I’m a bit neurotic when it comes to dinner time, lunch, breakfast… It’s a ritual in my home; no tv, no computer, no reading, no texting, nothing. The place mats, forks and knives, napkins and glasses all have to be set up and no one is allowed to eat until everybody is seated and ready – now all together, eat! It was customarily a tradition from my childhood growing up, we couldn’t even lift up our spoon until my father sat on the table. Hence many families nowadays consider it next to impossible to have a traditional family meal on a daily bases. That’s all relative…
When reading an article on Huffpo on ‘bullshit you don’t have time to cook’, I felt an instant empathy for those who work hard, rush home exhausted to feed their hungry family… Who can think about roasting a chicken when you had an awful day at work? What you probably need is a straight shot of vodka while your family eat some crumbs off the pantry…
Again, I love to cook because it’s my therapy, an escape. I make it a job to feed my family nutritious meals, with silverware and background music, hey I even used to do candle lights on weekends… The only time when I order in is when my kids beg me for greasy pizza (which happens to be once every 4 months). Yes I make fresh pizza from scratch, roll sushi by request, make red sauce, and de-vain the crap from shrimp. But only because I enjoy the culinary experience, only because I grew up watching my mom and our maid do live in the kitchen, only because I have the time to care about FOOD.
Even though my life style steers closer to supporting the ‘bullshit you don’t have time to cook’ theroy, and I cannot promote or even comprehend the TV show ‘The Middle’s burgers & fries’ every night. So here is a hypothetical question I asked myself; if I were coming home exhausted in the evenings, I would probably pick up Spicy Crisp Chicken burger once or twice… The I would try Boston Market rotissary chicken, then do Thai take out, and more Thai take out, and even try Lean Cuisine lasagna, before getting really disgusted by salty & sugary food laced with MSG prepared by machines and line cooks.
In theory, there really is no excuse not to cook… Because in reality I’d probably come home to a defrosted salmon, which I will throw in the microwave with tariyaki sauce, sprinkled garlic and pepper for 8 minutes, bastmati rice cooked in 15 minutes, tossed salad and steamed broccoli. Dinner is served on a set table in less than 25 minutes. And that’s what we had for dinner last night…
It’s ok to dislike or be bad at cooking, but don’t bs about it.