The magic of cooking

Food has been something that we all strive for and cannot live without. I'll admit that for many years I took the process and preparation of food for granted. I didn't really consider the work or effort that needs to be put into it and when I did, it confused me so I went for the easier options. It was lazy, I know, but I didn't really know what I was doing and when I looked at a kitchen..I just didn't know where to begin.

Even through college, I got by on the main idea that I could just go to a restaurant and get what I wanted and be done with it. But the lesson learned there came after college, when I was graduated and thus in the working market, that little thing called money. Where does it come from? How do I get it? What do I do with it? These questions ran through my head once I was out in the world and needing to provide for myself. I finally learned how to fry an egg and low and behold the doors opened. I quickly realized that frying anything else is just as easy as the egg; and for the easiest thing to make in the world, all I needed was boiling water. Gaining these two things in my cooking experience, gave me the slow confidence I needed to expand my cooking trials.

I was slow at the beginning, there's no question about that. But it was through my wonderful girlfriend, that taught me many different things of how to prepare and how to cook multiple things! If it wasn't for her I would have never even thought about doing some of the things that I can now cook in the kitchen. And because of all that, the kitchen is no longer a scary place! So much so that she and I have taken on some of the more challenging culinary feats. Among some the common dishes are chicken (cooked in cajon seasoning), green beans (my speciality are the beans fried in a cajun butter), rice (cooked in a rice cooker then lightly fried in a pan and mixed with seasonings) mac&cheese (cheese is grated with garlic and then stirred into the pasta), couscous, salmon (cooked the same as the chicken), and hamburger (cooked with crushed garlic).

From those we have opened the door further and tried some of the more tasking challenges. The first one was a Turkey.

There is a foreign mart here in Gwangju and with its growing supply of food has made it easier to be able to get some of the western foods that we miss. And every year they order Turkeys, so this past year we decided to try our hand at cooking one. It was a great success! As you can see it came out golden and cut like butter! It was a real confidence booster and defined that I was no longer an amateur in the kitchen. Not to say that I'm a professional, far from it.

But cooking the turkey and having turn out as well as it did, really made the kitchen a home for me. Since then cooking everything else became seemingly easy. So we decided that we were going to try something else. Something that we've been thinking about for along time and finally had an occasion worth it. This past weekend was my girlfriend's birthday and a very good Korean friend of ours, so I decided to treat them to that something that we've been thinking about cooking; a King Crab.


Now, it was as easy as boiling water and then putting him into it. But that was just the prep work. The real task came afterwards when it was done and I had to separate the legs from the body. Not something for a weak stomach. But the end result were succulent crab legs that rival the taste of a lobster. The treats of the night did not end with the crab, we also oven roasted french fries and cocktail shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce. Amazing! As seen here:
What a table spread! haha!

It's been a great 2 years of learning and I'm looking forward to the other tests that we can try out and add to the lists of success. And on that next test, it would be great if you could all join! Cooking is really an amazing experience!
What would all like for dinner?