Cooking workshop

Frankly speaking, I am not fond of pottering about in the kitchen. I have learnt to do several basic and few more sophisticated meals after moving out from my parents, yet unless a lust for cooking comes over me (what happens once in a blue moon) I confine to a repertoire of simple and tested lunch sets, which I strive to broaden anyway. I cook lunches to take them to work for 3 reasons. Firstly, I lack time to eat out (it takes an hour, far too long given my dreadful workload). Secondly, I detest packaged lunches sold by people roaming around office buildings (such food contains lots of preservatives and other abhorrent chemistry). Thirdly, this sends a signal to the surrounding world I am self-sufficient and can take care of myself.

A voucher to a workshop in a Spanish cuisine was one of my birthday gifts and has proven to be the most inspiring one. Shortly after obtaining it I signed up for the first possible Saturday workshop, held yesterday.

The venue in which the workshop was run smacked of post-industrial climate. Located in the southern, least prime part of Mordor, not easily reachable by public transport, mixes climate of socialist factory district with modernity. Fortunately, I was there for just one afternoon.

Most participants also had received vouchers as gifts. Out of 16 people, 7 were two families that came together, on top some couples (including two gays) and some singles. Seems that trend of bestowing your relatives and friends with experiences rather than material stuff intensifies. A sign of times. If you wish to make such gift to somebody, a good idea is to hand it to your near and dear person or pass the hat round to decrease the cost per person, since experiences do not rank among inexpensive gifts.

Such workshop is one of such forms of meet-ups where people come, interact and go. I have just noticed all the friendships I have made in life are with people whom I had met repeatably, i.e. mostly at school or at work. I attended several courses and though relationships with some people met there lasted longer than those courses, none of them has survived until today.

The teacher was a seasoned cook, communicative and eager to share her passion with participants, yet for no apparent reason underlining too often she did not eat meat, but had to deal with it during the workshop (the Spanish cuisine is meat-rich). I wonder why she hadn’t given it up or just stuck to the vegan version…

The duration of the workshop turned out to be nearly five hours. For somebody not really fond of cooking and spending in the kitchen just as much time as absolutely necessary, this was a bit tiresome, though fun. Such form of pastime activity is about fun, experiments, learning and tasting something new. My homework to be done is to cook what I have learnt to my friends who sponsored my attendance.

Truth be told, I am not a fan of the Spanish cuisine. Some of the ingredients I like (olives), some I dislike (their meat), yet their dishes seem too stodgy (my stomach gently reminds me of it today), not to mention their nutrition habits over the day which totally do not square with mine (I consume a satiating breakfast, thnn fill up with a lunch and then eat little or nothing in the evening, to wake up longing for another huge breakfast.