The Road to 40 Day 308/365: Social Media Cooking Experiments

Thinking about things to eat is always a challenge on a daily basis, so it’s always good to discover things off social media.

Ideally, we should be able to plan out what to eat for the week, but sometimes you just feel like eating something else and the ingredients don’t get used on the days they’re supposed to. This results in a lot of spoilage.

Meal preps could be nice, but they could make meals monotonous, and I never want to get tired of eating good food. The most that I would do is freeze some food that I can cook for Vino’s lunch, then re-heat it on alternating days.

For those who have known me before I moved to Singapore, I never cooked. I’m always the volunteer for tasting food, but I’m never on the grill or the stove.

When I moved here and was mostly at home, I had the time to check out recipes online – what ingredients to use, and what processes I needed to take. It helped that I worked at in the manufacturing industry before dealing with flavors and fragrances because it allowed me to imagine different flavor combinations based on the ingredient list.

I started with basics – adobo, nilaga, tinola, and kaldereta, not including the fried food. I took pride in creating nice sauces to pair with the appropriate food.

Later, I tried to combine different techniques and flavor combinations in my cooking. I think I’ve improved a lot over the past 10 years that I’ve been the main cook at our house.

This day, Che asked me to replicate a beef recipe for her. We saw these pizza-like triangles on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, and she asked me to try it. Since I haven’t really eaten much red meat recently, I never got around to doing it.

However, when she asked me to bring it to her office, I thought it would be a good idea to finally try it.

I got some extra ingredients from the grocery store and got home to try it. Honestly, it’s not that difficult to make. I popped in the necessary ingredients and was generous with the paprika. I even added some cayenne for a bit of a kick and smoky flavor.

The aromas were there, and I was happy. Once I tasted it, it kinda felt spicy. I added a bit of water, but it was still there – a lingering spice. Then I saw that my smoked paprika was apparently spicy. I forgot all about it.

It took a bit of time for me to adjust the flavors so that it’s not super spicy. It would be Che’s lunch, and she doesn’t take too well to spicy flavors.

Ultimately, I was able to mask it with more pizza sauce and cheese. I made a big pan and a mini pan, because I knew she was going to share it to her officemates.

When I got there, she told me that there were only two of them who were going to eat it, so it was a lot.

Since it was there, though, she decided to offer it to others, and as the photo suggested, the second pan was utilized.

These online recipes make up much of my algorithm, because I’m always looking to learn new things and discover new flavors. I’m happy that so far, the things I’ve cooked for her to share with others have been received well.

Food makes me happy, and I think cooking is my way of sharing this happiness with others.