "good food" is more about "living" or living life fully. Cooking to some seems like a daunting task, especially when there are so many fast food stores around and the grocery shelves are lined with all sorts of instant food products. Now, seldom does anyone have the drive to learn the art of real cooking with the intention to feed one's self only, though that may be a helpful survival skill for those who are often left by themselves at home; lest they want to live off canned food and instant noodles for an eternity. Great cooks cook out of love and labor for hours at a stretch to prepare every single component of a special dish. I am like that. And I don't mind spending hours in my kitchen. I love cooking and I love cooking for the special people in my life more. I express myself best through my food: the ingredients I choose and how I decide to cook these and the way the food is ultimately presented and served. I derive great pleasure in that. I'm sure a lot of my friends and family enjoyed a lot of my cooking, but I dare say I get greater satisfaction in seeing them enjoy the food, most especially when praises are thrown my way.

I do see myself in the food I cook. My cooking often reflects my moods and feelings. It captures my state of being in so many ways. There are times i opt for a simple meal of utan bisaya, a vegetable soup popular in the Visayas made by boiling all sorts of local veggies with malunggay leaves and seasoned only with salt or fish sauce; and paksiw, fish stewed in vinegar and spices. Other times I'd bring out my pasta maker and beat some four and eggs. And I serve the pasta with homemade bread and wine.

Cooking is like traveling. It brings back memories of parts of Asia and Europe I've been to. It also takes me to places I've dreamed of going, yet didn't have a chance to get there yet. Sometimes it takes me back to my childhood.

I love to prepare themed luncheons at home on Sundays, like the time I made a Greek lunch for a noontime viewing of Mama Mia. We enjoyed the meal between singing Dancing Queen and Super Trouper along with Meryl Streep. I baked a lovely stuffed squid basted with red wine, olive oil and fresh diced tomatoes. We could almost smell the Aegean sea off the Greek coast from our palates.

Another time I made an Indian lunch to match Slummbog Millionaire showing on my kitchen TV. I made quick a chapati, Channa masala and turmeric rice with a siding of mango chutney which I made ages ago that I somehow fished out of my crowded ref.


Chana Masala. A spicy Indian dish made of chickpeas. Perfect scooped up with a chapati.

Cooking really is a great adventure. I've been cooking for the longest time. I remember going to the Sunday market with my mum in Cebu, where I grew up. The variety of seafood fascinated me. There were strange creatures all over like sea cucumbers,giant squids, octopuses, all sorts of shellfish, slimy creatures, strange looking fishes and crustaceans that looked like the monsters in my nightmares. We'd think up a menu as we went along.

One of the first things I learned about cooking is that you can only be successful in the kitchen with the right attitude. All the skills and recipes can be learned along the way through experience and passion. Another thing, infusing it with love always make the food taste better.