Living and Cooking Alone

 

Living alone needs adjustment. While I did live in a single during my senior year, every room on my floor was occupied by my closest friends, so I could knock on anyone's door for a quick chat, and would always be bumping into everyone in the common room or the bathroom. No, I was living with a big happy group, not alone.

I have been living alone since last September. Like, really alone.

The ironic thing is, one of the main reasons I wanted to live alone was that I wanted my own kitchen (and my own bathroom too- but alas, great rooms come with great responsibility. Like, scrubbing my own bathroom floor. Angrily Cheerfully cleaning out the drain clogged with my own hair.  Crankily Gleefully wiping the bathroom sink clean of my own toothpaste stains. Even happily wiping my own toil.... okay I won't go that far. You get my point.) I begged my parents to let me have my own place: Mom, do you want your daughter living off take-outs and leftovers? No, there is no MEAL PLAN! However, the past few months I have come to realize that I do not enjoy cooking for myself as much as I expected. After checking off all the items on my grocery list to try out an exciting recipe and recreating the dish in my tiny kitchen, I would look at my masterpiece, then suddenly lose appetite. I never expected such a thing could happen to me!

My sister would have been fine, the weird no-fuss girl who would have her "food fazes" that would last for at least a week. She would eat pork cutlets for dinner for two weeks, she would eat seaweed soup with rice for another week, she would go on this kind of routine where she would eat her new "favorite food" for who knows how long. This made a very happy mom and a very grumpy sister. Happy because someone did not have to think twice when prepping for dinner. Grumpy seeing mung-bean stew on the dinner table for the *gasp*  fifth time, let alone the second time.

I have battled with this 'living alone' and 'cooking and eating alone' phase for the past few months through creative methods. Surfing the internet for 'cooking alone' recipes. Buying books on amazon on 'eating alone' (yes, they do exist! Alone in the Kitchen with with an Eggplant, Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table, What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes ... I have the whole stash right beside my dinner table.), scribbling recipes in my little diary, savoring a glass of wine (or two, or three, oh, I should stop here, or NOT) with some nuts ... I should write a book myself on the topic. Pretty often, it would be a handful of crackers with cheese or hummus, yogurt, or maybe once in a while a salad if I had the energy to wash and chop up some vegetables. Or scrambled eggs with whatever I had in the fridge would do.

Once in a while, I do get the energy to do some fancy-pants dishes. Like the braised fennel in tomato paste, cumin, cilantro, tumeric, featured above. Recipe credit to Green Kitchen Stories blog! Spices give the dish a exotic touch, the fennel slightly crunchy in your mouth. Of course, all of this is still eaten out of the pot. :P

Then once in another while, a friend would come over and we would cook dinner! The glorious dish of the day was coq au vin, chicken braised with vegetables in a tomato plus wine based sauce. Carrots, onions, mushroom, bacon with thyme and parsley completed the dish.

D and I picked our own choice of drink. Whose drink was who's? The puzzle of the day. Please excuse my messy table. When living in a studio, a dinner table serves multiple purposes. 

The stew is bubbling on the stove. Mmmmmm.

And we sit down and feast. 

The traditional coq au vin is France is apparently made with roosters (I know, what?), as coq means rooster in French, and even though what exact animal is used might differ depending on the region, it is usually a dish made with time and care, marinating the chicken in the sauce overnight, using Burgundy pinot noirs. As we are simple students short on time and money, we used the leftover cabernet I had, and just simmered the chicken for about thirty minutes. As my friend D's contribution consisted of mostly, but not only, capturing the moments through artistic pictures and constantly making sure no one's glass was empty, she was amazed when the finished dish was actually presented ("I thought something would get burnt and we would have to order take-out! But yay!"). So it worked out just fine. 

No matter how much I will get used to eating alone, nothing will beat cooking and eating (and drinking) with a friend over yummier conversation. Cheers!

The V-Day

That inevitable day of the year has come and passed. People with significant others get droopy-eyed and dreamy, try to prepare something special, and also expect something special. All the shops, stores, restaurants try to capture these desire with special prix fixe deals and tackily packaged boxes of sweets. Not that I have anything against those deals, but usually within those boxes are sweets you could buy at any other time of the year,  just without the pink and sparkly wrapping. And the prix fixe deals are usually infused with unnecessary chocolate flavors (cocoa nib rubbed short ribs with chocolate cherry sauce, anyone?) and often disappoint people who would rather have the restaurant's essential dishes by locking them into the obligatory 3-course meal. 

I'm sure the people in the service industry probably had a hard time coming up with those menus. They receive my minimum credit. Then again, it was probably the poor waiters and waitresses with minimum wages who had to work their back off to cut out red paper hearts and decorate the chalkboards with inspirationally sweet quotes singing of everlasting love. Then there's the line-up chefs recreating those dishes all day with ridiculously sweet sauces, creating that last caramelized-golden touch to heart-shaped crème brûlées. Who said Valentine's Day was miserable only for singles? Think of all those people behind the counter, trying to scrape up more tips by offering another glass of champagne topped with chocolate covered strawberries. 

Enough complaining for now. My this year's V-day dinner was spent gloriously with a few of my girl friends at a neighborhood restaurant (started off by annoying our manager by informing him that it would be a party of four than the original six -"I will have to seat you guys at the communal table, as we are extremely fully booked tonight."). We feasted on a brussel sprouts salad with smoked trout, bacon, cherries, truffle deviled egg, and a lobster paella dish. 

The lobster paella did not have that crust that usual paellas finished in the oven has (neither did it come in the traditional cast-iron paella pan, as you can see below), nor did the rice have the chewy texture but was more on the soft side, but overall the paella was tasty. There were huge chunks of lobster, a few mussels, a shrimp or two and some clams. 

At the restaurant, we were met with a few oddballs (first our server-"Oh, my best valentine's day was also spent with the gals!" *wink*-unnecessary. Then this slightly loopy lady who came to us and started rambling, later I even saw her down one of our leftover cocktails- the shock!), but overall it was fun. An evening filled with mindless gossip, passionate ranting about school and the future was well called for. Oh, a few of us did not fail us by ordering those rosé sparking cocktails with that quintessential chocolate covered strawberry. 

I also lived up to the spirit of Valentine's day by baking a chocolate stout bundt cake, recipe credit to seriouseats.com. I used the 2X stout from Southern Tier brewery, which was quite hoppy and strong for a stout (7.5% alcohol). The cake itself was dense and chocolatey, with a slight alcohol scent to it due to the strong alcohol content of the beer. The crust was slightly crisp and chewy. It paired nicely with the Chunky Monkey Ben & Jerry's ice cream which it was served with later in the evening. 

This is actually my first baking project ever in my new house! If you don't count that one instance when S brought her dough and baked cookies. Now, that time was the first time I used my oven, and I had no idea the bottom drawer actually heated up (I thought it was for storage!). Then my oven mitten inside caught on fire (yes, I was using that space for storage!). Then my entire apartment started to fill up with smoke. And that was a night of girls' get-together so all the girls started panicking and it turned into chaos... okay, that's a story for another day.

The oven didn't really cooperate with my own baking project this time either. I pre-heated my oven to 350F, and halfway through the batter I could not feel any heat from the oven. The janitors took forever to arrive; I got frustrated and started calling up all the neighbors I knew to borrow their oven. When they showed up at last, they said: "Wait, this place is reeking of gas," the moment they walk in the door! They started opening all the windows, it became freezing cold and I started freaking out because I hadn't even noticed the gas smell. What if I had tried to light a candle and the spark just caught the gas on fire?! I would have met my end with only my chocolate batter to keep me company... The story of the girl and her stout cake...

Fortunately, I am alive and well, the oven was fixed, and my bundt cake came out beautifully, too! I made a quick chocolate glaze and drizzled it on top. A nice touch, eh? 

The cake did break into two pieces while I was tapping it out of the pan. But I swear, I was thinking of making a glaze before that happened. The glaze is not a cover up. Cakes need glazes. Always. Glazes and love stick everything together. xoxo, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Meet and Eat: YJ is Back

Following the short survey done by one of my favorite food blogs which I follow devoutly, I will also conduct this survey about myself to welcome myself back to the food blog world!

Name: Yoon Jeong Lee
Location: Cambridge, MA
Occupation: Law School Student
Website/Twitter: ahungrycookie.blogspot.com

Guilty Pleasures? Opening a bottle of wine solo poured in my favorite wine glass, sourdough toast dipped in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. Cheese, nuts, creating my own snacking plate. Oh, and in bed. Watching my favorite shows. 

Describe your perfect meal. A group of close people, friends or family, who love food and love talking about food together. Everyone helping out in the kitchen, chop-chop, sizzle-sizzling all around, and everyone sipping on their drink of choice. Meal starts. An exquisite bottle of wine is poured, and everyone comments on it. Specifics on food would be: if its with family, it would be ssam, which is a Korean version of do-it-yourself wrap with korean vegetables, roasted fish, and korean lettuce and fragrant sesame leaves. If its with friends, a simple caprese salad, main dish would be beef bourguignon served on pappardelle, brussel sprouts on the side. Dessert would be chocolate mousse served with ruby port. 

What food you won't eat? I am down to try everything. Before high school, I refused to eat bananas, kiwis and random ugly fruits. Before that, I was a very picky eater, being that usual problematic kid who would not eat vegetables including beans in my rice. During my years at my boarding high school,  I was exposed to a lot of random foods not in my family meal repertoire, and generally came to appreciate various types of food. Now, I am a transformed girl. I have tried everything from chicken feet to durian. 

Favorite food person. David Lebovitz is one, his writing style has a special type of humor that appeals to me. Kathy YL Chan, Alton Brown, Aaron Sanchez, random names come to mind at the moment. I don't usually follow people, I follow content and recipes. 

When did you first realize you were a serious eater? I started reading food blogs during my time at boarding school, which was in the middle of nowhere and where freedom of food choice was not available. Getting sick of just food pictures, I started to dominate the kitchen whenever I was at home, and started baking cookies and cakes and bringing them back to school to feed my roommates. It became and obsession and now I'm yelping and instagramming and can remember every food we ate at every place. A photographic memory when it comes to food..


What do your family and your friends think of your food obsession? My mom just treats me like some weirdo whenever she sees me fussing over food and what to eat and how to eat and what to drink with it. Now I know how to handle her by cleaning up as I go whenever I am experimenting something new in the kitchen. She still doesn't understand me trying to bake something in the oven when its sweating hot outside. My friends are all super passionate about food-there's a reason they are my friends and still are my friends. 

Favorite food sites or blogs? I usually gain ideas from seriouseats and thekitchn, but also like to browse through smittenkitchen, David Lebovitz, etc. for fun. 

Everyone has a go-to person they call for restaurant recommendations. Who's yours? I mostly go to my local friend at whatever place I am visiting. If there are no locals, then I mostly go to yelp and food blogs like Eater, seriouseats for recommendations. 

What is your favorite meal of the day and where do you get it? My favorite meal used to be breakfast when there were multiple options available - I can't believe I am saying this- during undergrad I could concoct whatever I wanted at the Val, my undergrad one and only cafeteria, toast, eggs, bagels, cereal, oatmeal.... but now that I live off-campus alone my breakfasts have toned down to a mere yogurt and granola, blueberries. Now, I think dinner, where I have more time to be creative is my favorite meal. 

Do you ever cook? What's the best dish you make? The dish I have made most often is shakshuka, an Israeli brunch dish which is equivalent to eggs poached in tomato sauce, with added spices and topped with feta cheese. My sister does love all the sandwiches I make for her though.