Recipes: A Philosophical Statement

This blog is alive!  I had to tackle some deadlines in the past couple of weeks in my academic and professional life.  While busy with those, I have been taking notes of ideas for my upcoming posts.  I am excited. :-)  It is certainly nice to be relaxing in the Santa Monica mountains outside Los Angeles as I write this post.  I am here for a friend's wedding weekend celebration.  The food so far has been delicious.  I tried Lebanese Knafeh for the first time.

People are often shocked when I tell them that I just tried a new recipe on them and that I had thrown out the recipe.  I do clearly remember the recipe-keeping system in the 1970’s and 1980s that I grew up seeing in different kitchens.  Quilted binder with inserts for index cards/recipe cards.  Boxes, plastic or decorative, to hold index cards.  Some people would devise a filing cabinet to store recipes.  Alternatively, some others would keep them in a cabinet or drawer with no organizational method.  I never had those as an adult but thought I should be a conformist.  I decided to go digital.  Whenever I found a recipe I liked, I would store it in on my computer.  I have a file system set up on my computer with awesome names like: appetizing appetizers, badass breads, bodacious breakfasts, C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T, daring dressings, go fish, sexy salads, scrumptious sides, viva la pasta and voluminous vegetarian.  

That worked for a while.  Truthfully, a SHORT while.  I am finding that I want to try new recipes.  I don’t like to make the same thing again and again.  There are some exceptions to the rule like pesto (which I will discuss in a later post), my chicken pho (that thing is so good!), and my famous chocolate mousse.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a wanderlust.  That rings true in the kitchen.  I like to explore unknown territories in the culinary arts. 

I grew up in a home where meals were repeated often.  Think roast turkey, roast chicken, roast beef, beef tacos, chicken fajitas, pizza, Kraft Mac and cheese, hamburgers, and spaghetti with meatballs.  I was sick of eating the same thing again and again.  I vowed when I was a teenager that someday my kitchen WILL NOT be like that.  I just didn’t know what that entailed. 

Back to my digital recipe database, I realized that having the database, I was limiting myself to sticking with the ‘familiar’ dishes;  basically reliving my childhood of repeated meals.  And I keep on finding recipes that interest and intrigue me.  I stopped consulting the database and dived into trying new recipes constantly.  It excites me.  It’s an adventure in itself.  Besides, there are too many recipes out there waiting to be tried and I felt that if I just limit to those within my comfort zone, I would be missing out on new tastes as well as learning new cooking techniques.  In the past few years, I have done some things in the kitchen that I have never done.  

I also learned that I get bored easily.  I thrive on trying new things and experiences.  Whenever I try a new recipe that is so good, the first tasting experience is pleasurable. And when I decide to to repeat the recipe, the experience is not as exciting and the taste is not quite the same.  Of course there are exceptions to the rule… I've been wowed by some recipes that I could really remember how it taste.  That memory is treasured and I make the same thing again in a few months or years.  I am not in a rush to try a favorite recipe again. 

I am blessed that my friends have been willing to be my guinea pigs as I try new stuff on them.  Someone recently commented that it was rude to try something new on someone without trying it myself.  I disagree… I think it’s part of the adventure—exploring the taste together.  It makes for a good conversation.  I rarely make repeat recipes for my friends.  My close friends know me well enough to know that I am adventurous and I would drag them with me.  And they happily tag along.