Me cookin' in da kitchen
I really enjoy cooking. After consuming food, that is my favorite culinary occupation. I much prefer it to going out and eating in (most) restaurants, since I feel that way I have much more control over what sort of final product I can expect. I am not trying to brag, but over the years I've become quite skilled at making a wide variety of meals. But there is something quite interesting about the sorts of food-things that I am best at making. Even though my taste in food is quite catholic, and some of my favorite cuisines are those of the far-flung places of the Earth, the meals that i am the best at making are still the ones that I grew up with. This despite spending the last 15 years living in the US with only vague memory of how those things tasted, or even vaguer of how to make them.
When I was growing up I never actually cooked. I don't think I even made myself an
omelet until I was well into my teens. And yet, being a true food-lover, I would sneak into the kitchen whenever my mom was making some elaborate dish, and would savor the prospects of eating it in the near future. Over the years my observation became a bit more active, and I would help my mom with some of the more routine tasks that required little skill and only the repetitive effort - chopping the vegetables, mixing things in a bowl, things like that. The impression that those hours had left on my subconscious must have lingered, for I find myself after all these years (decades even) having an intuitive grasp of the basic "philosophy" behind the meals that my mom made. Oftentimes I find myself pleasantly surprised by what I had made using only a recipe found on the internet and after only the first go at it. My baklava in particular, although not exactly something originally made in my family, is gaining some local fame by the way. If you ever stop by my place, I would be glad to make some for you.
However easily making of the dishes from the old country comes to me, the same cannot be said about those from far-away places. It seems that more distinct the cuisine is from the one I am used to growing up, harder it is for me to get an intuitive sense for it. Over the years I've tried making many Chinese dishes, and although not all that bad, they were a far cry from what one can find in any semi-decent Chinese restaurant. Japanese food fared even worse. I absolutely adore Japanese food, and it was such a disappointment when my first and only attempt to make sushi ended up in utter disaster. If I am ever to get to the point where I can enjoy my own home-made Japanese food, I might have to undergone grueling months-long tutelage under a renown chef, a kind one my find on Iron Chef perhaps.