What are you good at - and not so good at - in the kitchen? Baking? Roasting? Knife skills? Preparation? Organization? Clean-up?
Any particular ethnic specialty? Italian? Japanese? Chinese? Filipino? Other?
My sister is an expert at leftovers. Having a large family, she can take last night's spaghetti and meatballs and turn it into tonight's casserole. Or turn tomorrow night's stir-fry into the following night's lumpia, just to keep the kids interested in eating it. And it always turns out incredibly delicious. She's also excellent at baking, which requires more technical application than simply "cooking".
I've improved over the years, having gained most of my culinary talent reading recipes and watching the Food Network and local cooking shows.
But if there's one thing I'm terrible at is TIME MANAGEMENT. When you come as a guest to eat at my place, if I say dinner is at 6pm, it usually means 8pm by the time I get all the side dishes ready, the main dish out of the oven (or off the grill) and everything on the table.
If there's one thing I continue to try honing (no pun intended) are my knife skills. Last night on Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman, one segment featured the infamous "Turducken", a boneless chicken, wrapped inside a boneless duck, wrapped inside a boneless turkey. The person preparing the dish showed off how quickly he could debone these three fowl foods, which he did within 5 minutes. The (Japanese) Iron Chefs' knife skills are the most amazing, especially when it comes to seafood.
I have yet to master the art of peeling the skin off a mango (or any other skinned fruit) using just a knife and one hand.
Once upon a time I was really good at "cooking" saimin! It's all in how you boil the water.
Any particular ethnic specialty? Italian? Japanese? Chinese? Filipino? Other?
My sister is an expert at leftovers. Having a large family, she can take last night's spaghetti and meatballs and turn it into tonight's casserole. Or turn tomorrow night's stir-fry into the following night's lumpia, just to keep the kids interested in eating it. And it always turns out incredibly delicious. She's also excellent at baking, which requires more technical application than simply "cooking".
I've improved over the years, having gained most of my culinary talent reading recipes and watching the Food Network and local cooking shows.
But if there's one thing I'm terrible at is TIME MANAGEMENT. When you come as a guest to eat at my place, if I say dinner is at 6pm, it usually means 8pm by the time I get all the side dishes ready, the main dish out of the oven (or off the grill) and everything on the table.
If there's one thing I continue to try honing (no pun intended) are my knife skills. Last night on Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman, one segment featured the infamous "Turducken", a boneless chicken, wrapped inside a boneless duck, wrapped inside a boneless turkey. The person preparing the dish showed off how quickly he could debone these three fowl foods, which he did within 5 minutes. The (Japanese) Iron Chefs' knife skills are the most amazing, especially when it comes to seafood.
I have yet to master the art of peeling the skin off a mango (or any other skinned fruit) using just a knife and one hand.
Once upon a time I was really good at "cooking" saimin! It's all in how you boil the water.

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