Cooking and Music

So I've been cooking for a little bit more than a year. By that I mean, at least one night a week, mostly two, when my wife has night classes.

I'll admit that before that, all I knew how to cook was spanish vegetarian omelettes and other varieties off egg-based breakfast dishes. And baked beans too, that's just re-heating the canned beans, so maybe it doesn't really count.

But then when we moved to South Tampa, it was hard for my stomach when my wife had either night classes or was working late. So, in conformance with Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection, I started to help out in the kitchen and observe her cook. Then, I started with a few simple dishes, mostly gravyish curries like lentils, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, etc etc. She didn't insult my cooking, just gave a bit of positive criticism. And the occasional compliment.

I've noticed I cook better when I'm listing to good music, like Pink Floyd, Kula Shaker, BBC Asian Radio's weekly chart, West African singers like Salif Keita, Fela Kuti, Habib Koite, etc. I'm much more relaxed and love smelling the food as it goes through the various stages of cooking. It's like chemistry lab back in high school.

So wish me luck, I'm cooking bhinda (okra) for the first time tonight (actually while I'm blogging).