(no subject)
cooking is easier than i used to think it was. i wonder why i had so much trouble with it for so long, why all my attempts would invariably end in disaster - fire alarms going off, knives slipping and nicking my fingers which would then leak disgusting blood into the food, me enjoying something i'd cooked for once only to vomit it all out, completely undigested, into the bathroom sink barely an hour later. it's weird how learning works. our learning curves are riddled with discontinuities. sometimes something just clicks in our brains while we sleep, and the next morning we wake up with superpowers. this is how i learned to cook, by waking up one summer morning no longer afraid of fire and knives. i haven't attempted anything particularly complicated yet, but maybe someday i'll graduate to the level of my old roommate, who would confidently prepare sophisticated dishes like beef tongues and hearts and invite all of his friends over to eat them. for now i'm happy with my humbler discoveries - it's enough to have found out about blanching, or to know that leaves don't burn like paper on a frying pan but instead curl up, moist and dark green, when set on beds of oil (this shocked me). it's like being let in on an ancient secret; cooking was one of the first acts that set humans apart from other species (except for neanderthals, who apparently boiled), meaning that turning on the stove is a defining experience. also, it's nice to have a hobby that isn't watching tv.