We all love good food and drinks but whipping up good food and drinks is an entirely different matter altogether. Kitchen work is not easy and it often takes much more than just time, effort, and skills to master the art of cooking. It takes patience, resilience, and the will to keep trying until you finally get it right. The Week brings you some kitchen stories that will probably remind you of your own cooking fiascos.
Asif Shah, Singer
Though I’ve been cooking for a long time now, I can’t seem to remember the steps to a recipe no matter what dish it is, and there lies the problem. I ask people for help most of the times, and they tell me the steps but when I get ready to cook by organizing all the ingredients, my forgetfulness strikes and I’m left wondering what comes next. It bothers me so bad that I stop whatever I’m doing and repeat the entire process all over again. It happened once when I was making butter chicken. I forgot what to do after frying the onions so I had to do it all over again. The thing is if things aren’t going my way, then I stop everything and sit back, trying not to fume over that experience. This has happened more often than I would have liked. Though it feels horrible when that happens, in hindsight, it’s actually very funny.
Clutter free cooking
Menuka Pradhan, Actor
I love food but I don’t know how to cook well, at least not as well as the other members of my family. I always miss one thing or the other, and every time I step into the kitchen, I come back with an embarrassing story for my family members to share and taunt me with for days to come. Once only my brother and I were home so I put rice in the rice cooker and went to watch TV. After a while, an awful smell overwhelmed the rooms and I hurried into the kitchen and what greeted me next still makes me laugh. The rice was burnt and in a special way. Normally, when it happens, only the lower part is burnt while the part above still looks like rice. But this time, the rice was burnt so bad, that it had turned black at the top. Not only did we have to throw the rice away, but the cooker as well. This happened when I was in sixth grade but my family members are still scared when I enter the kitchen.
Shreya Sotang, Singer
It’s said that you eat with your eyes and though I make sure the food is presented well every time I cook, there have been instances when it has been impossible for me to make the food appealing. I usually invite my friends over and treat them to what they want or have them help me cook. Once I decided to make chicken biryani for them. My friends were excited, but back at the kitchen, things were really going downhill. The potato and chicken in the biryani were undercooked and the rice was overcooked. My friends gave it a look and my heart sank. But thankfully, the side dishes weren’t that bad and even though the biryani looked horrible, it tasted okay. Another time, I was cooking black lentils and I didn’t know that you don’t have to fry it beforehand. When it was finally ready, it was way past supper time as it took me more than two hours to prepare it. Since then, I’ve been careful about these things and double check everything when I’m in the kitchen.
Aruna Karki, Theatre Artist
Every time I go to the kitchen, something funny happens, or at least I think it’s funny, and my family members find it amusing. This one time, I cooked lentil gravy (dal) without putting the lentils or salt in it. Half an hour after I had put the pressure cooker on the gas stove, I opened it up only to find myself staring at turmeric water. I was really busy then as I was practicing lines for a drama, so I guess I forgot to put in the ingredients – at least that’s what I tell myself. I usually forget to put salt in the food and I’m clumsier than other people when it comes to kitchen work. Long time back, when I was with Gurukul, Nisha (Sharma) and Sunil (Pokharel) used to invite us for meals and all of us helped them prepare it. I was used to using the chulesi at home but they didn’t have one so I used a knife. But I didn’t know how to handle one properly so cutting the potatoes was a tedious task and the potatoes were shapeless by the end. I was so useless in the kitchen that everyone teased me and questioned if I really knew how to cook. But I think I’ve improved over the years. Thanks to Nisha, I’m a little less clumsy and now remember to put salt in the curries.
Aaryan Sigdel, Actor
I cook a lot and enjoy every my time in the kitchen. I turn on the music and lose myself in it as I work around the kitchen. I can easily spend an hour or two in there. But that doesn’t mean my time in the kitchen goes smoothly. I normally only eat brown rice, but the glitch is that I can’t cook it in a pressure cooker. Whenever I cook it, it either over cooks to become dhindo, or gets burnt and looks like phapar ko roti. So I wait for the lights to come and cook it in the rice cooker. This is something that people usually find amusing. Also, I sometimes get too confident with my cooking skills. Once, we had a family dinner and we were preparing lunch. My brother was going to make baked potatoes, but I volunteered, thinking that I could nail it. But unfortunately, it ended up in flames, as I had set the wrong temperature in the oven. That episode has surely taught me to take extra safety measures when it comes to kitchen work.
As told to Sachi Mulmi
