I Suck at Cooking

One thing I’m embarrassed about is how bad I am at cooking. I’ve been staying in Whiterock for the last couple of weeks and every single meal is prepared for me by my step-mom. I’m really grateful for being able to eat such amazing meals every day, and I’ve recently wanted to ask her to teach me how to cook.

I’ve lived with my grandmother for almost my entire life, and as a result I’ve rarely had to cook. I take care of most of the chores around the place like laundry, cleaning, trash; the chores that’s harder for her to do now that she’s older. However, cooking has been one of those things that I’ve almost never done for myself. While my grandma was gone for a year or two to get a tumour removed, I did have to cook for myself. During this time, I ate a lot of stir-fries, pasta, and curry. While I lived through those dark times, those meals though lacked the imagination and richness that made each of my grandmother’s meal a delight. As a kid, I remember waking up every day to a bowl of rice, scrambled eggs, and some short rib soup. To me, this was breakfast for the majority of my life. I tried to recreate the soup while living on my own but could never make it the same way that she always did.

I’ve lived in the same 700 square foot apartment for the majority of my life but during 2017 I ended up in Japan for co-op. At my company, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all available at the cafeteria (with the caveat that dinner was served a 19:00). During the weekends, all I ate were the bento boxes that were served at the Lawson across from the place I stayed. What made that particular location unique was that it had a kitchen built into it. To begin with, the quality of the food at Japanese convenience stores is already quite high. This Lawson, though, made the most unbelievable chicken nanban ever. I sometimes think about it, three years later. Needless to say, it gets embarrassing eating at the convenience store all the time. The excuse I have though is that I didn’t have my own cooking supplies and because most meals I had were at the company, it was rather inefficient to grocery shop for only two days per week.

I’m thinking of asking my step-mom to teach me to cook, starting tomorrow. She’s really amazing at it and I honestly otherwise don’t have many opportunities to interact with her regularly. The main reason I’m in Whiterock right now is because I’m able to work from home and it’s safer here than Downtown. Why not take advantage of this little chance I have?