October 13, 2018

Last night, I had the opportunity to experience Trinidadian home cooked meal in New York City. Giselle is visiting @katerica for a few weeks and because she loves cooking, naturally, a dinner party had to be organized for this special occasion. ???????? Because I know nothing about Trinidadian cuisine (other than what I learned from the Anthony Bourdain episode on Trinidad I watched in preparation for this dinner party), I can’t explain anything about what I ate—all I can say is that everything was incredibly flavorful.

I’m beginning to wonder if home cooking should be the holy grail of foodies. Restaurants have significant limitations and constraints. They can’t, for instance, cook foods that are not profitable or have not enough market demand. And, as with doing any kind of business, their products are only the tip of the iceberg. What we don’t see (like accounting, taxes, legal troubles, health inspections, hiring, firing, marketing, PR, social media, etc.) are what they spend most of their time on. Home cooks can cook anything they want without being constrained by any of these concerns.

owever, finding great home cooks would be challenging. Obviously, most of them would not be good, but many people who love to cook can make a few things that are better than any restaurants.

How often they cook isn’t a good gauge because most of us do most things mindlessly. If we don’t make the effort to improve what we do every day, it won’t get any better no matter how long we keep doing it. We all talk every day, but what percentage of us are great orators?

The maxim I loved as a teenager in Japan was this: In doing anything, those who do it mindlessly can’t beat those who are self-disciplined, but even the latter cannot beat those who love doing it.

So the question is: How do we find these passionate home cooks like Giselle? I feel like there should be an app for finding great home cooks like Airbnb did for hotels.

#homecooking #homemade #trinidadianfood #trinidad #trinidadian #nycfoodie #nyceats