Episode 286: The Joy of Cooking and Making Dishes - Those Who Don't Cook Never Understand
The joy of cooking and making dishes, people who don't cook never understand.
Lani
There is a happiness called cooking and making dishes. Mr. Xiu said: happiness is the intoxication of the soul; Ms. Shu Min said: happiness is not synchronized with wealth, status, fame, marriage, it's just the feeling in your heart.
As for my happiness, it's cooking for my son, cooking a table of dishes for him and myself. It seems the process of cooking is more of a pleasure than eating!
I remember my father once told me, back then the grandfather's family was a large family, when cooking, five or six people were responsible. I didn't see it, but I can imagine that the generation of my grandfather was so harmonious and happy. In my father's generation, in memory, after my parents built a large house, my sister and brother gradually moved from my grandmother's house to live together. My mother cooked fragrant and steaming big pot dishes for us. After my sister got married, my brother and three younger brothers formed families, but the younger brothers didn't separate houses and establish separate kitchens, so every meal was cooked by my mother and her husband, with a variety of stir-fried and nutritious dishes on a large round table, the whole family happily ate together. When we returned home for the New Year and festivals, my parents eagerly waited for their children to return, tasting the hot, fragrant dishes and delicacies, and listening to my father and mother's instructions and nagging, that was a happiness and enjoyment, that lively life was full of family love and affection, it's the taste of my mother, a warm and homey taste!
Far away from my hometown, I later had a son, I cooked for him. When he was young, he didn't like to eat, every meal had to eat bit by bit, he had to tell stories about thieves stealing food and use them to coax him to eat. All methods were tried, but his eating effect was still not great, I brainstormed and constantly changed the way I cooked, sometimes I cooked twenty-plus dishes in one meal, thinking that as long as my son ate one bite of twenty-plus dishes, he should be full. This feeding method continued until he was ten years old, and then gradually changed. Of course, I also raised him into a chubby boy.
Later, when he went to study abroad, I had no opportunity to cook for him once a week. Later, when he worked in Hangzhou, I had no cooking opportunity during the summer and winter vacations. Looking back on the years accompanying my son growing up, these memories are imprinted in my mind, watching the plain ingredients transformed into colorful and fragrant dishes by my own hands, it's really wonderful. Seeing my son eating the dishes I cooked, eating with relish and satisfaction, that inner happiness and satisfaction is beyond words. Because, my son said: 'Mom's taste is the best in the world!'
When my son grew up and left home, I was left alone in my fifties. But there is a happiness called cooking for oneself. Even if you eat by yourself, the dishes on the table with a fragrant aroma, isn't that a happiness? I can cook a dish of braised pork belly with a cup of home-brewed wine, tasting delicious; I can cook a pot of crispy lobster with chili, and drink a beer, making my mouth water; I can steam plump crabs, with a glass of white wine, with delicate fingers; I can serve fragrant shrimp, with a glass of white wine; I can braise five-spice beef and tongue, a feast, drink a thousand cups without getting drunk; I can serve heart-shaped porcelain plates with salty shrimp, with exquisite flavor and value; I can serve fragrant eel soup with fresh and fragrant fish, tender and yellow and fragrant and crisp, fish skin tender and chewy, fish head stewed with purple bamboo shoots, the broth is thick and rich, and the whole fish is a grand gathering, with a glass of peach blossom wine, singing 'I don't know where I'm going when my face is unknown, peach blossoms still bloom in the spring', 'These fish should only exist in heaven, rarely seen in the human world'; I can cook fragrant five-spice beef and tongue, the fat is crisp and juicy, the meat is soft and smooth, and the fat is crisp and tender, it's a long-lasting and delicious dish; I can serve fragrant eel soup with fresh and fragrant fish, tender and yellow and fragrant and crisp, fish skin tender and chewy, fish head stewed with purple bamboo shoots, the broth is thick and rich, and the whole fish is a grand gathering, with a glass of peach blossom wine, singing 'I don't know where I'm going when my face is unknown, peach blossoms still bloom in the spring'.
The joy of cooking and making dishes, people who don't cook never understand. Cooking for oneself is a happiness. Vegetables can be cooked to taste like meat. Over fifty years old, what are you afraid of? Open the door and welcome yourself; put a pot of wine in the cup and wait for yourself; a single person can hold a feast for himself; a single person can self-serve; wine is full, food is fragrant, chopsticks are picking up the mouth is delicious, a little drink don't get drunk, health and happiness are doubled, cooking for oneself is a happiness, eating is the taste of a fulfilling life!
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