When I’m in the “mood for food,” I head over to a website called Rasamalaysia which has some of the best recipes online. The author is Bee, a food blogger and cookbook author from Irvine, California. What most distinguishes her recipes is ease of use (easy to follow, clear, concise) and success of production (each recipe yields really delicious, quality dishes). My current favorites from the site are hot and sour soup – incredibly easy and flavorful – and sesame chicken – visually beautiful and delicious (although I admit that I’m not usually a fan or either tofu or chicken). Trying new foods and preparations in the kitchen is not unlike learning a new skill. It’s also a great way to discover what kind of learner you are. What I mean is that we all have a favored or natural learning style. Some of us primarily learn by reading – whether directions or a narrative; we follow the printed word with ease. Some are auditory learners: if we can listen to someone, we learn quickly and simply. And some of us are visual learners: we like to see a skill in action in order to imitate or learn it. And, finally some learners combine some or all of these methods.
But, there are also some who learn different subject matter through different methods. That is, we might learn to do something by watching a video or a person performing the action, while we might learn facts by auditory clues, such as repeating the facts to ourselves over and over, or creating mnemonic devices to remember them (think of “Thirty days hath September…”). So, we need to be aware of how we best learn what we need to know in order to accomplish that task efficiently and joyfully.
In the spirit of being in the “mood for food,” here’s some pictures of the results of my cooking up some dishes I ordinarily wouldn’t even attempt but which Bee at her site made me want to try.
