How I Learned to Cook 👨🍳
🌎 The Big Topic: How I Learned to Cook
People who follow my Instagram know I cook a lot. I’ve been cooking for myself since college, the first time in my life I didn’t have someone else to cook for me.
Fortunately I had taken a cooking class for a week during one summer in middle school. I learned some helpful basics like different methods of cutting, sautéing, and baking. I still remember some of the tips I learned that summer.
I struggle to understand how some people have the motivation to spend hours at a gym every week, but then I remember that many people cannot comprehend how I gladly spend up to two hours (it’s usually 45-60 minutes) on a weekday evening cooking a meal just for myself. I find it relaxing and rewarding.
Here are a few things I do to make cooking easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable.
Cook from cookbooks
Every few months I buy a cookbook and cook multiple recipes over the next few weeks. Cookbook authors and cuisines repeat the same ingredients and cooking techniques throughout their recipes.
You will improve your skill practicing the same techniques over a few weeks. You will also save money since you will eventually use up the jars of whatever esoteric spices you had to buy for the first recipe.
Before buying a specific cookbook, read a few recipes to see if the ingredients are available where you live, if the recipes are the complexity you’re looking for, and if the book has enough photos. Photos help you choose what to cook and serve clues on what the finished dishes should look like. I subconsciously gravitate to recipes with a photo.
Some cookbooks have time estimates and difficulty ratings for each recipe. Cookbooks from Michelin-star restaurants tend to be far too time-consuming for everyday cooking.
Read and cut before you cook
Read through a recipe first so you know what you’re getting into. You don’t want to unexpectedly reach a step that says, “refrigerate for four hours,” when it’s 6 pm and you’re already starving.
Furthermore, measure, peel, and chop up the ingredients before you start. This mise en place method ensures you don’t burn what’s on the stove because you were distracted trying to julienne a carrot. I put the prepared ingredients on a cutting board or large plastic plate, so I have fewer things to clean.
Take notes and cook it again
Too sweet? Too spicy? Overcooked? I write notes in my cookbook to adjust quantities and cooking times in the future. I’ve also jotted down substitute ingredients.
Cook for others
Many recipes yield four to six portions. If you don’t want leftovers for tomorrow, invite people over for dinner. Don’t worry if the dishes don’t come out perfect. Your guests know that the best meal is the one they didn’t have to cook.
📻 The Speaker
Brat, Charli XCX (Spotify | Apple). British pop singer Charli XCX released a new album that I’ve listened to a few times. The songs range somewhere on the EDM-to-pop spectrum and reflect the energy Charli XCX puts into her performances. When I saw her at the Anthem in 2022, I was impressed by her boundless athletic ability to sing and perform seemingly nonstop for the full length of the concert.
🚶♂️ Wandering Around Washington
The Washington Nationals hosted the Nats Night Out a few days before the Capital Pride Parade. It’s one of the few times I go to a baseball game each year.
For Memorial Day Weekend, some friends and I (and half of gay D.C. it seems) went to Rehoboth Beach, Del. Eight of us rented a house a half-block from the boardwalk.
Just beyond the south end of the boardwalk is Poodle Beach, where the gays congregate in a dense mass, shunning the ample space along the shoreline to the north and south. Usually someone sets up speakers on tripods and the playlist is always good!
I used to go to Rehoboth with my family when I was a kid. Going there 30 years later is a great illustration of how everything looks so much bigger when you’re a kid. The rides at the Funland amusement park now look quaint and unintimidating.
🔗 Assorted Links
📝 The Circulator bus services will end after 19 years. It was designed to avoid the shortcomings of Metrobus, which has improved its service since. (GGWash)
📝 The 6 new bars and clubs making Shaw D.C.’s hottest LGBTQ+ neighborhood: Has Shaw wrested the title of “gayborhood” away from Dupont Circle? (Washington Post)
📝 Rejoice! Pandas Are Returning to the National Zoo: Two giant pandas will be arriving in Washington from China by the end of the year. (Washingtonian)
📝 Why it’s so hard to build more housing: NIMBYs gonna NIMBY. Many who already have housing don’t want others to have housing. (Washington Post)
📝 Transit Worker Union Moves HQ to Transit. The binational union is moving to Dupont Circle from an office park in Silver Spring, Md. (Bisnow)
📝 Catholic University unveils DC’s largest solar farm. 25 acres of sun power! (WTOP)
📝 The Anacostia is on the verge of becoming swimmable again. The new sewer tunnels are reducing pollution and improving water quality. (Associated Press)
📝 What’s really happening to grocery prices right now: Target and Walmart are talking about their price cuts. How big of a deal is it? (Vox)
📝 For the Best Nonalcoholic Wines, Look to Germany. Removing alcohol while preserving aromas is easier with white wine than with red wine. (New York Times)
📝 The Sins of the Educated Class. “If your status is defined by your opinions, you’re living in a world of perpetual insecurity, perpetual mental and moral war.” (New York Times)
📝 What Do Students at Elite Colleges Really Want? Many of Harvard’s Generation Z say “sellout” is not an insult. (New York Times) “A lot has changed socially and economically since Boomer activists marched from the streets to the workplace.” (New York Times)
📝 The Long Life of Yuppie Scum. The ultimate triumph of the yuppies is that we don’t even call them yuppies anymore. (New York Times)
📊 The Numbers
34%
Share of Washington area residents who like or love the 🏈Commanders name.
📝 Source: April 19-29, 2024, Washington Post-Schar School poll of D.C. area residents
📝 Cited in: Most D.C.-area sports fans dislike or hate Commanders’ name, poll finds (Washington Post)
103%
Tourist visitors to D.C. in 2023 compared to 2019 figures. International tourism has recovered to 85% of 2019 levels.
📝 Source: Nation’s capital surges past pre-pandemic levels with nearly 26 million visitors in 2023. Destination DC.
📝 Cited in: D.C. tourism surges past pre-pandemic levels, report shows. (Washington Post)
62%
Share of current U.S. ambassadors who are career foreign service officers, not big political fundraisers.
📝 Source: American Foreign Service Association.
📝 Cited in: Sen. Kaine wants more career, fewer political-fundraising ambassadors: Kaine’s bill says presidents should make competence, rather than political donations, the main qualification for ambassadors. (Washington Post)
🎬 The Wrap
One evening at Rehoboth Beach, I talked with a friend of a friend. He asked some good questions about me and my life. It turns out he charmed several other friends on the trip.
That conversation came to mind when I read this paragraph from Arthur Brooks:
Follow-up questions demand actively listening to the other person, a practice essential to knowing them. In other words, you must pay attention to what they tell you, with an intent to learn from it. That contrasts with how we often listen during conversations, especially in academic settings: We’re waiting to talk. Real listening also requires being truly present and mindful when you are engaged with the other person—offering the gift of your whole self, undistracted by other matters or, God forbid, your devices. (my emphasis)
I scarcely look at my phone in social settings, but I’m definitely guilty of distracting myself formulating a reply to someone while they’re talking to me.
You are reading People in the Sun, a personal newsletter from Eric Fidler.
Header image: People in the Sun. Edward Hopper, 1960.