really, what was the first thing i ever cooked? i'm almost certain that the first thing i ever really made, food-wise, was rice. as the official dinner starter, i was expected to make this just before my parents came home from their long day at work. so lemme recall the finer points of this simple exercise in zen...
first off, we ate rice almost every night. in fact, i'm almost certain that my parents ate rice every single night. it was me and little bro who would complain about eating the same thing AGAIN and ask for something with, you know, less rice.
in any case, we went through a lot of rice. enough that we had a rice bin/silo that stored the ginormous bags bought from the korean market.
dang, those bags were heavy.
anyways, we also had our rice cooker, the reigning workhorse of our kitchen. i'd find the washed and dried rice cooker pot insert and trot over to our silo and casually scoop in two heaping cups with the trusty plastic rice measuring cup. then back over to the sink to turn on the faucet until water covered the rice, turn off. stick a hand in and start swirling. the water would turn cloudly pretty quickly that first rinse. pour the cloudy water off in the sink and tilt slooowly...oops, there goes some of the rice down the drain...eh, most of the water's out. flip the faucet back on and off. swirl and repeat. last rinse? sure. the water's getting less cloudy, so start grabbing handfuls and rubbing the grains together in the water. swirl, drain. there go a few more grains, oh! and now it's time to actually measure the water.
okay, now this part's crucial. too little/much water was the difference between cooked rice and perfectly cooked rice. there are numbers on the side of the rice pot that tell you how much water to put in, you say? pssht. numbers are bad. they are inaccurate. relying on that numbered gauge will give you mediocre rice and then you'll never be able to marry and impress your future MIA. which is terrible and must not be.
ahem. sometimes i'd argue, but most days it was easier to just roll my eyes to the side and wait.
so, you have to eyeball the water level at first. shake the rice around as you put in enough water for the level to reach about a half inch above the evenly shaken?shook? out rice. stop and place your hand flat on top of the rice and look at the water level now. does it reach your knuckles? no? add in a little more water. how about now? yes? okay, now you're done. schloop the pot into the cooker and shut the lid. plug in and push down the front lever (it was the 80s, y'all) about 30 minutes before mom gets home.
except that half the time i'd be reading a book and completely deaf and dumb to the world around me, so i'd forget to turn on the rice cooker to start the cooking. it wasn't until the familiar sound of the garage door opening (why...?) pierced my consciousness that i'd fly into the kitchen and plug in + push down + run back to room and dive back into book.
yeah, that rice'll be done in 30 minutes. should be perfect.
ow, mahheadi'msorry! i was reading and didn't hear the telephone! phew. mmm... back to the book...
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