Here’s an observation: I noticed how this small blog of mine is slowly changing its course into becoming food diary of sorts. My ‘eats’ archive seems to surpass others in great numbers. How could that be? Since I tied the knot, my love for food has grown. I learnt to appreciate food by eating more solidly. Unlike my single days when I’d settle with a bowl of microwaved mac-and-cheese and a steady re-run of Sex and the City. If I had an extra ounce of energy in my fibre, I’d whip up a simple meal of spaghetti bolognese out of frozen minced meat and ready-made sauce. If I was too lazy, I’d drop by the drive-through after teaching to get my burger fix. Two cheeseburgers and a giant Coke, no less at one time. My high metabolism didn’t help me either. None of the junk that I ate affected my weight so much and I remained “skinny” to some. So I thought, what’s the harm? One extra large cheese pizza please...for one.
Today is a different story. Living with another person pushes you to cook and think for two rather than one. You do the math. More often than not, our desire to prepare amazing home-cooked meals at our own expense seems too much to be considered. At the end of the day, the candle is lit up near your plate and you have that bottle of wine (or sparkling juice, if you don’t take alcohol) to yourself. It’s almost like the iconic Miss Lonelyhearts scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Eating by yourself can be comforting and relaxing on good days but also lonely at times. And cooking for one? Oh boy. That’s a whole different ballgame.
So the good thing that I discovered about nuptial life is that— you cook with much love for two. N and I cook alternately on weeknights and some of our weekends are spared for a trip to a new eatery downtown. With homecooking, we learn about different flavors and cuisines, some of those which we had never heard about. If we wanted to try French or Vietnamese cuisine, we’d immediately look no further than our tiny kitchen instead of the restaurant listing. Perhaps not as authentic as they’re supposed to be but our willpower to absorb those exotic recipes and prepare them with wholeheartedly is suffice. We made our own pasta from scratch. We began soiling our pots of herbs like mint, rosemary, Vietnamese coriander and basil. We prepared homemade ice cream and made our own chocolate truffle using lots of double crème. Would I even think about all these things a year ago? Non. I’d probably rather spend my time photographing latte art at a hipster joint.
Now I find solace in the kitchen, no matter how un-feminist that might sound to some. I’m an academic who takes pride in the pursuit of knowledge yet I take comfort in certain elements of domestic life. Perhaps I can merge those two into a doctoral research project? Who knows, really. What I do know is that I quite like this new arrangement of coming home from work and having a nice chat with my partner while unwinding ourselves with dinner preparation. It’s a quiet, very adult life. I count this as my blessings.
Having said that, both N and I dream of what is known as "guerilla dining". This activity has been done in the West more often that you think since the recession days. It provides an opportunity for people to gather over home-cooked meals and generally mingle. This could be done as a humble pop-up somewhere or in the vicinity of our own home. One of our favorite things to do is to host small dinner or barbecue parties with our close friends and family. We’ve done only a few at our new place since it’s technically small. We used to have three guests dining with us at once and that was a full house, excluding us two cooks! We’d love to share our passion for ‘home dining’ with likeminded city folks. It’ll probably be something fun to do in the weekends and a chance for us to make more friends in KL.
If we could do this in any way we wanted, it’d be in the style of these 1950s’ diner pop-ups we saw earlier near our neighborhood. I love the concept of having Elvis, Audrey, Marilyn and the Fab Four watching us over while we dine and chat. I’ll definitely save this concept in mine if we ever venture into this. This is definitely something for me to look forward to in the coming future, besides the plan to fatten myself even more with butter. That’s just the way love goes!
