I mostly work on building productivity apps on a regular basis so I guess it is fair to say that I provide a service to make things easier for people to do things and what not. So sometimes when it comes to my free time, the last thing I want to do is to engage in something that will take a split second to do what I want to do. Sure there are gadgets out there that will certainly do that for you but once in awhile, I just want to "waste" time. Cooking is one such activity.
I was talking to some friends of mine who owned a Thermomix and one who would love to get one. It is a wonderful gadget and does pretty much everything short of actually cooking your meals and fold your clothes. Things can be done in a fraction of the time with pinpoint accuracy and with never fail results. And I do say it is an almost magical gadget. But, unless someone gives that to me as a present, I will not get it by my own means.
Here's why...
Cooking to me has always been about the look and feel as you make it, much like how some people prefer to drive manual over automatic cars, because there is a sense of connection between you and the object. The intermediary aromas, the textures between processes, all these things makes cooking what I think it is. The time it takes, the multitude of steps builds a certain kind of anticipation that I think you can only get when you are doing the time. Sure it is sometimes hard work and sometimes it takes brain power to get there, but it is one of those things where the journey is more important than the destination. You can press a couple of buttons and your wonderful delicious meal will be done in a couple of minutes but I don't think you'll learn anything. You know how to make some but not why it becomes this gorgeous meal. The more I read from my usual favourite food/chef bloggers, the more I am convinced that if you really want to learn how fresh produce turns into a wonderful meal, you need to do the time.
The best example I can give was when I made ramen last week after being totally inspired from one of my favourite food lab bloggers. He has tried everything to replicate what it takes to make a kickass ramen soup base. He found out that the best result actually comes from boiling it for at least 12-18 hours straight as compared to the easier method of using a pressure cooker for 1.5 hours. And so armed with few principles outlined in his blog, I started making one. Boiled the damn bones for 13 hours and dished out on some ramen, cabbage, narutomaki, soft boiled egg and spring onions. And man it was super tasty. Even more surprising was absolutely no salt component was added. But I learned even more as over the course of several hours I see this pot of bones with water and some vegetables turned into something delicious. How and why the colour and flavour changes over time, these are the sorts of things you don't pick up when you press a few buttons.
The most common excuse that people give is that there is no time and granted. Since I've started work, time is a much more limited resource. But I still think that there is still time you can squeeze in to learn a thing or two about food. It helps improvising a lot in the kitchen when you have limited items in the fridge and limited time after coming home from work on a Tuesday. Two, it's a way to slow down your mad routine. I find cooking therapeutic though I know a lot of friends out there who would think otherwise. The couple of hours you put in to make soup or slow roast meats is worth the time for you just to be still.
Food cooked by friends even if nearly the whole thing is done via gadgets like the Thermomix is still good food. But I'd like to do things the old-fashioned way if it's my turn. I may get some weird looks due to my unconventional approach to everyday home cooking but I'd say it's worth the effort. For once, I actually look forward to failure because I'd know why it failed.
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I feel like I cannot connect anymore. Again.
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