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!