Sachin goes to the Supermarket...and Beyond!
On first impression, some might think of me as shy for not having much to say usually, and while this may be partially true, there's more to it. I just try to keep my mouth shut as much as possible because when I do open it to express myself, something brutally honest and potentially terrible comes out of it...and once that happens...drama ensues and there's no getting out of that hole but deeper and deeper into it...
But you know what? Sometimes one discovers buried treasure after digging so deep.
I remarked on how little I liked my mother's cooking last night while fiddling around with dinner last night. I had often been too honest about how I felt about the quality of the food for too long, and this was the last straw. My mother finally unleashed her fury and challenged me to try and do better. She left it up to me to make a decent dinner for the next night. I accepted the challenge, leaving my mother astonished that she had just given herself a break and had set up a journey for me to acquire independent life skills that I was lacking...
The next day, I came to the realization of what I had gotten myself into. Cooking? What did I know about cooking other than EZ Mac, spaghetti, peanut butter sandwhiches, and omelettes? Lacking some serious knowledge, I turned to the only comfortable resource I had readily available, The Internet. After getting a good link from a friend, I browsed through numerous vegetarian recipes contributed by people all over the world. This shouldn't be too difficult. It's the same as going through a chemistry lab protocal. Just follow the directions...And then I started to notice the technological jargon and various ingredients that did not quite click with my vocabulary. Cumin seeds? Coriander? Tumeric? Garum Masala? What are all these spices and stuff? Oh no...this wasn't going to be as easy as I had thought.
And then I took a step into the most diversely insane supermarket ever!
I passed the stacked carts before turning back to get one. And then I entered traffic much like that you see on the road...but a lot less orderly...like you'd see in India. Carts rolled on with no traffic law enforcemnt from one area to another. It was a traffic jam like no other; a huge crowd near all the vegetable produce made traveling difficult. It was like I was driving my car in Chicago. Parking was a problem too. When I found where the okra or eggplant were at, I had to park my cart somewhere and move next to a few people who were busily picking out good veggies ffrom bad veggies. I had little idea how to distinguish among them...I just lightly squeezed each veggie to make sure it was firm and didn't have any weird bruises. I figured that was how to do it anyways. ::Shrug::
The majority of people here, at Valli Produce, were Indian, Asian, or Latino. It almost felt as if I were in another country just then. However, as I moved toward the frozen food section of the supermarket, I noticed increasingly more white Caucasians grabbing a quick frozen dinner entree from the freezers. Heh, interesting.
I see why one would rather microwave a frozen meal though...it takes soooo much more time and effort to cook. I hesitated at first. Didn't know how to start, but my mother was there to guide me through the whole process, so that was nice. At first, I stuck to the recipe word for word, and my mother scoffed at my insistance to cook this way. She offered me recommendations to do certain things differently. I suppose it was like reading notes left by the Half-Blood Prince...deviations from the written...taken from someone with more experience and wisdom. I also learned what all these spices and things were for, and I learned why I couldn't just set the temperature on super high to quicken things. "When you are cooking, you need to have a lot of patience," my mom told me when I would get frustrated with how slowly the potatoes were cooking.
In the end, it was a success. I made something my mother had never cooked before, a dish composed of eggplant, okra, potatoes, tomatoes, and onions all mixed together in a yummy curry-like something. I just love eggplant and okra, and I'm glad I was able to combine the two and taste them together for the first time.
Hmmm, what creation shall I consider next?
(Yes, I think it is fairly obvious that I have wayyy too much free time lately, hehe)
:-)
But you know what? Sometimes one discovers buried treasure after digging so deep.
I remarked on how little I liked my mother's cooking last night while fiddling around with dinner last night. I had often been too honest about how I felt about the quality of the food for too long, and this was the last straw. My mother finally unleashed her fury and challenged me to try and do better. She left it up to me to make a decent dinner for the next night. I accepted the challenge, leaving my mother astonished that she had just given herself a break and had set up a journey for me to acquire independent life skills that I was lacking...
The next day, I came to the realization of what I had gotten myself into. Cooking? What did I know about cooking other than EZ Mac, spaghetti, peanut butter sandwhiches, and omelettes? Lacking some serious knowledge, I turned to the only comfortable resource I had readily available, The Internet. After getting a good link from a friend, I browsed through numerous vegetarian recipes contributed by people all over the world. This shouldn't be too difficult. It's the same as going through a chemistry lab protocal. Just follow the directions...And then I started to notice the technological jargon and various ingredients that did not quite click with my vocabulary. Cumin seeds? Coriander? Tumeric? Garum Masala? What are all these spices and stuff? Oh no...this wasn't going to be as easy as I had thought.
And then I took a step into the most diversely insane supermarket ever!
I passed the stacked carts before turning back to get one. And then I entered traffic much like that you see on the road...but a lot less orderly...like you'd see in India. Carts rolled on with no traffic law enforcemnt from one area to another. It was a traffic jam like no other; a huge crowd near all the vegetable produce made traveling difficult. It was like I was driving my car in Chicago. Parking was a problem too. When I found where the okra or eggplant were at, I had to park my cart somewhere and move next to a few people who were busily picking out good veggies ffrom bad veggies. I had little idea how to distinguish among them...I just lightly squeezed each veggie to make sure it was firm and didn't have any weird bruises. I figured that was how to do it anyways. ::Shrug::
The majority of people here, at Valli Produce, were Indian, Asian, or Latino. It almost felt as if I were in another country just then. However, as I moved toward the frozen food section of the supermarket, I noticed increasingly more white Caucasians grabbing a quick frozen dinner entree from the freezers. Heh, interesting.
I see why one would rather microwave a frozen meal though...it takes soooo much more time and effort to cook. I hesitated at first. Didn't know how to start, but my mother was there to guide me through the whole process, so that was nice. At first, I stuck to the recipe word for word, and my mother scoffed at my insistance to cook this way. She offered me recommendations to do certain things differently. I suppose it was like reading notes left by the Half-Blood Prince...deviations from the written...taken from someone with more experience and wisdom. I also learned what all these spices and things were for, and I learned why I couldn't just set the temperature on super high to quicken things. "When you are cooking, you need to have a lot of patience," my mom told me when I would get frustrated with how slowly the potatoes were cooking.
In the end, it was a success. I made something my mother had never cooked before, a dish composed of eggplant, okra, potatoes, tomatoes, and onions all mixed together in a yummy curry-like something. I just love eggplant and okra, and I'm glad I was able to combine the two and taste them together for the first time.
Hmmm, what creation shall I consider next?
(Yes, I think it is fairly obvious that I have wayyy too much free time lately, hehe)
:-)