Culinary Adventures

We have been living here for nearly a year and during that time I have been relearning how to cook, in addition to learning the language, culture, caring for young children and a home, etc. It has been frustrating at times, laughable at others, and usually pretty slow going. Here are a few lessons I think I have come to somewhat of a conclusion about.

1. TAKE IT EASY I arrived a year ago with all my cookbooks and recipes collected over the past 5 years of learning how to cook. I quickly discovered that basically none of my favorite, well tried recipes could be made without some major adaptations. This is difficult and sometimes is just plain weird. I quickly learned to just take it easy. Try a new recipe here and there but also try lots of local, already made food while relearning how to cook.

2. IF YOU SEE AN UNUSUAL INGREDIENT, BUY IT I cannot tell you how many times I have seen something suddenly appear in our city and then the next month, or day, be gone and never see it again. I am quickly learning that if I see it and want it, I better buy it right then. Also, if it has a shelf life, buy lots. I found whipping cream a couple months ago (we use it to make sour cream) and bought 10 things of it to put in our fridge. I had not seen it before and have not seen it since.

3. HAVE A BACKUP PLAN During this past year I have thrown many meals in the garbage, before they even made it to the table. We have eaten pancakes for dinner many evenings, my usual backup plan for a meal that flopped.

4. IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF WHAT SOMETHING IS, ASK We have had some pretty hilarious mix-ups with food. Like the time I thought I had bought dried black beans and after soaking overnight and cooking for hours, discovered they were soy beans. (One of those times we ended up eating pancakes.) I have found however that I can usually use my dictionary, or some other language help to ask about the ingredients. This tends to be much more successful and I make some new friends.

5. TRY NEW STUFF This seems kind of funny to write, it seems that is all you are doing when moving to a new country. It is easy to get in a rut and just make the same 5 meals over and over again because I have figured them out. I have had some great successes though too when trying new stuff. I have not been able to make my favorite curry from the states (missing a key ingredient) but we have found a local curry we really like. I also have been experimenting with local fruits and vegetables and had great fun, and success, in enjoying the new flavors.

6. SPLURGE ON OUT OF TOWN GROCERY TRIPS Every once in a while one of us goes to a bigger city for something. We now usually make a point to go to a western grocery store to buy a few things. The top of the list is always cheese, sometimes we also get lunch meat, bacon, spices, mustard, etc. Just having these few items seems to make all the difference when I am cooking western foods. None are necessary but they are definitely treats that we fully enjoy!

7. FIGURE OUT EASY SHORTCUTS This has been a tough one for me. It seems that so many things here have a gazillion more steps involved, in the kitchen and outside. I have started doing a lot of stuff in bulk, and thankfully we have a large freezer to store much of it it. I also make my own baking mixes, a big help when it comes to preparing breakfast every morning. Just this month I finally figured out a really easy way to prepare tomatoes that can be used in place of canned tomatoes in recipes. I have been working on this for months now and finally think I figured it out, hurray!

8. USE FRIENDS (meant in a good way :) I have a notebook of "Asia friendly" recipes that I have collected from friends over the past year. Many of these recipes have now become some of our family favorites. The notebook contains all sorts of stuff from the tea I shared a few posts ago, to homemade bagels, tortillas, and chicken dishes. I am thankful for these friends and their own culinary adventures, as well as email and the chance to keep in touch.

I know that I will continue to add to this list as we continue in our lives here, and am sure if we are ever to move I will probably start over again although with many lessons already learned.
Now I am off to get a loaf of banana bread from the oven. Breakfast is taken care of for tomorrow!