The Joy of Cooking

I've rediscovered the joy of cooking, and I have Hong Kong to thank. Like most kitchens in Hong Kong, our apartment came equipped with a gas range - which in and of itself brings 80% of the joy to cooking (at home in SF, I fell in love with my apartment at first sight, overlooking the small factor that it came with an electric range - makes cooking such a chore!). We literally live 25 steps away from Wan Chai market, a fantastic local food market with tons of fresh fruit and vegetable stalls (as well as meat and fish stalls, but I can't bring myself to buy pork that's just hanging exposed to the elements all day long). And the international grocery stores here are a foodie's paradise - you can get anything from olive oil imported from Italy to herbs imported from France to kimchi imported from Korea to curry pastes imported from Thailand to sashimi flown in from Japan to fresh tofu and soymilk made on the premises. *swoon*

Needless to say, I've made several trips to various grocery stores and stocked our kitchen with all the basics: kimchi, garlic, sesame oil and gochujang for Korean food; cans of organic tomatoes, jugs of olive oil and sachets of thyme, oregano and rosemary for Italian food; coconut milk, fresh sweet basil and curry pastes for Thai food; shao xing wine, oyster sauce and fresh green vegetables for Chinese food; and of course, plain yogurt, honey, several boxes of cereal and steel cut oatmeal.

We've only been in our apartment for 6 days so far, but I've already made dduk bokki, kimchi jjigae, buchu jun, Thai red curry, slow-cooked oatmeal, pesto linguini with seared scallops, asparagus tips and Chinese kale steamed in shao xing wine. We still eat out about one meal a day, but I love cooking my own food because I know exactly what goes into it. No MSG, no re-used cheap cooking oil, no questionable meat. I love cooking again! I know the luxury of having time to cook will come to an end as soon as I start work, but until then, I'm reveling in the whole process: going to the market to find good ingredients, applying heat and creating something delicious.