Cooking (noun)
The activity of preparing food
I think cooking is more than just that. I see cooking as a way to be creative, come up with new ideas, and courageously use different ingredients, being immersed in the act and in the flow. In my country, especially in Asia, cooking is one way to show love as you sacrifice your time and resources to produce something that nurtures and brings joy to people you love. Cooking is “me time” – a time where I can be fully present to myself and enjoy it on my own. At the end of the day, from the very basic perspective of human need, cooking is one way to fuel and nourish your body to function well, which can also mean that it doesn’t have to be difficult or grandiose! It can be as simple and easy as possible.
Hi! My name is Ani, and I am from Melbourne, Australia. My roots are Indonesian, and I am an aspiring psychologist among many other things. I also love to cook (if you hadn’t noticed already). In this current project, I would love to document and share my personal journey and my skills in cooking. I don’t have any formal qualifications in cooking, but I think we can all agree that we can learn many things by ourselves. My interest in cooking started when I left Bali, Indonesia, and began living in Melbourne, Australia. As an expat, I started to crave many Balinese and Indonesian dishes in the first couple of years living in Australia – something I didn’t realize I appreciated so much at that time! So I started to take a peek into cooking.
Many cooks are inspired by their parents or grandparents and were taught by them. They would even hand down some family recipes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my parents anymore (they didn’t die, but I chose to emancipate from them), so I didn’t have any of these. That stopped me from trying to cook for a while because of the resentment and the false assumption that cooking was only reserved for people with families. Can you guess what broke this belief? My low bank account. With the lack of cash, I was forced to cook, and I am glad for that! I know it’s nothing spectacular, but that’s just life sometimes, yeah? Not everything has to be big and grandiose ;).
I started cooking roughly seven years ago. It began with simple dishes like vegetable soup and basic stir-fry. Gradually, I learned to make most Balinese and Indonesian cuisine, such as babi guling, ikan goreng, ayam bakar, nasi goreng, bakso, gado-gado, and soto ayam. Over the years, I have seen my progress, and I can now cook many different types of cuisine, such as Chinese, Japanese, Italian, South American, Korean, and just last week, I started cooking Indian food. Cooking has been one of the greatest sources of gratitude in my life, allowing me to recreate food from my roots and explore and taste different cuisines from all over the world! Did you know that to have Chongqing noodles (as shown in the photo above), you would have had to get on a boat and travel across the sea to China hundreds of years ago? It still amazes me how far we’ve come!
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get cooking! 🙂