Jun 24

Jun 24 How I started my cooking journey and how you can too Part 3

Written By: Gen Nguyen | Read full profile

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I told everyone my food was 5 stars when it was really 3 stars - and that's being generous. So I looked up recipes on Youtube, came across Jamie Oliver's perfect scrambled eggs and eventually found Tasty and Bon Appétit's Videos.

Joke of the Blog: What do you call a mango that paints?

Welcome to part 3! If you haven't read Part 1 and Part 2 yet, go check it out!

I told you about how my different experiences as a child and a high schooler helped bring about my cooking journey. Now, all that’s left of this story is my time in college!

Picture this, I’m a noob freshman, living in a dorm that provides a meal plan (10 meals/week) and a cafeteria with different cuisine. My 273 sq ft studio apartment didn’t have a kitchen, so what did I do? Bring a rice cooker and a portable gas stove. Yes, it sounds as ghetto as it was. The most cooking I did at the time was boil Indomie ramen and microwave spam. Not the finest cuisine I’ve cooked, but it got me through some tough nights.

It wasn’t until the next year when I moved into an apartment that had a fully functional kitchen when I began to hardcore cook. Mostly because if I didn’t cook, I starved. And this time Okra wasn’t there to feed me. I didn’t have a car during the first semester, so all the ingredients I got were from home (sliced round-eye beef and yu choy). Everything was already prepped (beef marinated, yu choy washed) so all I had to do was throw them together, maybe add a dash pepper.

Viet-chinese stir-fry (recipe coming soon). That’s what I called it and what I mostly ate for the rest of the semester (except for the occasional fast food).

Fast forward to second semester sophomore year. I had a car so now I could drive to my local McDonalds HEB to get the ingredients I wanted and to make whatever I wanted. I think even then I was still making Viet-chinese stir-fry and not-so-appealing-looking fried rice. But then, I started talking to someone, and I really wanted to seem impressive. So, my big mouth goes and boasts about how well I can cook - that it’s 5 star quality. I don’t cook 5-star meals. At best, my food is 3 stars and that’s me being generous because I think most food tastes the same (all vanilla cakes taste the same, all pho tastes the same UNLESS it’s homemade or actually terrible).

Because of the hole I dug myself into, I had to live up to my words. And in order to do that, I did what anyone else would do: never talk to them again and look up recipes on YouTube! I think the FBI saw through my bs because more food videos started popping up on my recommended page. The first video that kick started my journey was Jamie Oliver’s How To Make Perfect Scrambled Eggs - 3 Ways. I didn’t need to learn how to make the perfect scrambled eggs but I thought the more food videos I’d watch, the better I’d get at cooking. It doesn’t work.

I don’t remember much from that year, but I probably went back and resorted to my usual - Viet-chinese stir-fry - and the very occasional fast food. I do, however, remember making a big tray of fried rice with some leftover rice I got. I was feeling somewhat emotional and giving that week, so I planned to cook fried rice for officers and fellow interns of an org I was involved in. Following this recipe this time (can’t serve not-so-appealing-looking fried rice to anybody).

At this point, I really got involved in cooking and started watching more Tasty and Bon Appetit videos. I bought bread and bacon just to make Molly’s Egg-in-a-Hole Sandwich. But my food adventures didn’t stagnate there! I dabbled into baking as a junior. Somehow got free bread on campus and used it to make bread pudding. Went out to HEB at 1 am to buy cream cheese and walnuts, staying up til 3:28 am all to bake a carrot cake.

Sadly my cooking experimentations came to a halt after quarantine started, and I moved back home. But since this whole pandemic, I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy my mom’s cooking and to be able to cook alongside her like the good ol’ days.

Answer: Vincent man Gogh

Thanks for sticking around for the ride. I would like to announce that you are now officially a part of my fry or die team! Okay. Maybe not as doom-sounding, but I hope you get my point! If you liked this series or just want to learn new recipes, check out Chris’s stuff and stay tuned. I’ll be launching a new series where I will be teaching you how to cook!

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