cooking

[kodalai]

Just a few observations about cooking.

1) You know whenever in a movie or a book (particularly in anime) somebody, usually a woman, is cooking for a man, and he apologizes for intruding, and she says "Oh, no, it's nice to have someone to cook for!"

Y'know, this is true? And it's not even because of any silly cultural programming about having to take care of a man. No, the thing is that it's very difficult to cook good food for just one person. Either you can make very simple meals in small proportions, or you make far too much to eat yourself and have to either waste it or store it. It's just much nicer to have a second person you can split the food with.

2) You know the stereotypes about college students eating fake/unhealthy food/having refrigerators full of nasty food? Same problem. Very few college dormitories have fully equipped kitchens, and without at least a basic set of tools, cooking real food is nigh on impossible. There's the problem of cooking for one again. And then there's the problem of leftovers. The fridge of spoiled food has nothing to do with the student's hygiene or lack thereof, but simply that there's not enough time for one person to eat all that food before it goes bad.

3) I can't wait till I get a house (or at least an apartment!) with a fully equipped kitchen.

Comments

[kwycksylver.livejournal.com]

Sharing food (whether you've cooked it or not) seems to be a basic social instinct. Food is more enjoyable and tastes better when you've got someone to interact and relax with.

[driftingdoll.livejournal.com]

I hate cooking for myself. There's always too much food and, when I go through all the trouble of making something really good, I want someone else to taste the results! It's very hard to make yourself cook nutritionally when it's just yourself that you're feeding.

This is the only thing I'm not looking forward to in getting an apartment. I like eating with my family -_-;;

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[iniq.livejournal.com]

also, students dormitories have the worst kitchens evahr. like, nobody ever bothers to pick up after themselves, and weeks later, that same piece of onion is still lying there near the sink, only its color has changed significantly, and somehow it looks like it's grown?
or, the fridge... in our fridge (I got my own in my room, but I think that's illegal) - sometimes, when I've cooked, I put the rests in there, because nobody steals the stuff that's done and in boxes - there are plates. with food. and some of them a week old.
it makes you lose lunch, seriously. >.<;

same here - definitely looking forward to having an apartment for myself - just so I know that the counter is clean, and everything there is my own bacteria. as yucky as that sounds. (I'm not a slob though... not when it comes to kitchen or bed stuff)
it's like... Weird Al's 'Living in the Fridge' :p just the 'real thing'

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I actually understand what you mean about your "own bacteria" -- that's how I can handle not having a dishwasher for my dishes. If it were anybody else's, just washing by hand wouldn't do it for me, but since they're *my own,* it's not bad.

I'm actually rather proud of my room cleanliness. It's cluttered, but that's more because it's very small -- the clutter consists almost entirely of clothes and papers, and if I have the time and inclination, it rarely takes more than 10 minutes to clean up entirely. I don't let dirty dishes sit, and I don't let piles of dirty clothes fester. I really try to take care of my living space.

And whenever I have Chinese food leftover, I take a marker and write "For Public Consumption: Mix Bowl, Peanut Chicken, 4/19/03" or whatever it is on the label. It always vanishes within a few days.

[foxglove6.livejournal.com]

They seem to not want to let us cook our own food here at Syracuse. This may have something to do with the legend (true) of the student who came upon another student in the common kitchen boiling a human head.... in order to get the flesh off of it to keep the skull. This is completely true. Anyway, happened, a few years ago (?)
I'm personally excited about having my own kitchen for all of the above reasons. Fully agree.