Food Talk Confession: I Don't Know How To Cook

Cooking: Is it a talent or a skill? Probably you already have someone in mind who is a great cook: it could be your mom, your dad, your grandma, your grandpa, any relative... it could be your husband, or your wife.. or it could be you!

Cooking can be taught and can be learned as well but making a recipe, blending flavors all together is a talent... which of course, I don't have... yet?

In this article, I will confess one of my top secrets: I don't cook. Well, I know how to cook BUT I don't cook. There are a lot of factors why I chose not to cook or the reasons why I didn't even bother to cook.

When I was younger, I think I was just 9 or 10 years old, I used to help our neighbor, Nanay Dalen, who has a food snack business outside her house, mind you, she is a senior citizen, a friend of my grandma.

Since there were no gadgets and the only thing that keeps me busy was sneaking to play outside and reading books, I'm eager to find something fascinating. Being a bored kiddo, I normally go to Nanay Dalen's place and help her set up her food snack business. She sells mango with shrimp paste with salt, turon, boiled peanuts, bananacue, maruya, balut, and a lot more. At first, I just observe her, the way she prepares the food. It was fascinating. The next thing I know, I was there in front of a pan, cooking turon, maruya, and bananacue. Every day, I help Nanay Dalen by cooking the snacks as she manage her business. Was it worth it? Of course! Nanay Dalen lets me choose what to eat for snack, any available food plus she gives me money, I think it's Php 50! I was so happy back then.

My parents got mad when they discovered I was cooking for Nanay Dalen's snack business. They told me that I am way too young to do those things... and that was the end of my first cooking experience It was fun though.

I encountered cooking again when I was in high school. Our school's curriculum isn't the regular curriculum, we have both the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) and the Technical Vocational Curriculum (TVC).

What is the difference? In BEC, students are just focused on academics while in TVC, students are focused on the vocational courses like Culinary, Computer Specialist, Cosmetology, and Garments Fashion and Design. Students in our school were divided, depending on our final average. We took those courses when we were freshmen and then we were categorized based on our 'courses'. Since I got a high grade in Culinary, that was my major course in high school. We had our cooking sessions in a professional kitchen set-up. There I learned how to cook from appetizers to desserts, even cakes and food good for businesses. We even slaughter a chicken! That was a nightmare!

Even though I know how to cook, I still prefer to not to cook hahaha. Weird right? My parents won't let us cook at home, it's always been my father who cooks the food, even until now. I do cook from time to time but all I cook are desserts or snacks! Hahaha You can see me baking the whole day but I won't cook. I have this feeling of being full whenever I cook a dish and ends up not eating what I've cooked. Can you feel me? 😅 That's why I prefer other people to cook for me. I think my role here is to just eat hahaha.

Despite the fact that I took a Culinary related course when I was in high school, I still don't know how to cook the basic viands/dish like adobo, sinigang, tinola, and a lot more. I am more of a baker and dessert maker than preparing dishes.

I am not proud that I don't know how to cook but it's just that I'm really not into it. I'm learning every day though but just the easy ones, you know, the fried and easy to cook food. Good thing my partner knows how to cook! Leave the dessert to me, I'd be sooo happy to make it everyday!

How about you? Do you cook? What food do you cook best? Let me know ❤️

March 23, 2022

Thanks a lot @LuaDesamor for the sponsorship renewal 😊❤️