Sunday, March 25, 2012

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” ― Julia Child

One thing I have always been good at is eating.

Bittermelon Soup
 Even as a child I was never really picky. In fact, I always had faith that my mom was feeding me with only things that were good for me. So even when I would be eating her beef stew with (ick) cooked carrots, I would eat the carrots first so that the rest of my meal could be enjoyed. Or when she made her meat stuffed bittermelon soup... I would eat the bittermelon (which is SO appropriately named!), and promptly eat something else to get the taste out of my mouth.

Weird right? It never occurred to me to just NOT eat it.

{Side story}: Last year I was in India with a group of friends/ classmates from BU. There were four of us, a Spaniard, a Persian, a half-Polish, half Indian and finally myself. Our Spaniard friend would dutifully make sure he always finished everything that was remained on our family styled dishes. For he, like the rest of us, was told "there are starving children in Africa!" (which is why I tried to never waste food as a child or an adult)

As he took one of his last bites, he said something to the effect of: "I've been there, and there are no starving children in Africa?!" {End side story}

The thing is, I've never really learned to cook. I always tended to stick with easy recipes to maximize success as I found that every time I improvised, whatever I was making didn't taste… right.

First of all, my sense of smell is, well, non-existent. Also, I have a hard time figuring out what to add if something needs additional flavor. Does it need salt? Sugar? Thyme? What?!

Also, when I've decided to brave it and make something, I would often get less than stellar feedback. 

Well, as a means of trying to appreciate all the good stuff I have been fed over the years by some conspicuous person who does not want to ever be mentioned on the web, I have decided to dust off the apron (of which he who must not be mentioned "HWSNBM" bought me not too long ago...) and give it a shot. 

Nem Nuong Cuon
My beautiful cousin got married last year, and when we were there, my family was making Nem Nuong Cuon (Spring Rolls with Pork Meatballs). As I was helping them in the kitchen, I thought, I can make this. So wa-lah!

Necessities: Spring Roll Wrapper, meat of your choice, some veggies (in our case, I bought a bunch of "Asian greens" from our local farmer's market), and the dipping sauce

The following week, I made chao (rice porridge) from the fried rice that had a little too much water, and turned into a rice sludge.

Chao
To this dish that already contained two types of mushrooms, baby corn, and green beans, I added 2 cans of chicken broth, some Maggi soy sauce, fish sauce, white pepper and a seafood mixture of mussels, baby scallops, shrimp, and calamari. 

Turned out to be the perfect dinner on one of Santa Barbara's many chilly and rainy nights. 

I actually, (finally) got some good* feedback on these. 

*good as in 
Me: How is it? 
HWSNBM in monotone: "Good"

I'll take it!

Let go of what is gone; be grateful for what remains; look forward to what is coming...

NOTE: Written on March 2, 2020: Pre knowing just how big Covid was... I decided not to rewrite it because it was a simpler time then.  Holy ...