When I was a child, my family was poor, just like my parents were hungry. I was never picky about eating, but I was satisfied with filling my stomach. This kind of carelessness in my bones formed the habit of eating and drinking.
Strange to say, I don't know what is the inevitable connection between eating and cooking. I don't like eating. It seems that I don't like cooking and have some emboldened reasons. I've always wondered about the problem that somehow formed, a little paranoid male chauvinism, especially that cooking is a necessary quality for women, while men work hard to earn money to support their families, which seems to be a traditional collocation model. Of course, many senior chefs and street chefs in restaurants are mostly men, so I think this is just a professional way to make a living. However, the daily fireworks and the concertos of pots and pans are still dominated by women. This concept or prejudice has occupied my mind for many years.
The changes in recent years may have to hit yourself in the face. Who has counted how many men like to cook now? Obviously, there is a tendency that more and more men start to drill into the kitchen, but you can't see that online friends often bask in their own food, which seems to be defined as the label of "fashionable good man". From cynicism in the past to envy now, I think it is a big step forward for society. "Going to the hall and going to the kitchen" is no longer the patent of women. Men's diversity, tenderness and desire for expression exude the smell of "greasy and precious men" from the outside to the inside, as if our harmonious society has penetrated into the smallest cell unit, reflecting the harmony of yin and yang in cooking. Even if a man occasionally shows off, making two specialty dishes for his family will attract a lot of attention than those "gentlemen" who sit in danger and wait for enjoyment. At the very least, it is not easy to experience the three meals a day of most female compatriots, which is much better than the indifferent flash that leaves the ladies' kitchen busy.
Although I seldom cook, I admire the sentiment and courage of men who take the initiative to cook when I am close to good men. I remember that Huang Lei, the star, is a good husband who loves to cook. He often basks in his own food in Weibo, and he loves to sprinkle dog food, which charms fans, because people cook a delicious home-cooked food for their wives and children every three days, and their happiness is bursting! Let many girls fantasize that finding a husband who can cook will marry the right person! "Yellow Kitchen" is by no means a hollow reputation. People who are "good fathers and good husbands" are very grounded and stay at home. They put aside the ingredients of showmanship but make their own kitchens flourish, which makes us grandfathers who don't cook very much and love to pout! In fact, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's better to move than to move. Throw yourself down, roll up your sleeves, and you can practice your hands whenever you want to cook. The key is whether you are willing, not to mention that there are so many ready-made learning examples!
The first time I had the idea of cooking in my life was when I was ten years old. Usually, I always watched my mother skillfully roll noodles on the big board, spread them over and over again into a round and thin pie shape, spread them on the noodles, and kept spreading them evenly. Finally, I folded them up and cut them into thin noodles, feeling that the whole process had a superb sense of labor art. So once, while my family was away, I made some noodles and decided to imitate the example of rolling noodles. As a result, more water was added to the noodles, and more water was added to the noodles, which was repeated several times, making a small pot, but the rolled noodles were soft and sticky, and the rolling pin and chopping board were stuck with big holes and small eyes, so there was no way to cut them into irregular noodles. When my mother came back, she praised me, saying that she could think of cooking for her family and was a caring child. In fact, we all know that it is the process of children enjoying "playing with noodles", which feels much better than playing with mud. So I think that all children like to pack jiaozi with their parents and the old people, with their immature hands rubbing around, such as doing fancy crafts, and looking for the aura of squeezing clay figurines. The atmosphere is particularly pleasing, even if it is crooked and shapeless, but this interesting and entertaining way has spread the seeds of hope and love in deep affection.
Following the thread of time, I was thinking that I really grew up and took part in the work, but I still had little interest in cooking. The inertia of eating with one's mouth open often relapses, because with the support of parents and family, there is no need to intervene in cooking. Whenever I go home and eat ready-made, my family is ready early. Even at work lunch, I often go to the staff canteen with my workmates. The lively time of collective life is not boring, but it is particularly memorable, so that it has been a frequent visitor to collective canteens for several years. I wonder why I didn't pay serious attention to the concept of cooking. It seems that I rarely appreciate my family's cooking intentions. Everything is taken for granted, but I don't think so, but I just fill my stomach in a hurry and walk away easily. Later, I will pay more attention to work and peripheral things. When I have children at home, I am too busy and have a nanny, so I rarely take care of cooking at home. Besides, being busy outside is more than socializing. If you have a meal, you will go to a restaurant, or ask a group of buddies to eat and drink in the stalls. This situation is common, even if you think that your family only buys some take-away specialties occasionally, it is a gift to take it home by the way.
So now let me reflect on the past. I dare say that men who don't cook are either dependent or lazy, or like to enjoy their success, or they are unwilling to do so. I am both. Especially in the kitchen, you have to pack up and prepare a lot of things, don't want to choke the smell of oil smoke, don't want to touch things like chicken, duck and fish, not to mention the childhood impulse to get praise, or to use your brain to innovate and surprise your family. Such active hospitality is rarely fulfilled. Supposedly, I often eat out and have seen many delicious dishes and special snacks. Why didn't I try to practice my cooking at home? I think I'm a freak. I'd rather wash dishes and finish them neatly than waste time tossing food there. My lover once laughed at me and said, "You are only suitable for some stupid and clumsy work, which means that I lack patience and precision in cooking. I tried several times in a hurry and it was hard to swallow, but all of them said that it was not delicious. I simply backed out and became a" cutting shopkeeper "in the kitchen. Do you think this mentality is rebellious and passive? If we want to keep pace with the times, look at the young people now. They always say that life is fast, and it is unknown whether they can't cook or don't want to cook. However, ordering take-away fast food has become the trend of the times, and I am used to it. If I go back to 20 or 30 years, am I in this state? It is estimated that it is not much different, or I can pull the refrigerator, make an omelette and cook instant noodles to fool my stomach!
More than a decade ago, many people may have watched the Korean TV series Dae Jang Geum, but the lover accompanied her intermittently during pregnancy and even finished watching it. For those who rarely watch TV series, I am fascinated by it, not because of the ups and downs of the characters in the drama, but because of the spirit of "Da Jang Geum" cooking sincerely. In the later stage of the plot, those ladies-in-waiting and ladies-in-waiting relied on their skillful cooking skills. It can't be said that it gives us a lot of inspiration and enlightenment to integrate the palace medicinal diet, Chinese medicine tonic and ancient wisdom into the seemingly simple but profound and unique cooking diet. Many modern people are sub-healthy, and there are many things like hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and coronary heart disease. How many of them are caused by improper diet and bad habits? At home, we can mix the ingredients reasonably, choose the kinds according to the family's preferences and appetites, think of ways to "turn decay into magic" to make delicious dishes, and take health as the first priority to start the motivation of cooking. "Eat home-cooked meals, wear coarse clothes", simple roads and ordinary ones are the best food, and the words of our ancestors are quite meaningful. Just as we see that Korean court cuisines in the play are not all unattainable tribute materials such as sea cucumber, abalone, wings and belly, but mostly cheap, natural and easily available ingredients. You don't have to eat expensive food, but eat right food. For ordinary families, it looks simple, but it is nutritious and healthy, and you can still cook delicious food with quality. This is the real food with a long history of "rich in the people". Even if it is light, it will last for a long time in Mika and enjoy it. For example, steamed bread made of Chinese cabbage like "Dae Jang Geum", hot pot made of bean curd wrapped with meat foam, and five-son porridge made of walnuts and pine nuts ..... These meals can only be repeated in the kitchen after family members have slowly pondered and worked hard to make them, and they can eat new ideas. Of course, you don't argue. If you really have the level, you can also make "big meals" such as roast duck with diced pepper and fish head, prawns with sweet and sour ribs, boiled chicken feet with sliced meat, and pork skewers with fat intestines and bean sprouts. But I believe that how you cook them is definitely different from the dishes in the take-away restaurant with heavy taste, oily water and unclean food. When you carefully taste them, your own small pot dishes will be more enjoyable, thick but not greasy, light and fragrant.
Even if you have tasted the delicious food in the world, you prefer the simple food at home. This is common sense. Mixed with the power of emotion, I believe everyone likes a big family with a lively kitchen. Because there are a lot of things listed in daily life, I still feel that the process of cooking and eating by a family can best express endless happiness. It's not only to perceive the fragrance and sweetness between lips and teeth, but also to enrich the sustenance of family heirloom spirit, just like to experience the endless cooking that our parents give us one after another, and the love we are full of will become more empathetic only after we become parents. In fact, children want to be happy and enjoy the warmth of love and home with their parents at the same table. Even husband and wife want to be able to eat together with a pleasant countenance, which is full of affection, and truly reproduces the case of Qi Mei. Not to mention the elderly, who doesn't want their children and grandchildren to sit around their knees and eat in laughter? I think that is the happiest old age. Imagine if a family is used to cooking together, isn't that kind of thoughtfulness and tenderness a vivid portrayal of living in the present? Don't you think that the kitchen is a place full of temperature, deep love and tenderness? In another scene, if you come home after a busy day, the kitchen is cold, the refrigerator is empty, and there is no laughter and fireworks, what kind of mood do you think it is? Is the heart also cold! As long as I get home, I can hear the tinkling sound in the kitchen, smell the delicious food from time to time, and serve the delicious food in an instant. What kind of mood is that? It must be exhausting and sweet inside. This is the appearance of the home that I really long for, comfortable and happy, warm and calm, plain and beautiful, warm and happy! "There is no fireworks in the kitchen, and the most delicious taste in the world is pure joy", like a beautiful painting, seems to be a simple daily life. After a busy life, I suddenly look back, looking for the happiness of my life, and inadvertently discovering that what I am pursuing is at home. This is the taste of love, which is the beauty of three meals a day and the perfection that can last forever!
When the children are getting older, I find that my concept of cooking is becoming more and more mature, and I gradually understand that cooking is also a life responsibility and a family responsibility. The true meaning of life comes from the fireworks of cooking with fire. Even if it is not exquisite, it may not be delicious, but it will certainly be absorbed and gradually understand that cooking, steaming, frying and frying are also the art of life. "The smell of fireworks in the world is the most soothing to the hearts of ordinary people", and a vegetable, a meal, a soup and a porridge are all life. Also slowly know that in the smoky, it is mixed with the hidden taste of happiness. I used to be lazy in the kitchen for many years, and I felt that I was really guilty of an out-of-touch disease. In the final analysis, it reflected my indifference to the concept of home. Think about it. People take food as the sky, life takes food as the first priority, and food is the first thing in the world. They have not put themselves in the service of their beloved relatives to satisfy their appetite. That kind of guilt and introspection seems to find a selfish and stingy person.
The sun and the moon turn around, what is life, maybe it is the colorful life and the daily necessities of life. My real change is that the whole family went abroad a few years ago, and they had to take care of their three children's food, clothing, housing, transportation and study, and cope with strange environments and countries. There were no relatives and friends to count on, and they relied entirely on husband and wife to run a home. I used to cook very little, but I have to do a lot of things myself here. For example, foreign food and western food are not used to it, and life is very different from that at home. If you live in the countryside and go out for a meal, you must drive around to find the right food. Many details of life are inconvenient, and you have to force yourself to adapt to all the inadaptability, especially "cooking" has become an important priority, because children also like Chinese food and prefer the lively and delicious atmosphere of eating together at home, and the responsibility is on your shoulders. I have moved to the United States for four times in recent years. Whenever I move, the first consideration is to change the kitchen range hood, because Chinese people are used to frying and cooking, and the oil smoke is large. However, the kitchen design in foreign countries generally has low power or the ground suction type can't meet our traditional cooking methods. "If you want to do a good job, you must sharpen your tools first." Since you are so considerate and the kitchen space can be played, you can practice cooking. So staying at home will ponder what to do, eat, buy and use today, and prepare everything. Children are growing up, how to change the pattern, how to be nutritious and how to keep trying to have some attractive special meals has indeed become an important topic every day. So now I understand that the early failure to cook didn't give me an independent environment, didn't give me a "forced mountain", didn't give the hungry a chance to open the pot or ate the last meal, the environment changed people, life forced people to change, the reality would be compelling, the pressure and challenges would temper people, and it was difficult to change when facing difficulties. As it turns out, if you really do it, it's not that difficult. Maybe you have cultivated a hobby and interest!
Cooking smells everywhere, and there are always surprises everywhere. Soak in the kitchen all day, and become a self-taught, and thoroughly understand the children's daily love, such as scrambled eggs with tomatoes, shredded potatoes in vinegar, Mapo tofu, roasted eggplant, stir-fried beans, sliced celery, broccoli chicken (Chinese kale chicken), sweet and sour pork tenderloin, cashew nuts and shrimps, and roast beef with potatoes. There are many varieties, and if you make a menu, there will be about 30. Of course, northerners like to eat pasta, rolling noodles, steaming steamed bread, spreading pancakes and making a jiaozi? Wonton is also a necessary item. Sometimes I grope for my own experience and slowly learn it without a teacher. Occasionally, I can come up with ideas to show my skills to a new job. For example, go to the supermarket to buy some beef bones, boil them in the pot for a few hours, then bake some oil cakes, sprinkle chopped green onion and coriander, and make a bowl of beef soup with fresh sauce. It's simple, affordable and beautiful, and you can eat the taste of your hometown immediately! In addition, it is porridge, which is also a special liking. It seems that you can't live without porridge for a day. What kind of millet and pumpkin porridge, red bean and barley porridge, glutinous rice porridge, eight-treasure porridge, sweet potato and corn porridge, etc., all the traditional farmhouse meals have been moved home, and sometimes salty porridge such as sea cucumber millet porridge and preserved egg lean porridge is full of praise for the whole family. My lover gave me the nickname "porridge monk". Sometimes I wonder, how did I go to the United States and learn authentic China food? Because driving to China supermarket and Korean supermarket near new york is rich in everything, which is completely in line with the traditional authentic taste of China people, the original unexpected convenience makes it easy to cook Chinese food.
Of course, in order to adapt to the changes in children's tastes, I also learned to bake bread or make simple meals such as sandwiches and salad. Sometimes it's a beautiful happy time to do it with children. I feel that children like to participate in baking food interactively and enjoy it. As for Pizza, apple pie and so on, I still bought a lot outside. After several unsuccessful experiments, I gave up because I felt that there was no delicious takeaway. In addition, it is found that American families love barbecues, not to mention the high efficiency and frequency of indoor ovens, that is, outdoor ovens BBQ are also the mainstream social tools for Party dinners in the courtyard. We can go to the supermarket to buy some finished and semi-finished ingredients and various barbecue artifacts, set up a table with wonderful food and have a party in the yard. Think about it, if the weather is clear and the wind is breezy, a group of friends and relatives are laughing, eating, drinking and having fun, watching the food on the grill sizzling with oil and smoke, and the air is filled with meat and flowers, coupled with sushi rice balls, bread cakes, cheese ham and beer hamburgers, it will become a generous and heroic feast! Besides, it also smells like an original ecological picnic, which feels like the real fireworks. Children can also join in the fun to help roast corn, roast sweet potatoes, kebabs, add charcoal fire, etc. The participation is very strong and grounded. Everyone has a good time and can't help but admire: the courtyard barbecue at home is not only a feast, but also a beautiful and splendid dining landscape!
There have been several heavy snows in new york this winter, and the epidemic situation has reduced outdoor activities. However, the whole family lives at home every day and catches up with the Spring Festival in China, and they feel that this year's food is a bit monotonous. Looking at the snow outside the window, a whim, "there's a gleam of green in an old bottle, there's a stir of red in the quiet stove. There's a feeling of snow in the dusk outside, what about a cup of wine inside?? " Bai Juyi's poems depict the artistic conception of eating and drinking on snowy days. There is a saying that "every day without eating hot pot is a disappointment to snowy days". With such association, snowflakes are flying and the chill attacks people. How nice it would be if a family could sit around the hot pot and have a hearty taste for a change! Contact the hot pot restaurant in Chinese restaurant online immediately when you are interested, and drive with your lover to pick up the hot pot bottom materials, dip sauce, beef and mutton, vegetables, etc. There is no charcoal copper hot pot at home, so you can make do with a small electric pot. Anyway, the steaming bottom of the pot, unique spicy oil, rinse with all kinds of meat and fresh dishes, and enjoy the snow and take pictures. I feel that this cold winter and the hateful epidemic have disappeared in the aroma of food, and it seems that I have found a prosperous day. Found this bright spot, simple hot pot has become the main direction of improving diet in winter in the future!
I feel that I have talked a lot of nonsense, and I always think that cooking is a hectic rhythm. In fact, finding out the rules of cooking and mastering the dietary characteristics of my family will not make people feel anxious. On the contrary, I can calm myself down and think about a lot of things, thinking that it can also bring delicious food and health to my family. Why not? The topic of cooking and eating in front of me is written for a while when I think about it intermittently. Maybe the text is not satisfactory. In the final analysis, I want to repeat the theme and let us know:
Eating is nature, and no one has the talent to cook, but I think if a person loves a family, he will definitely practice and enjoy cooking for his family. I think everyone who loves cooking is a person who loves life very much. Cooking for himself is a virtue, and cooking for his family is a practice. We should believe in our own potential, cut vegetables and cook happily, so that we can use a handy spatula to stir up a sweet taste, use pleasing spices to bring up a happy taste, and use pleasant cooking to cook a happy meal. Even if there are no good ingredients, some aspects or skills are not satisfactory, but the food is endless and delicious, learning from others' strengths, making up for their own shortcomings, and learning endlessly. This heart is enough to warm relatives and feel the world. The more we live, the more we understand that life is a perfect dish, and we also need to mix all kinds of sweet, sour, spicy and salty flavors in life in proportion, blend in happiness, immerse ourselves in passion, stir sincerity, enjoy cooking, and stew into a life full of infinite desire and hope, so it must be an extraordinary and delicious life to taste.
We all believe that there is a bright future ahead, but it is easy for us to forget the shortness of life and the fragility of life itself. It is precisely a lot of time that I forget to cook several delicious meals for my family, forget to talk about the fireworks and happy moments around the dining table with my beloved, and forget that the kitchen is the source of daily life, and cooking for my family can also bridge the cracks in life. We always rely on or entrust others to serve ourselves a day's meal, but over time, many things become debts and regrets. Isn't it? If you can personally feel that you have a home to go back to, someone to rely on, food to eat and something to say, and you are relaxed and comfortable, that is true happiness around you! I think if a person has filial piety, he can often cook for his parents; If there is love, cooking by husband and wife practitioners can promote harmony, harmony and harmony; If you have kindness, the example of cooking for children can guide their independent outlook on life and their sense of responsibility after they get married and set up a family. If you have perseverance, please stick to this enduring virtue, carry out cooking to the end, and the final harvest and feedback must be a life full of wisdom and abundance.
I am willing to associate with cooking, I am willing to love cooking, I am willing to encourage myself with cooking, and I am willing to grow and harvest happiness with people who love cooking!
Last year's circle of friends was simply cut and pasted to prove the progress of cooking, and it was always new to encourage!