Chef-Me-NOT!!! Cooking on Instinct

Best survival guide by a Thai soprano-wife-mother. See how she survives day-to-day cooking while applying her Thainess Through tips and techniques and fun Thai facts!

It's about time I talk about my cooking after a deliberate effort of putting it off for so long. So what is my fear exactly? My fear is that I won't be able to present and deliver my cooking in the way that everybody is used to, and, therefore, expect.

I am not a cook, nor a chef, am not even qualified to be a -sous- anything anywhere. I cook because I have to eat (oh yes, I do). I cook because I have a family to feed. I cook because in my family, eating brings everyone together.

And yes, I admit it, I like to eat. I don't usually go out of my way to bring in ingredients, but I will see what I have in the fridge and can usually manage a decent meal out of -sometimes- a few items if they are all I have before the next food shopping trip.

My husband takes care of grocery shopping since I'm strapped in front of the laptop all day long, and he normally buys what he thinks is the 'basic stuff' Yet I receive all kinds of praise and cheers from family members and friends for whom I cook.

I keep hearing suggestions that I should enter some of those cooking reality shows - chef this and chop that - I appreciate and am flattered at the suggestion, but I am not even close to the level to enter such competition. Heck, I can't even name some of those dishes.

My fear of sharing my chef-me-not experience with friends fits right into the personality - I am a learner by being a doer. I often find more success at any and just about every task that I perform by plunging myself into doing it. I own less than five cookbooks, and every single one of them has very large and clear illustrations of the dishes.

I don't read recipes. Not because I'm arrogant and think I know better, but more because my brain doesn't register the how-to section of the cooking method. I do glance at the list of ingredients, but again, I cannot process the measurement aspect. I love watching the Food Network channel just because I don't have to read recipes.

All the dishes make sense to me only when I see what they look like as finished products. I do not follow the long (and painful - for me anyway) cooking method - I don't have time for that - I really don't - at least not in this chapter of my life anyway.

This makes me very practical and efficient in my food creation. The creativity part is the part that I like. I do my best in creating dishes full of flavor (and nutrients - I have children from teen all the way down to elementary school ages - the food has to be nutritious)

All my dishes have to taste great, whether it's green beef and eggplant curry with rice vermicelli or kaomun with somtum and grill chicken, all the way to left over sauteed vegetables from the previous evening that turns into tonight's delicious soup ('like new', as my kid would say), or something as simple as baked macaroni cheese.

I love wonton, dimsum and dumplings so one day I decided to make them from my seeing-smelling-chewing-tasting- swallowing experience - and dressed them up in a way that you won't find in a real Chinese restaurant. My kids love Asian meatballs and all kinds of fish and shrimp balls so I make them. Pasta made in every-which-way is highly demand in my family so I have a lot of fun with my unorthodox way of making different kinds of dishes.

Alright, now you've got the gist. I finally succumb to writing about what I cook and how I create. Again, I am NOT an expert, just a soprano with a large family who wants to make everybody happy (and full-stomach) while going on her business.

You may find my tips and technique (which is NOT a technique, but more like a survival tool) helpful, full of common sense and sense of humor, therefore, please enjoy, and let me know how it works out for you. But if you find my style not applicable to your own cooking, I still hope you enjoy reading my articles! Please remember that, ultimately, it's going to be all about you and how you use any information you receive from anyone.

My goal of (finally) coming out and write is to spark up ideas that we all have within us - to jazz up life a little (Food is Life - oh yeah!) And my long term goal is to help all make the connection with that little bit of spark within us, wake it up, and apply that very spark with everything we do - not just cooking to survive.

But, whatever you say, CHEF-ME-NOT!!