About cooking (which I don't do very often)

I don't know how many friends have been telling me that for them cooking is "fun", "therapeutic", "enjoyable", and other positive adjective. I don't really cook, even when I lived in the capital alone, I didn't really cook. I was too demotivated and just plain lazy. Plus it did feel everything was so expensive anyway. So I rather set my food budget daily than shopping for a whole week, and then cooking daily. I just couldn't do it, physically or financially.

But then this year I got to stay for a month in Holland with my partner. I wanted to introduce him to some Indonesian cooking that he'd never tasted before, so I cooked. Surprisingly, no one died and the food actually tasted good. I tried out several recipes that I got from my mum, tweaking them a bit to suit my taste (and partner's) better. I even cooked for a couple of friends and they liked the food too. It was pretty satisfying.

And then I went back home. At my parents' house (I moved back to my parents' house three years ago because of family issues and now it's almost impossible for me to leave. Long story.) my mum does all the cooking. I can, of course, cook for myself if I want to, but then who will eat her food? Not to mention the constant nagging when I decide to eat out with friends when she has already cooked something for that day. So, I opt for peace in the family and eat my mum's food every time she cooks.

On the rare occasion when my parents go out of town for days, I have the chance to cook for myself again. Now, I have been cooking for myself for the past week. I wouldn't use the word fun, therapeutic or enjoyable to describe my cooking experience, but there's a certain satisfaction when you can feed yourself with the food that you made from scratch. It doesn't even have to be complicated. Some simple pasta with veggies and tuna or just tomato sauce will suffice. But I get to appreciate my effort to cook.

For people who have been cooking since they're really really young, what I have written here may seem like a silly thing. Like, what's so special about cooking for yourself anyway? I've been doing it forever--kind of silliness. But I think I will continue to see cooking as a form of achievement, and not only for myself, but other people who cook. For someone who doesn't really cook, producing edible food for your survival is an achievement (because eating out here isn't too expensive, compared to, say, Holland or Australia). So, yeah, I think I want to continue to achieve more :)