“Take care, I love you, please lock the door, I’ll feed the dogs later, Zzzzzz…” that’s what he muttered after I kissed him goodbye. I rushed down the stairs and immediately checked the clock. It’s exactly 7 in the morning and I’m already late for work. Just Great! I grabbed last night’s pesto pasta left over inside the fridge, put it inside my bag and left a doodled note for him beside a canned Vienna sausage and a bottled Spanish sardines. In the note I said I’ll cook for him later. I am not a great cook but I promised to cook good food tonight. I started cooking December of 2012 and the first time was a nightmare. It was supposed to be spaghetti bolognese but it tasted like pasta with ground bitter gourd. I experimented too much by adding a ton of garlic paste. I’ve tried cooking kare-kare too and never dared doing it again. Imagine a kare-kare soup? Too much water I guess. Yes, lesson learned and it reminded me of the song “Too much” by the Spice Girls. So, every time I mess up, I always promise never to experiment and just follow whatever instructions I get in google or youtube. But I always break that promise. I still experiment by adding different spices to whatever I cook. I think I got the adventurous cooking side of me from my mom. I remember when she asked me to taste her fried malunggay leaves dipped in soy sauce and when she added star anise to all of her cooked dishes for a week that I don’t want to eat, smell or even see a star anise for a year. Even so, I still love her and her cooking. How will you know if your cooking is good? It’s when you get a “Yummmmm” and a smile after you let someone eat what you have cooked. It’s really a wonderful feeling if you get that response specially when you know that they’re not faking it. It motivates you and challenges you to cook something different and better next time. Last night I cooked pesto pasta from scratch. Tonight I will be cooking chicken masala and use the spices I got from him. He said it’s from a friend abroad. It’s time to experiment again! Wish me luck!
