Friday, June 09, 2006

Cooking and the sink

I remember blogging about how we act alot like our parents a few months ago, yesterday I found myself at it again.
When I was young my mum used to give me basic cooking classes.So rest assurred The Acolyte would never starve.Being the young attention lad with the attention deficit that I was I would be too impatient to tend to what was on the cooker and instead I would run off to watch TV or play outside.Of course what would happen is that I would be alerted by an acrid smell coming from the kitchen and a cloud of smoke billowing from the pan or if I was lucky I would come back to find that half the contents have stuck to the bottom of the pan.After my mum realised that her lambasting was falling on deaf ears she resorted to giving me a hearty helping of my ashy cuisine.As a result I learned to pay attention to what I was cooking and to enable me to still watch TV as I cooked I would stay only for the fast cooking stuff like onions and tomatoes and then know how long it takes the other ingredients to get ready so that I would just pop in at various intervals to stir, add or reduce heat and serve while I continued doing what I was doing (yes we men can multi-task too!).
So yesterday evening I come into the house and walk into the kitchen and find that my room mate has decided to try his hand at cooking.First thing I had noticed is that he was cooking almost a whole pack of rice.Unless I have guests I prefer to cook a couple of glasses because when you cook too much food it ends up going to waste as you get tired of eating it and also just in case the recipe goes wrong for some reason you don't lose too much food (yes I don't like to waste food).Then he had adopted a cooking style that is said to be favoured by our compatriots from the Central Province.The young man had thrown in the vegetables with the rice (don't get me wrong, that may work for some people but I tend to be a purist; unless it is pilau the rice is cooked on it's own).
But I didn't tell the young lad all this.All I did was look at the temperature settings he had on the cooker.The heat was too low so what we would have had is ugali, so I upped the heat and told him that after 10 mins he should come and check on the rice so as to lower the heat and that it would be ready in 20 mins (the cooker was the same model as the one in my old aparment so I know the best temperatures for cooking rice on it). The young lad nodded dutifully and I told him that I was off to the library and would be back.
On my return as I walked into the house.The first thing that hit my nose was a faint burning smell reminiscent of my cooking lessons of the yester years.I went to the kitchen and looked at the rice.Not it hadn't been reduced to an ashy mass but it still had a burnt smell to it.The bad thing about that is that a burned smell translates to a slightly burned taste.
So I go to my roommates room as ask him what happened to the rice.
"It burned," he says."No sh*t sherlock! I wouldn't have guessed that!"I thought to myself.
So I then said, "Didn't I give instructions?"
He simply gave me this incredulous that insinuated that I had said the moon comes out at night instead of the day.I held back myself from uttering the words my mother had uttered to me some years back after I made some rice flambe, "The next time you burn food like that, you will eat the whole pan."
I mean after all I am not his mother!Then today morning I caught myself again.
I went to the kitchen and I looked at the sink and what do I find?Yesterday's dishes!Arrrghhhh!
(I am sure you all know about my sink issues) I have this simple rule, I you use it; you clean it.Since he had left and I was not in the mood to talk, I put a notice on the fridge.

No dishes sleeping in the sink,
If you make someting dirty,
WASH IT ASAP!

But that got me to thinking.Maybe I am not as easy to live with as I thought, or is it that some people are just slobs who can't clean after themselves when it comes to the small things?
Have a good weekend and enjoy the World Cup!

12 comments:

Prousette said...

I see you would make me a great room mate. I get traumatised at the sight of dirty dishes in the sink and would kill anyone who leaves them there for me to clear up.
Burnt offerings are a great lesson in cookery especially for the kiddies who take for granted the appearance of food at the table.

You can be sure I will not be enjoying the world cup.

Guessaurus said...

LOL @mixed rice and veg and potatoes and stuff - aaahhh memories - although that stuff wasnt too tasty cos of the water in the rice. Sigh

I hate wasting food too and try to cook half a cup of rice to eat for two sessions. I still dont understand people who cant cook though - seeing as my brothers and Dad could cook from way back when.

Anyway, your roomie needs to be shipped to England for a week - and NO not for the World Cup. Tihihihi.. and I will teach him quick tips on cooking for one :)

spicebear said...

in my ktchen i have a sign that says "self cleaning kitchen - you eat, you clean!" maybe you should go out and buy one of those.

akiey said...

Roomies can be a real headache at times & I've had one or two who was just impossible they had to pack & leave.

The fella you live with must think things get clean all by their darned self. Slob kinda describes him,lol!

I am very, very picky about sink use esp in the bathroom. I will not use one that's splashed with water all around including the same taps am supposed to turn.

There's a constant supply of paper towels by the sink & a sign I put up saying: "If you didn't forget to zip or pull up your panties after use, what excuse do YOU have for not wiping around the sink!"

Dishes? I cook daily & get rid of all evidence before anyone sits down to eat. Use it, clean, put it where it belongs

Anonymous said...

LOL.....welcome to the world of sharing and with sloopy roomies to boot.

Enjoy your world cup too!

How is the clande? LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

@ prou
From someone who runs their own home with a family to boot I take that as a great compliment!
@ Guess
A chic once served me that combo and the rice was watery.Ewwwwwwww!
I dont expect people to be gourmet chefs but everyone should learn around 3-4 basic recipes!
@ spicebear
It seems that the notice I put on my fridge worked pretty well today.
@ akiey
He is not that bad in comparison to the Americans that I have roomed with, there are on their own level!I need to get one of those notices in my bathroom to make a point!
@ mocha!
I watched the first match today and it seems that is going to be a good WC.
As for the clande she is sawa but I have found the best dawa for her issues!Loved your pics!

Anonymous said...

lol! i remember when i had roomates i had 2 signs posted in the Kitchen one over the sink saying: "Wash you own damn dishes" and it had a smiley face to boot. The over was on the door of the microwave: "I am not a self cleaning oven. Keep me clean after use."

It worked out well.

As for the rice mchanganyiko pole sana, i feel you. I can't stand people who mixed skunjez together with meat and stuff...eeww!

Anonymous said...

@ kelitu
I have to get myself some of those stickers and posters.
As for the combis they can really get icky!

Girl next door said...

This is so funny! I remember burning a lot of dishes I was attempting to cook while growing up. Sometimes, we'd experiment when peroz were out and then try to destroy the evidence. That time the smoky smell has spread through the house and the sufuria is burned but we're saying we don't know what happened. Cooking skills are a must. Hope your roommate learns like we all did. We do mirror a lot of our peroz behavior.

Anonymous said...

@ GND
You have made my day as I too have been in the trying to destroy evidence boat and I have learned what does and what does not work!
I dont want to mother my roomie so i will let him learn in his own time.

Anonymous said...

This post is toooooo hilarious!

Lakini Aco, me I come from Central province ... and we are getting better at doing the mixed grill ...

LOL at your roomie's response to your dismay at burnt food ... you should have bought him a lunchbox and made sure he used it to carry the stuff every time he wasn't in the apartment for a meal.

Acolyte said...

@ KD
With those improvements I have to most def come over for dinner!
As for my roomie it seems that young folk nowadays seem to think that food is free!