I can cook

I can definitely cook.

At an early age being the eldest I was told by mom to learn how to cook. Going to the market was something that I despise though especially the endless haggling for discount, but it is all strategy, charm and PR which I would not bother. And so whenever I am asked to go to the market I would really have to prepare myself with such ordeal. For that reason I never became a good cook.

They said only when you appreciate the marketplace can you become a good cook - so they say. You ought to personally see, feel, touch, listen, smell, taste and perhaps make use of the sixth to the nth sense those necessary ingredients that you will use in your cooking.

Lazy cook I may call myself but creative one or should I say experimental... I could really turn the kitchen as a workshop, a canvass, or a laboratory. That's when I became vegetarian that I discovered my creative talent for cooking and even baking too, definitely those are separate skills some can cook but not bake or do not have passion for baking (they do not have oven to bake - plausible excuse).


A bowl-full account of  my cooking skills and eating transitions:

at age of 6 - playful me staying late playing at neighbors houses, I eat alone for dinner so I end up eating rice with soy sauce and oil which I enjoyed. Largely carnivorous.

at age 7 - Living with my aunt in Ilocos I came to appreciate ane enjoyed eating vegetables.

at age 8 - I am mom's apprentice, peeling veggies preparing and pounding spices


at age 12 - I cooked my first Ilocano dish with the help of a relative, common name would be inabraw but a different one since it includes alocon, kamote, talong and the staple seasoning bagoong.

high school - reheating a week supply of mom's prepared baon ( I was studying and staying in another city)

college - never cooked since my uncle and the family I lived with is such a good cook.

after college/meditation - for 9 years I turned vegetarian and so I learned creative/meditative cooking


turn of the millennium - becoming an OFW in Riyadh, KSA I discovered the beauty of one-meal-dish that I have learned when I was vegetarian, started eating fish

2005 - first time of stay in Korea, the pleasure and pressure of hot and spicy food, Korean influenced cooking

2006 - I started eating just everything,  rediscovered meat eating...

2010 - I gained so much weight from eating

2011 -  I discovered I like food movies, it is as pleasurable as eating, so I start this new blog...


Favorite foods/dishes (among others, hmmm...)

Bicol food (Mom from Bicol and learned cooking Bulakenia style)
- as a kid I love mom's kare-kare, estofado, adobo and the like
- Bicol foo would be laing ( my aunt and lola too cook so well, they have their own style)

Ilocano
-dinengdeng, pakbet, kilawin and all those fresh from the garden/farm veggies - rainy season we have mushroom too. I also had chance to bait for wild birds and farm pigeons as well as dig root crops.

Chinese
- a staple food for pinoys - pansit it is - well pansit canton by Lucky Me is such a big hit. I like the buns, siopao as well

and other Pinoy or well fusion dishes...

Italian
- spaghetti of course and pizza


Indian
- dal, chapati, pakora, paratha, gulab jamon and all other sweets

Middle East
- kapsa rice (I did not eat chicken then), I had a chance to taste a camel's meat but did not.. sadiki a famous drink among pinoy brewers (hahaha)

Korean
- Bibimpap, samgyetang, samgeupsal, kimbap among others

And other delicious food, I love to eat.

I like sweets, nuts, pastries, etc.

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